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Interview by Alison Flood, Guardian's books reporter, Edward Brooke-Hitching set out to curate the ultimate collection of bizarre books down the ages. He leads us around the Madman’s Library.
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| ‘Down the back alleys of history’ … (clockwise from top left) A Manual of Mathematics, La confession coupée, 20 Slices of American Cheese, Poissons, ecrevisses et crabs. Photo: Composite: Richard Lane CollectionHonolulu Museum of Art/Edward Brooke-Hitching/Ernst Mayr Library/Ben Denzer |
Edward Brooke-Hitching grew up in a rare book shop, with a rare book dealer for a father. As the author of histories of maps The Phantom Atlas, The Golden Atlas and The Sky Atlas, he has always been “really fascinated by books that are down the back alleys of history”. Ten years ago, he embarked on a project to come up with the “ultimate library”. No first editions of Jane Austen here, though: Brooke-Hitching’s The Madman’s Library collects the most eccentric and extraordinary books from around the world.
“I was asking, if you could put together the ultimate library, ignoring the value or the academic significance of the books, what would be on that shelf if you had a time machine and unlimited budget?” he says...
The joy for the author in his discoveries – and make no mistake, The Madman’s Library is an utterly joyous journey into the deepest eccentricities of the human mind – was that they “make you realise that, above everything, people have always been funny, been weird, been unquenchably curious in every possible arena”.
Source: The Guardian
