Timothy Ryback, Hitler's Private Library: The books that shaped his life (New York: Knopf, 2008)

Inspired, in part, by some of Walter Benjamin's essays in his Illuminations, tr. by H. Zohn (New York, 1968)

Try this Wikipedia entry and its references-- The Anxiety of Influence by Harold Bloom. It is about poets but could be extrapolated to influence in general and the struggles  of any writer-- 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anxiety_of_Influence

 Dear Eric and Jim,

thanks for Eric's important reference to how it is in history: to understand a historical agent one can imagine that the knowledge of his/her library is directly relevant. As for Bloom, indeed he is an obvious author, if we are interested in something like the aesthetics of reception. But our author published a volume of essays about the authors who seem to be relevant for him. How far does the library add something to that?

 I would imagine that the library would be crucial to a discussion of one's intellectual precursors. But that's about it for me as this is outside any expertise of mine. :)

Dear Jim and Dibakar,

you are certainly right. To ddetect precursors and influence, libraries might be used. But exactly how, what is the methodology to be used - that is the quesrtion. And in particular in literary science, where the influence does not really help directly to make sense of the meaning and value of a piece of art.

I am  not a fan of deconstruction, but one vector might be to analyze key volumes in an author's library (perhaps ascertained as key by the critic's associations or direct references by the author) using the techniques of Barthes, Derrida, and DeMan. Another vector would simply be echoes of other styles or themes detected by the critic and then explored more deeply in light of Harold Bloom, Northrop Frye,  and Erich Auerbach's Mimesis. Often authors of fiction and poetry are catalogued, rightly or wrongly, with schools of thought such as American Poetry's New School or Black Mountain School (Frank O'Hara, Ron Padgett, John Giorno, et al.). That could be a place to start anyhow.

A well-stocked library is an asset for author & reader. Libraries are as Community Builders, important partners in sustainability & also  preserve historic  artifacts, oral histories, digital history projects and monographs relevant to the community, including minority groups. Author will write about these  ideas If reader know library of author then they can easy to come know depth of author’s ideas.

Dear Kiran, you are certainly right. However, in this case we look at the personal library of the author, the one he or she owns at home. THe question is the relevanceo f that library for an understanding of the meaning of the literary products of the author.

An Author's library certainly reflects his/her depth and diversity of thoughts & Knowledge. However sometimes it also consists of "relief materials" as well. I know of a math professor and researcher having lots of Tintin's adventure books and children cartoon books in various indic languages (Bengali & Hindi) upon inquiry I heard that those were :relief materials", they freshens the individual's mind to solve knotty issues!!

Given the size of many libraries, and the human impulses which often prompt book-buying, I think the mere fact that an author owns a book is not necessarily indicative of anything other than that it looked interesting at the time. I wish I had not bought so many books in that manner, because it is dubious that I will get half of them read. :) Besides, I love Tintin and I know one author, Frederic Tuten, who wrote a great novel about Tintin: The Adventures of Tintin in the New World.  They are certainly refreshing but are also more.

In the Hungarian context, I understand that interesting work has been done (in Hungarian), on the library of György Lukács. The library, still housed intact in Lukács's old flat, is freely accessible. I haven't read any of it (I'm not too interested in Lukács) and so can't attest to the quality of work done- but a recent article in a Hungarian daily mentioned this in passing. So, Ferenc, I suppose people working in the library could easily direct your student to relevant published work, and perhaps your student could glean something from the methodology used in it. An email note to the librarian there ought to get a fast response.

I am sure everyone will agree with Jim Drummond that owning a book does not mean that one has read it, or (if one has read it) actually likes it. However, I believe this is acknowledged by all who analyze famous people's libraries. There are all sorts of ways around this problem: one can look for clues of use of a book in the library by examining it: Are there handwritten notes inside it? Underlining? (The author of the book on Hitler's library mentions heavy underlining, definitely from Hitler, in one particular work) Can we be sure these marks are from the owner? (I have used books on my shelf with other people's notes). Did the owner cite these books in his/her own writing? Does the library's former owner have more than one book from the same author? This may indicate a love of that author's work. (For example, I understand Hitler was a great fan of Karl May's work, and collected everything May wrote. Does this say something about Hitler? Some think it does.)

A library tells us one thing for certain - that the owner MIGHT have been exposed to this or that set of ideas.

Similarly, one might try to look at the curricula of schools the personality attended, to see what s/he certainly had to read/study in his/her youth. Then one might check the library to see if any of these books are preserved there - and if they are, one might surmise (perhaps incorrectly?) that the owner liked these works enough to keep them after reading them.

Dear Eric,

our ways of thinking appearantly follow the same track. Here is my plan for the future of the Lukacs Library: http://www.fi.btk.mta.hu/images/Esem%C3%A9nyek/2016/lukacs_archivum_javaslat_HF_MI.pdf

- I wanted it to remain in the same flat earlier used by Lukacs, where it is now. I also wanted it to house a postgraduate research group. Unfortunately the president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences had a different view. As for my own posiiton, see also the following article: 

http://nol.hu/belfold/osztalyharc-az-akademian-1608817

- I only suggest this article to you in one of the leading periodicals of Hungary as I know that you're one of those exceptional foreigners who can speak and read Hungarian - a real accomplishment.

Unfortunately, Lukacs was quite hostile to the author my student researches on: to Géza Ottlik. They had a rather different view of Communism. For the moment, however, the question is how Ottlik's  own library can be used for the research into his art of writing.

As for your further suggestions, again, the problem seems to me to be this: it is not enough to see that a writer was interested in a certain precursor or contemporary - the interesting thing is to find out how exactly this knowledge can be used in the analysis of his/her works.

In this respect the discipline of history and literature seem to be, perhaps, different. But I am glad to receive your view on how historians actually utilise the knowledge of their hero's library.

Dear Ferenc,

Since you've so openly shared your views of Lukacs's library, and the Academy, I'll ask a couple of  questions that I don't expect you to answer here, though it would be nice if you would: Is it true that the Academy's humanities research institutes may be downsized for lack of funding? If it is true, is there any indication of how many researchers could be made redundant?

And what are your new premises like? Must be a great change, after the Castle district.

Eric

P.S. My suggestions were just so that your student might examine work done by others, and work out her own methodology by comparison. Also, the comments by Walter Benjamin might be the most inspiring.

In any case, none of the subjects or authors of the works I suggested seem like "heroes" to me! 

Dear Eric,

thanks for your further questions, Beside my general policy to try to talk clrearly, Italked about the Lukacs Library because I also now the protest about it, national and international. As for the new headquarter  I am aware of the fears of people all around, so this is the reason why I want to make clear that we (the the institute council) do not have any such info, and that the space is by now (with the Institute of Literature left out) quite suitable to house all the 5 institutes with their full research community and admim. We also made sure that costs should not be higher than they were here, as the official reason for the move is  that  the new building will be cheaper to sustain. But yes, you are right, it will be a great change after the Castle district, and I personally regret the move. 

Thanks for your suggestion from earlier, I mssed the one on Benjamin, however. As for heroes, I only used a clumsily chosen English word, sorry about it. :)

Dear Ferenc and Eric et al.,

The writer Ray Bradbury showed obvious signs of an interest in Spengler's _The Decline of the West_ (_Das Untergang des Abenlandes_ in German) in his talks and memoirs so that critics point out some relationship to the character of Spender in _The Martian Chronicles_ .  Spender describes the unfairness of the way that Martian culture was destroyed by accidental infection with chicken pox in that (taken from Spengler) most cultures grow with some dignity and die in their own time, but this unwitting destruction was a theft of dignity as well as a genocide.

i have to admit I haven't made a huge study of this field of the libraries of famous writers, but I have read the answers above and I think that at least a search for books where something in the writer we are studying's own texts suggests a connection is often helpful and revealing.

Dear Eric, thanks indeed. 

F

 Dear Gloria, no doubt, you are right. The question, however ,is, how exactly can we turn this search into "helpful and revealing".

Best,

Ferenc

I was probably unclear.  Instead of searching the  writer's library and then looking for connections to the texts by other writers, do this.  First, close read texts by the writer you are studying specifically watching for influences from other writers' works, source texts by others.  Then go to the archives or libraries holding the books your writer owned and see if the source texts that seem to be related your writer's texts are there. 

In a few cases, there will even be marginalia in texts found in a writer's library showing how that writer was thinking about a text.  That may show how the source text came transformed into the published text by the writer, as with Spengler and Ray Bradbury.

See The Scholar Adventurers by Richard D. Altick.(1950) "The Secret of the Ebony Cabinet" 16-36.  I think this details how scholars used an archive of Boswell and Samuel Johnson materials to establish new connections between what was already known and new influences.  This book is priceless for your kind of work.

My book "By the Book: A reader's guide to Life", Text Publishing, Melbourne 2014 explores the archaeology of the self that is expressed in the range of books that we persist in taking with us through life - surviving the divorces and house moves and culls. Why did your writer surround him/herself with these particular books? A beloved book is a reflection of a moment, a mood, a passion, a time when a writer said, through the pages of a book, here, you are not alone. Or here, this is what it is to be alive in another time or place. The writer's library is a door into the writer's mind.

https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/by-the-book

Dear Ramona, thanks for your thoguhtful contribution. Your work must be very fqascinating and intellectually rich.

Best,

Ferenc

Hi,

I agree with Ramona about a writer's library being a door into their mind and think that extends to anyone's library. When in someone else's house, I look at their books and music. There was a book quite a while back called Reading Freud's Reading which I enjoyed but don't have anymore (my culls are mostly financial) and there is a similar book on Jung's library, even something called Hitler's Private Library and I have both of these. So indications as to someone's interest, or even curiosity as to why the person had the book. I think, from memory that some of the books in Freud's library were uncut, so therefore unread. A more than reasonable proportion of my library also remains unread, but those still tell you of my curiosity and interest, as I went out and bought them.

Regards

Peter

 Dear Peter, thanks, you are certainly right. The question is how to turn this insight into a successful research strategy in case of a writer.

Best,

Ferenc