Bidding for Law Books

M. H. Hoeflich

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511761287.007

4 - Bidding for Law Books

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010

M. H. Hoeflich

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M. H. Hoeflich: Affiliation:
University of Kansas

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In autumn 1859, the United States was in a tumult. The South and the North were rapidly approaching a point of no return on the road to secession and civil war. Politicians were battling for the highest national office, and every American was preoccupied with what was soon to come. Yet amid this political and social turmoil, a young lawyer sat at his desk in New Hampshire writing his most intimate thoughts in his diary. These thoughts were not of slavery or of gathering war clouds; they were about a book auction. Stephen Greeley Clarke, the son of the Attorney-General of the State of New Hampshire, had been a lawyer for only a few years on Sunday evening, November 20, 1859, when he added several pages to his journal/commonplace book. Like most young lawyers of his time and social standing, he was much concerned with building his personal and professional library. He confided to his journal that he had “been adding some” to his libraries “of late,” especially from the “magnificent private library” of Rufus Choate. But his pleasure at purchasing these volumes was bittersweet:

Have been adding some to my library of late – both my own and the Law L. of the firm – A portion of both came from the Libraries of the Late Mr. Choate – He had a magnificent private library – It made me feel bad to read the catalogue – and worse to see the books and realize how few of even those that I should most desire I could hope to possess –”

Type: Chapter
Information: Legal Publishing in Antebellum America , pp. 105 - 124

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511761287.007 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2010

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