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| Henry E. Huntington |
Stupendously
miraculous things can happen to a book collector without warning. On an unseasonably
hot October day the package arrived, signature required, and I wasn’t home. The mail delivery notice was stuck firmly to
the front door and I didn’t recognize the sender’s name from any of my recent
book purchases. My faithful mail lady
greeted me the next day. I said no I
hadn’t gone to the post office to pick up the package. So, we arranged for delivery, talked of her
pending retirement in two weeks after thirty-six years of service, and I became
a bit wistful. Would the next mail
person be so package friendly?
But I’m getting ahead of myself and
miracles have beginnings. I first
spotted the object of my desire in a Dawson’s catalogue in 1996. The venerable Los Angeles antiquarian firm had
acquired portions of the library of Edwin Carpenter, Jr. (1915-1995), historian,
librarian, bibliographer, and notable book collector. Carpenter was associated with the Huntington
Library much of his career. He collected
a wide range of subjects. His favorite
was bibliographic association copies—a kindred spirit! He had
a special affinity for Henry Wagner, Henry Harrisse, and Wilberforce Eames, for
example. Carpenter talks at length about
his career and collecting in Ruth Axe’s interview Education of a
Bibliophile: Edwin H. Carpenter published by the Oral History Program at
UCLA in 1977.
