The Second PLL Collection: Robert Smithson!

The Personal Libraries Library is happy to announce the beginning of its second collection: the Robert Smithson Personal Library.

The Library was recently reminded (thanks Lacey!) that the personal library of Robert Smithson was catalogued shortly after his death. The catalogue, compiled by Valentin Tatransky, can be found in Robert Smithson, organized by Eugenie Tsai with Cornelia Butler (The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.) This catalogue is not comprehensive in itself, but is quite extensive. Some books from Smithson's personal library are also currently in the Library's librarian's personal library and have seamlessly become the beginning of the Robert Smithson Personal Library. These include Gunter Grass' The Tin Drum, Jorge Luis Borges' Ficciones and Labyrinths, as well as Jean-Paul Sartre's Nausea and Bachelard's The Poetics of Space. Due to this fortuitous overlap, the catalogue set forth by Tatransky, and the Library's interest in Smithson, he seemed like the perfect second collection.



Interestingly enough, there was not only cross-over in Smithson's and the librarian's libraries, but also that of Maria Mitchell! Emerson's Essays and The Marble Faun can be found in the Maria Mitchell- and Robert Smithson Personal Library. Please note the multiple book cards.


Please peruse the Robert Smithson Personal Library Catalogue to see the Library's holdings. Also, check the Robert Smithson Wish List if you want to donate a book, or find a book and care to alert the Library. Contact the Library at personallibraries{at}gmail{dot}com