Sleuthing in the Stacks

Right at the beginning of the Dewey decimal system you will come across books about books – bibliographies, library histories, publisher’s tales and so forth. It’s perhaps not surprising that a librarian such as Melvil Dewey should make books themselves the foundation of his rationalised catalogue system. If h e wanted a really firm foundation in a more literal sense, he could do worse than prop the whole edifice up on two of Bernard Quaritch’s General Catalogues of Books. These c ertainly stand out on the bottom shelf of the books on books section of the stack. There they are , two volumes bound in red leather with gilded lettering . They are almost comically broad, and I would warrant are the widest books in relation to their height that are to be found in the stack collection. Bernard Quaritch’s General Catalogue of Books, the gold letters declare, easily fitting in on a couple of horizontally spaced lines. The publication dates are embossed at the base – London 1874 and L