Professor Kelsey Jackson Williams discusses his new book, ‘Portrait of an Obsession,’ in conversation with Professor Dennis Duncan.

We are delighted to welcome professors Kelsey Jackson Williams and Dennis Duncan to Hatchards to discuss

Portrait of an Obsession: How England's Greatest Private Library was Built from the Ruins of Europe's Monasteries'

How did a Europe torn apart by the Napoleonic Wars became the site of a book-collecting frenzy and lay the foundation for the Anglophone world's greatest collections of rare books?

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, bibliomania ('book madness') swept the English upper classes. Vast sums of money were spent on books from the dawn of printing; fortunes were lost, families shattered, estates sold. By the end of the century most of the collections assembled had been sold or donated and had come to rest in national and research libraries across the UK and America, forming the groundwork on which almost all collections of early printed books in the Anglophone world have since been built.

But where did these books come from? Who bought them and how? Portrait of an Obsession recovers this forgotten story by focusing on the obsessive and majestic collecting of George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834), the greatest of the Regency bibliomanes. Historian, librarian, and modern-day bibliophile Kelsey Jackson Williams explores how Spencer combed a Europe torn apart by the Napoleonic Wars for rare books, using agents and runners (including a British spy) to intimidate librarians, ransack monastic collections, and deal in stolen and looted goods to form his great library at Althorp. The catastrophes of war allowed for unparalleled opportunities, if one had the resources and drive to capitalise on them.

It promises to be an absolutely fascinating evening, do come along if you can!

Kelsey Jackson Williams is an Associate Professor of Early Modern Literature at the University of Stirling, Senior Research Fellow at Blackie House Library and Museum (https://blackiehouse.org/), and studies the history of the book (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_books), mostly in early modernity and often in Scotland.

Dennis Duncan is a writer and Associate Professor in English. His books include Index, A History of the (Penguin, 2021), which was a New York Times bestseller and was listed as one of the Books of the Year in the New York Times, TIME magazine, the Washington Post, and the Financial Times, among others.

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