++The van just left my house with the last of my library of which I divested. I was surprised that this last load was 2,000 volumes just from my home library. This makes it 10,000 volumes I have sold over an eight month period.
++In the process I sold at least three art libraries. You can see the volumes at the New York Book Fair, which showcased my best and those which are infrequently seen. But after seeing today's library go,I can take heart in that I still have a significant art library left. The best fines were books on Rothko I had forgotten about--a virtual mini library. I actually saved a volume of Andy Warhol's Portraits. My gigantic Warhol is in New York, where it belongs.
++I waas surprised by what I let go. All of Gore Vidal's novels,Norman Mailer's first editions,and Graham Greene. I saved V.S. Naipul at his best and the compete set of Conrad my grandfather gave me. Two complete sets of Crane are gone. James Joyce'sd works are gone except for multiple copies of Ulysses, including Sylvia Beach's first edition. Curiously,several volumes of Moby Dick are gone but several remain.
++I have yet to assemble my home library now in its reduced size here at home. All of Camus,Sartre,American Library editions of Kerouac,Hemingway's short stories. All his novels are gone as are his biographies. All of Ashbury,Dante,Snyder,Mary Oliver,Ginsberg's poetry remain.
++Plato, Aristotle, Heidegger,Sartre,and Hannah Arendt remain. No Neitsche, but Kierkegaard.
++Could I have winnowed it done more? Probably but we are now cutting close to muscle.
++My biggest emotional loss was Barnet Newman, who happily is now home in New York City. A few Cy Twombley volumes went today but I take solace in retaining a small library of his paintings.
++I will grieve after I assess what I saved. I managed to retain some volumes from my Divinity School days such as the complete theology of Paul Tillich, and all volumes of post-Holocaust Jewish thinking.
++What is remarkable is how little my library corresponded to what I have done for a living. To evaluate the 10,000 volumes I disposed of and the 2,000 I lost in New Jersey you would have a clearer view of my interior world and maybe that's what I was trying to dispose of. There is no connection between my professional life and my reading life. Perhaps the range of my interest did inform what I bring to my professional life but few here in Washington would ever know it. And maybe that is just as well.
++So farewell my book friends, you were great companions. Maybe someone else will enjoy you.
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