The Wisdom of the Ancients

Harriet Rubin's profile of CEO book collections includes the notion that "it is impossible to put together a serious library on almost any subject for less than several hundred thousand dollars." She also informs us with great reverence that "Mr. Leach has stocked his cabin in the woods of North Carolina with the collected works of Aristotle." Not to disparage the wisdom of the ancients, but the complete works of Aristotle are available as a two volume set from Princeton University Press that costs $80.75 at Amazon and is eligible for free SuperSaver Shipping.

It's not that impressive a collection. Indeed, it appears that you can secure the entire Loeb Classical Library for less than $10,000. This is, admittedly, a lot of money, but it's an awful lot less than "several hundred thousand dollars" and it would certainly constitute a serious library on a subject -- indeed, on several subjects.

Comments

Plus you can get all these books from used bookstores at considerable savings!

Posted by leo | July 22, 2007 12:30 PM

My first thought was similar to that of Leo, but a bit lazier as it didn't involves standing up: used books online.

I strongly recommend Abebooks, which serves as an online middleman for any number of used bookstores, and is the first place I turn when I want a book that isn't just now being published. You can get the complete works there (in the Jowett translation; I don't know anything about the relative merits of different translators) for $10.50 including shipping.

Posted by Warren Terra | July 22, 2007 12:50 PM

Rubin is assuming you hire a consultant to assemble your very serious library. (After all, what CEO has time or expertise to know what works are "serious" and belong in the library?) The books themselves are a minor part of the expense.

Nice work if you can get it. All part of the "catering to ultra-rich nitwits" industry. Either they don't know they are being fleeced, or the amounts of money involved are, to them, insignificant. A couple hundred grand may seem like a lot to you, but to some of these guys that's how much they bring in during their lunch break.

Posted by jimBOB | July 22, 2007 12:53 PM

I have always told my wife that the complete Loebs are the first thing bought when we hit Powerball.

Of course, the major works -- OCT's of Aristotle -- can be got for less -- but then you've got to read not only Greek, but Aristotle's Greek -- and a fair amount of that's probably written by his -- shudder -- grad students.

And you don't get much of the biology.

Posted by Davis X. Machina | July 22, 2007 12:53 PM

The complete works of Aristotle are actually even more than that, as they contain several books not written by Aristotle, though mistakenly attributed to him at some time or other.

Posted by Greg | July 22, 2007 12:55 PM

The complete works of Aristotle are actually even more than that, as they contain several books not written by Aristotle, though mistakenly attributed to him at some time or other.

Then again, in another sense they are less than complete, since there are at least some works of Aristotle that have been lost. He was reportedly an excellent writer of dialogues in the Platonic style.

Posted by Greg | July 22, 2007 12:56 PM

Indeed, it appears that you can secure the entire Loeb Classical Library for less than $10,000. This is, admittedly, a lot of money, but it's an awful lot less than "several hundred thousand dollars" and it would certainly constitute a serious library on a subject -- indeed, on several subjects.

No, it wouldn't, at least if by `serious' you mean `useful to an expert'. To begin with, the Loeb books are for students, not scholars. Scholarly editions cost more, and because they are reconstructed from bits of decaying papyrus, you would probably want several versions to compare the apparatus of sources. On top of that, a classics scholar would need a library that contains several times as many auxiliary works as original texts. It would need works of scholarship and original research in languages, history, archeology, etc. Most of these works would come from small university presses, have limited press runs, and cost an unbelievable amount. And that's not counting the cost of journal subscriptions and back issues, which could run to hundreds of thousands by itself.

Posted by Heathcliff | July 22, 2007 1:05 PM

Not to disparage the wisdom of the ancients, but the complete works of Aristotle are available as a two volume set from Princeton University Press that costs $80.75 at Amazon and is eligible for free SuperSaver Shipping ... Indeed, it appears that you can secure the entire Loeb Classical Library for less than $10,000.

It gets even better. For $400, you can subscribe to the Tesaurus Linguae Graecae digital library for five years. The library "now contains virtually all Greek texts surviving from the period between Homer (8th century B.C.) and A.D. 600 and the majority of surviving works up the fall of Byzantium in A.D. 1453." Another couple hundred bucks for a software shell to browse and work with the digital library, and you're off.

Posted by Dan Kervick | July 22, 2007 1:09 PM

No, no, no. You guys are entirely missing the point of assembling a classics library for a mansion. You don't buy the books to actually read, and God forbid, you don't buy paperbacks.

No sir, when these sorts of interior decorators assemble home libraries, they buy books by the foot, or books by the yard. Content is irrelevant, they're looking for that classic leather bound antique look. Whole bookstores are in business selling decorative books by the yard to people who only want to decorate their library shelves. I kid you not.

http://www.bookdecor.com/books-by-the-yard.html
http://www.strandbooks.com/app/www/p/bbtfoot/

From the first web site:

The adage "do not judge a book by its cover" does not apply at Books Décor. Here, we ask that you disregard the quality of the text in favor of our books' outer beauty. Home libraries are often more about decorative splendor than they are functionality. In offering books by the yard, we give our clients the opportunity to spend hundreds of dollars on volume collections as opposed to thousands.

Posted by Kent | July 22, 2007 1:11 PM

Leobs are great if you know greek and latin. Their translations are not exactly the greatest in the world. A good gloss but not something you'd really want to read or depend on if you were looking for what the author said

Posted by Parmenides | July 22, 2007 1:11 PM

I won't hold my breath waiting for the follow up article, in which Mr. Leach gives us his interpretation of the Aristotelian enthymeme, and Mr. Jobs discourses on the importance of the figure of Enitharmon in Blake's Four Zoas.

Nevertheless, I will maintain my faith in the 'seriousness' of the libraries. (Which is presumably akin to the foreign-policy 'seriousness' of elite DC pundits.)

Posted by lampwick | July 22, 2007 1:31 PM

chaordic? I prefer ordaoserly.

Anyway, I have more books than I need, and little inclination to discard a book once acquired. What I can't always afford is snazzy shelf space. That's what the story should be about, shelf space.

Posted by DB | July 22, 2007 1:39 PM

There's Loebs and there's Loebs. The new texts of Euripides and Aristophanes (both by contemporary American scholars) present serious texts that are about as good as any available (the Aristophanes is probably the best available Greek text for another year or so), the new Hesiod and Homerica (by an American and an Englishman) are also essential, and for many miscellaneous writers from Strabo to Columella the Loebs are the best readily available text.

What one misses in even the best of these is a full apparatus criticus (basically an account using strict conventions of what evidence the text is based on).

Posted by Gene O'Grady | July 22, 2007 1:41 PM

By the way, not to appear any more snobbish than I probably I already appear, I don't recommend trying to read through the two Bollingen volumes of Aristotle (admirable as the scholarship behind much of it may be) unless you are able to consult the original Greek to follow the translation.

The only other Greek writer I would say that about, for what it's worth, is St. Paul.

Posted by Gene O'Grady | July 22, 2007 1:46 PM

I would assume that part of the estimated value is in yet another vain attempt at ultra-rich one-upmanship in which it's not so much the *contents* of the volumes which matter, but the books' collective measures on the rare & valuable book scale.

It's not the fact that it's a collection of Edgar Allen Poe; it's that it values $X,000 because it was once owned and cherished by the high prince Dubbledy Gunk of Vainsylvainia who was holding it when WW1 was declared over, etc. etc. etc.

Posted by El Cid | July 22, 2007 1:59 PM

You're making a simple error. 'Serious' is a journalistic synonym for 'expensive'.

Posted by MattF | July 22, 2007 2:16 PM

I don't get it..why does anyone want the complete works of Jackie's second husband?

Posted by Glenn | July 22, 2007 2:23 PM

Wow, that's such a clunking piece of 'yay! business!' journalism.

Nice work if you can get it. All part of the "catering to ultra-rich nitwits" industry.

I'm reminded of the classic series of Myles naGopaleen columns describing the need for professional book-readers who'll dog-ear, annotate and stick theatre programmes as bookmarks in the newly-acquired libraries of the rich and uncultured.

If you're wealthy enough, and want to read old, obscure books, donate some money to a university with a good collection. I'm sure they'll sneak you a few loaners..

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | July 22, 2007 2:24 PM

In grad school, everyone used Loebs, and no one was seen with them. Very mysterious.

We even had a Greek verb, 'lôbizomai', which was restricted to the middle voice -- either 'Loebs get used' (which we all knew) or in the first person, "I Loeb myself -- for my benefit" (which was true, but unutterable).

I will remember the LCL fondly if for nothing else, for one flight on AirTrans where I was stuck on BWI taxiways for four hours, with only the new re-worked first half of the Loeb Odyssey for company.

[Budget carrier seat back trays don't permit the simultaneous deployment of Liddell, Scott Jones, 3rd ed., the OCT, W.B. Stanford's dleightful little red MacMillan, and Lattimore. (The latter is 'just in case' you understand]

Best bumpersticker never seen:

"Classicists Do It With Ponies"

Posted by Davis X. Machina | July 22, 2007 2:46 PM

Well, pound for pound, you can't beat the old Loebs. Even the lay reader can see the classical roots of words used in the translation. They line up like little soldiers on the bookshelf, ready for any campaign, as they can easily be carried in the pocket of any reasonable jacket. If you leave one on the table at your internet cafe it will probably still be there when you get back from the restroom.

All of which makes it more likely that you might actually read the classics, instead of reading about the classics. Another thing money can't buy.

Posted by serial catowner | July 22, 2007 3:08 PM

You can tell that you've got classicists on your blog when the discussion begins to sound like small talk at the T. Herman Zweibel family reunion.

Posted by lampwick | July 22, 2007 3:08 PM

My partner and I are in the middle of a move, and she's taken the opportunity to build a database of all of our books. There's around 1,100 there, with pretty "serious" collections of postmodern literature (American and British, mostly), a huge collection of Norton-style anthologies, and my stuff on media studies/videogame theory (which is easy, since the field is barely a few decades old). We didn't pay an extraodinary amount for what we have, being fans of used bookstores and free book piles found periodically in grad housing, so it doesn't look as pretty as a CEO would want. Beyond that, if we quadrupled our collection, we'd still come in well under the $100,000 mark, in the process finishing the "seriousization" of our collection on feminism, Christianity, atheism, new age spirituality, Greek, English and German philosophy, 18th century literature, etc.

But, yeah, the largest cost would be shelf space, which we're constantly running out of.

Posted by Peter | July 22, 2007 3:22 PM

Actually, Mike Moritz' library, which is the one that the NYT took pictures of, seems to be mostly paperbacks.

Nobody in the article is actually a serious book collector (so far as I can tell). Which is something entirely different from having even a very large library which you enjoy using (and there's usually no need for first editions, special printings or bindings, extra fine conditions, etc). A library of that sort could be easily assembled for $40,000 or much less.

But, yes, being a serious book collector can be very expensive, even extraordinarily so. Hundreds of thousands of dollars isn't extraordinary for a single one of the finest of books. But that's not what the article is talking about. These guys aren't collecting illuminated manuscripts, first editions or incunabula. A first edition Baudelaire just sold for north of 510,000 euros.

Posted by burritoboy | July 22, 2007 3:27 PM

What is a hilarious reflection on our society is that I managed to buy much of the University of Chicago's "Great Books of the Western World" collection (Hardbound) for about 50 cents per book on the second day of a library fundraising used book sale. Plato, Thucydides, Tacitus, Gibbon, etc. Plus 5 out of the 7 books in Lattimore's Complete Greek Tragedies (Modern Library hardback) for a few dollars each.

Meanwhile, Brittany Spears' CDs go for what ?? $20 Plus?

Yes, I know. English translations. But I took 2 years of Latin in high school and that destroyed any illusions I had regarding my capabilities as a linguist.

Posted by Don Williams | July 22, 2007 5:06 PM

If serious=first editions, then her price seems right.

Posted by mo | July 22, 2007 5:22 PM

And if looking for a fun summer mystery read and an intro to the world of the people who chase down rare books, try BOOKED TO DIE by John Dunning. The sequels came years later (always a bad sign).

Posted by mo | July 22, 2007 5:28 PM

I will maintain my faith in the 'seriousness' of the libraries. (Which is presumably akin to the foreign-policy 'seriousness' of elite DC pundits.)

What could be more serious than Aristotle? His most famous pupil attacked and occupied Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan . . .

Posted by rea | July 22, 2007 8:30 PM

The Chairman Edition of The Art of Demotivation costs $1195, so that's a good start toward spending several hundred K.

Posted by Luke | July 22, 2007 9:35 PM

I've got roughly 300 feet of shelf space crammed with backs accumulated over the years; and while it has very few "collectible" volumes--Jonson's Works published c. 1850 is the most venerable one by several decades--it's pretty variegated and mostly "serious". Not all of it is serious--although I don't think Sei Shonagon needs to blush for sitting next to Barry Hughart, nor does Orlando Furioso need to blush for being in the same household as Edmund Crispin and Tim Powers. But just how many people have the complete works of Richardson or Radcliffe?
And the Soncino bilingual edition of the Talmud does take up a good deal of space, I must admit.
But all of it was accumulated for much less than 10000 dollars--paperback translations and used bookstores contributed more than a little to the accumulation: Dover and Penguin are old reliables. And it covers literature, history, philosophy, religion, law, Judaica, and odds and ends that just looked interesting enough to purchase.

Spending a hundred grand is for those who either want to impress or intend to stock a small college library in their will.

Posted by kishnevi | July 22, 2007 9:42 PM

She must have meant opportunity costs

You could spend a lifetime trying to understand just Homer. But imagine how much money you could have been making in investment banking instead of puzzling over the rage of Achilles!

Posted by Glen Tomkins | July 22, 2007 11:13 PM

Re "But imagine how much money you could have been making in investment banking "
-----------
Ah, but Aristotle had Matthew's number over 2500 years ago-- that philosophers are often poor because they are heavily focused on other matters and neglect the accumulation of wealth.

" There is the anecdote of Thales the Milesian and his financial device, which involves a principle of universal application, but is attributed to him on account of his reputation for wisdom. He was reproached for his poverty, which was supposed to show that philosophy was of no use. According to the story, he knew by his skill in the stars while it was yet winter that there would be a great harvest of olives in the coming year; so, having a little money, he gave deposits for the use of all the olive-presses in Chios and Miletus, which he hired at a low price because no one bid against him. When the harvest-time came, and many were wanted all at once and of a sudden, he let them out at any rate which he pleased, and made a quantity of money. Thus he showed the world that philosophers can easily be rich if they like, but that their ambition is of another sort. He is supposed to have given a striking proof of his wisdom, but, as I was saying, his device for getting wealth is of universal application, and is nothing but the creation of a monopoly. It is an art often practiced by cities when they are want of money; they make a monopoly of provisions. "

(Politics, Book I, Part XI )

Posted by Don Williams | July 23, 2007 1:09 AM

I knew a professor at the Sorbonne who rented a second apartment for the sole purpose of housing
his library. Now apartments in the Quartier Latin tend to be on the small side, but I still thought this was a most impressive way of owning books - and he'd read them all too.

Posted by novakant | July 23, 2007 7:14 AM

Late in the thread --

There's an hysterical series of essays in The Best of Myles about a service which pre-batters books so that rich nitwits can have a well-worn library suitable for their station. At the advanced level of service they'll drip tallow on pages and write comments in the margins. That segues into a ventriloquist service so that you can appear to make snappy remarks during your nights out with the quality.

The Best of Myles -- no bedside table should be without it.

Posted by Jeffrey Davis | July 23, 2007 9:19 AM

Let's not forget that the figure of "several hundred thousand dollars" was contributed by a booksellet who's being given a nationwide platform to suggest to many very rich people that they spend a lot of money on books.

It doesn't seem so far off, though -- a "serious library" to me means not "I have a lot of books on X" but "I have a complete enough set of books on X that one could reasonably research X without having to leave this room too much." I easily have $10K of math books in my office and it's not even close to being a library.

Finally, Moritz doesn't seem to be a showoff with lots of expensive unread books to create a miasma of erudition; he seems to be a guy who buys tons of used paperbacks because he likes them, and has a big enough house to keep them all. More power to him.

Posted by Jordan | July 23, 2007 10:26 AM

Two words: Penguin Classics

Posted by Nix | July 23, 2007 1:02 PM

I think it all depends on the definition of "serious". In terms of the parameters set out by Jordan, I think it depends really upon the subject around which the library is based. There are some niche topics where the devotee can amass a library of genuine independent academic interest for relatively little money (though the more niche the theme, the more indirect costs are likely to occur due to a need to ferret out obscure material). Certainly I think the notion that only people with 100k to burn can build significant libraries is largely groundless, though there's no point in pretending it's a cost-free pursuit.

Posted by Anthony C | July 23, 2007 2:14 PM