* drool * David Walker’s library

[archerships]

“Nothing quite prepares you for the culture shock of Jay Walker’s library. You exit the austere parlor of his New England home and pass through a hallway into the bibliographic equivalent of a Disney ride. Stuffed with landmark tomes and eye-grabbing historical objects—on the walls, on tables, standing on the floor—the room occupies about 3,600 square feet on three mazelike levels. Is that a Sputnik? (Yes.) Hey, those books appear to be bound in rubies. (They are.) That edition of Chaucer … is it a Kelmscott? (Natch.) Gee, that chandelier looks like the one in the James Bond flick Die Another Day. (Because it is.) No matter where you turn in this ziggurat, another treasure beckons you—a 1665 Bills of Mortality chronicle of London (you can track plague fatalities by week), the instruction manual for the Saturn V rocket (which launched the Apollo 11 capsule to the moon), a framed napkin from 1943 on which Franklin D. Roosevelt outlined his plan to win World War II. In no time, your mind is stretched like hot taffy.”

Original: craschworks - comments

Comments

[fishsupreme]

That is the most preposterously awesome room ever. I must now become fabulously wealthy just so I can have one. And being rich was never important to me until this moment.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Agreed!

[afb.livejournal.com]

And to think I only dreamed of a two-story library with some nice leather furniture. This plan works for me!

[ladykalana.livejournal.com]

Lord jesus, that is an absurdity of riches. It should be a museum. A room so full of beauty and importance shouldn't be for just one person.

Heh, I sound like Indiana Jones :)

[furfybird.livejournal.com]

*ahem*

Jay. Jay Walker.

:)

Crazy stuff, huh?

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Hahaha! I didn't notice til you pointed it out. His parents were such cards...:>

[crasch.livejournal.com]

"...many of the volumes that decorate the library's walls are leather-bound Franklin Press reprints..."

I don't think most of them are encyclopedias. In any case, what of it? That his tastes in books are not my own does not detract from the beauty of the room in my book.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

Some thoughts:

- I wonder how the room's fire suppression system works.

- I also have the "Indiana Jones" response... more people should get to see this. I'm a bit surprised that someone who values knowledge and progress so much wouldn't want the meme dispersed more widely.

- The mere act of putting this library together could occupy someone full time for ~20 years.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Most museums only display a small fraction of their holdings at any one time.

And I too wondered how he found the time to find all of these works. I imagine he has a curator to do it for him.

[schrathe.livejournal.com]

I have about a half dozen bookcases and can barely keep up with dusting those!

[crasch.livejournal.com]

I bet he has a riding feather duster.