Ray Clemens and Diane Ducharme on the greatest book collector of all time

Earlier this year the Beinecke Library hosted an exhibition entitled Bibliomania; or Book Madness: A Bibliographical Romance. It takes its name from the history of “arrant book-lovers” written by Thomas Frognall Dibdin. "It follows these lovers of the book through four case studies, observing the powerful and often unexpected relationships of books with their readers, owners, authors, collectors, and creators."

"Every Book in the World! explores the passionate collecting and printing history of the legendary nineteenth-century bibliomaniac Thomas Phillipps, whose vast collection of manuscripts and early printed books filled an English country house and required more than a century of public auctions and sales to disperse."

I met with curators Ray Clemens and Diane Ducharme to talk about Phillipps, his family, his temperament, his ambition, the scope of his collection, and of course, his obsessive, destructive collecting habit.