Mudie's Library

“ Henceforth Marks was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy, and he soon found a generous admirer in Charles Edward Mudie [q. v.] , the founder of Mudie's Library. Before 1860 Mudie bought two of his most important paintings, 'Toothache in the Middle Ages' (1856) , and 'Dogberry's Charge to the Watch' (1859) . To the same period belonged the 'Gravedigger's Riddle,' which he also sold. Next in point of interest came the 'Franciscan Sculptor's Model,' a very humorous subject: the matter in hand a gargoyle; the model a country bumpkin, with features burlesqued to convey the idea of spouting. ”

“ At the western extremity of Paternoster Row a passage leads from Amen Corner to Stationers’ Hall Court, in which is situated Stationers’ Hall, and also several publishing-houses.
Mudie’s Library.—While on the subject of books, we may remind the visitor that the most remarkable lending library in the world is situated in London. Mudie’s, at the corner of New Oxford Street and Museum Street, affords a striking example of what the energy of one man can accomplish. At this vast establishment the volumes are reckoned by hundreds of thousands ”

“ It is, indeed, a remarkable proof of Reade's power and success that, setting out as he always does to tell a story which shall convey information and a purpose of some practical kind, he can get any sort of large circulation at all. For one great charm and excellence of our library system is that it creates a huge class of regular, I might almost say professional, novel-readers, who subscribe to Mudie's by the year, want to get all the reading they can out of it, and instinctively shudder at the thought of any novel that is weighted by solid information and overtaxing thought. ”

“ The influence of Mudie on literature, the baneful influence of the circulating library, is clearly on the wane. The gain to literature is incalculable. English novels were becoming very tedious with their three volumes of padding—at least, the second volume was always padding—and extremely indigestible. A reckless punster once remarked to me, apropos of English novels, that ‘the proof of the padding is in the eating,’ and certainly English fiction has been very heavy—heavy with the best intentions. Lady Lindsay’s book is a sign that better things are in store for us. ”

“ On entering Mudie’s Select Library, from New Oxford Street, we pass through the show-rooms devoted to the sale of bound books; for though the directors do not enter into the usual speculations of the bookselling trade, the clean copies of popular works are put into ornamental bindings, and in this manner a very427 extensive business is done in works adapted for presents and prizes. ”

“ Houses possessing large libraries as heirlooms are naturally ruled out in such a survey, as are also those formed by certain millionaires at so much the foot run for books and binding. In addition to certain necessary reference and juvenile books, such as those already mentioned, every house should possess a general collection of literature of a varied character and on different subjects, including a large selection of good fiction. ”

“ And, indeed, with such a mine of fiction as Mudie's close by, where kind gentlemen recommend appropriate reading to timorous old ladies, or, better still, with such privileges as may be obtained in the neighbouring Reading Room of the British Museum, practically "for the mere asking," it is a strange taste to prefer to stand and shiver at a dingy book-counter. ”

“ In four and a half years, on Monday, November 8, 1602, the new public library of the University [3] was solemnly opened, [17] with about two thousand volumes. The appearance of the room can be gathered from Bodley’s own letters and the existing fittings. On the frontispiece of the present volume it is marked OLD READING ROOM, an oblong chamber standing by itself, with ten alcoves on either side, each with its own window, and a bookcase at right angles to the wall, which separates each study from its neighbours. ”

“ It is pointed out that the reading of fiction in British municipal libraries is much less than commonly believed, being only 24 percent, even after due allowance is made for the reading of fiction in current magazines. Attention is called to the gradual disappearance of the unclassified municipal library, although in 1910 there were over 340 not closely classified, but only arranged in broad numerical or alphabetical divisions. The replacement of printed catalogs in book form by card catalogs and other forms, like the sheaf catalog, easily kept up to date, is noted as growing in favor. ”

“ It seems paradoxical, but it is true, that the Museum should be the home both of the books which every one expects to find in it, and of those which no one expects to find—of the literary freight which can ride the ocean, and of that which would perish without the haven of a public library. The catalogue must be the mirror of the library, and it is not the least of the many advantages of print that the public have now much better means than formerly of judging how the most difficult functions of librarianship have been understood and discharged at the Museum. ”

“ Ordinary books can be reserved at the seat: manuscripts and valuable printed books are given up each day, and kept for re-issue. Free access to the shelves is not possible in so large a library, but arrangements are made to suit reasonable requirements: the Reference books are numerous, and the Subject Catalogue and lists of Accessions are provided. A Manual for Readers, giving further detail, can be obtained on application, without payment, as well as the Rules for Cataloguing and lists of the numerous collections, both manuscript and printed. ”

“ Thus in such places as Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester, the Free Libraries should be smaller British Museums, and in this spirit their founders have worked; but in smaller and less important towns a more modest object has to be kept in view, and the wants of readers, more than those of consulters of books, have to be considered. ”

“ Hence every one of the Memoirs or papers in the acts of academies; every one of the articles in scientific journals or collections, whatever they may be, should have its separate place in the catalogue. Thus, for instance, all the letters in Hanschius' Collection should be entered in their proper places under the writers' names. It is only by carrying this principle to the fullest extent that a catalogue can be called complete, and a library, more particularly of books relating to science, made as useful as it is capable of being. ”

“ Old Lists of Books are always of interest to us as telling what our forefathers cared to have about them, but it is seldom that a list is so tantalising as one described by Mr. Edward Edwards in his Libraries and Founders of Libraries. Anne of Denmark presented her son Charles with a [Pg 30] splendid series of volumes, bound in crimson and purple velvet. Abraham van der Dort, who was keeper of Charles's cabinet, made an inventory of this cabinet; and having no notion of how to make a catalogue of books, he has managed to leave out all the information we wish for. ”

“ The magazines furnish us with the best fiction, the best poetry, the best essays, the best discussions of all subjects, old and new, and the latest science. It is a question if many a village library would not do more, vastly more, to stimulate the mental life of its community, and to broaden its views and sympathies, and to encourage study, if it diverted a far larger part of its income than it now does from inferior books, and especially inferior novels, to weekly journals and popular and standard magazines. ”

“ Scientific cataloguing is of modern invention, and to the British Museum it is that we owe the origination of a code of rules—rules which form the groundwork of all modern cataloguing. Good catalogues were made before rules were enunciated, but this is accounted for by the fact that bibliographers, like poets, are more often born than made. ”

“ While the catalogue of such a library is passing through the press, new books are received, the titles of which it is impossible, in the ordinary manner of printing, to incorporate with the body of the work. Recourse must then be had to a supplement. In no other way can the acquisitions of the library be made known to the public. If the number of supplements be multiplied, as they have been in the library of Congress, the student may be obliged to grope his weary way through ten catalogues, instead of one, in order to ascertain whether the book which he seeks be in the library. ”

“ There is absolutely no telling what value the most insignificant details of the nineteenth century may possess for the nineteenth millennium: even now men of letters might find the same intellectual stimulus in many a trivial page of the Museum Catalogue, as a distinguished living orator is said to find in Johnson's Dictionary. Next to this automatic factor in the increase of the catalogue may be named the element of seeming accident—the addition to the library of various classes of books, now at one time, now at another, as apparent chance, but actual law has prescribed. ”

“ The very old libraries occasionally use a slip catalogue; the Bodleian and British Museum, for example, paste slips into volumes or guard books resembling large scrap-books in approximate alphabetical order, and other libraries use similar methods. The system is a good one in many respects; the public understands and likes it; but the catalogue runs to so many large volumes that its accommodation would be a serious matter for the ordinary library; and the congestion of entries, with loss of all but approximate alphabetical order at most letters of the alphabet, will be obvious. ”

“ This is an age of books of reference, and as knowledge increases, and the books which impart it to readers become unwieldy from their multitude, there are sure to be forthcoming those who will reduce the facts into a handy form. I have gathered in the following pages the titles of some of the best books of reference which are to be obtained. Many, if not all of these, are to be found in that magnificent library of reference—the Reading Room of the British Museum. In some cases where the books are constantly being reprinted, dates have been omitted. ”

“ The Pears' soap plan of printers' ink is one of the finest and best.
If a library has or is a good thing for the community let it so be said, early, late, and often, in large, plain type. So doing shall the library's books enter—before too old to be of service—into that state of utter worn-out-ness which is the only known book-heaven. Another way, and by some found good, is to work the sinfully indifferent first up into a library missionary, and then transform him into a patron. A library is something to which he can give an old book, an old paper, an old magazine, with no loss to himself. ”

“ John Durie's ideas on the educational value of Libraries and the high function of the Librarian are similar to those enunciated by Carlyle, when he wrote, "The true University of these days is a Collection of Books." Of this point, as elaborated in the proposal to establish Professorships of Bibliography, we shall have something more to say further on.
It is always interesting to see the views of great men exemplified in the selection of books for a Library, and we may with advantage study the lists prepared by George III. and Dr. ”

“ It is easy now to collect, for books of interest are to be found on all sides; but in old times this was not so, and we must therefore admire the more those men who formed their libraries under the greatest difficulties. In a book devoted to the formation of libraries it seems but fair to devote some space to doing honour to those who have formed libraries, and perhaps some practical lessons may be learned from a few historical facts. ”

“ Novels and other imaginative literature, which have a local setting, come clearly into the collection. It is a curious fact that the modern novel of this character is frequently missed. It seems all the more important to collect it when we know that the average “selling life” of a six-shilling novel is about six weeks, and its public life quite often not much longer. Only the local library can—or ought—to save much of this fiction and imaginative writing.
References to the district in outside newspapers and periodicals should always be kept. ”

“ I think where the general house library is (as is very often the case) not a living room, there is then much more reason for separating fiction and light literature, and placing them in a very accessible position. It will often be found advisable, as fiction accumulates, to weed out and decide what volumes [36] shall be bound and what rejected or placed in the servants' library. Shelves should therefore be reserved for books which are thus going through a period of probation. ”

“ Yet printed books must almost always make the greater part of a collection, and it may be well to give some rules as to the features that distinguish the productions of the early press. But no amount of “rules” is worth six months’ practical experience in bibliography. That experience the amateur, if he is wise, will obtain in a public library, like the British Museum or the Bodleian. Nowhere else is he likely to see much of the earliest of printed books, which very seldom come into the market. ”

“ There are only a few publishing houses who employ them who would not supply their books through the regular channels of trade. “Editions de luxe” are now generally understood to be for looks only, and “library editions” are frequently so called because they are for the private and not for the 24 public library, being put up in a way not warranted to withstand wear and tear.
Accession Book.—The accession book, which corresponds to the invoice book of a business house, is the first of all records to be made of a book after it has been acquired by a library. ”