"I have in mind a book about the American Revolution which I am eager to write, though unhappily the time may not be allowed me... in researching this book, I had occasion to visit the estate of George Mason and there I collected a list of the books he had in his study and those he had read in preparing himself. He was without a doubt one of the most influential men of his time, and the sources of his ideas were important to me. Still, a book is less important for what it says than for what it makes you think."

Louis L'Amour in Education of a Wandering Man.

Would be interesting to compare L'Amour's list to the 1796 probate list of Mason's belongings we have. Were the books on display at the estate when L'Amour visited? Are they still?

Earlier in the book he talks about getting a hold of every list he can find of reading and libraries of prominant men and women to see what shaped them, what they enjoyed, and his thoughts on why so many had read Plutarch's Lives. Education of a Wandering Man is a fun read.

Now, I'm curious about other attempts to record the books owned/read like what we are doing now, and L'Amour was doing then. What is the intellectual history behind our Legacy Library project?

Bericht bewerkt door schrijver, jan 19, 2010, 11:35pm.

I take it that L'Amour doesn't include the lists in his book? Or subsets of the lists?

Agree it is interesting to compare the Legacy Library idea to similar ideas outside LT.

The George Mason library is an interesting one - the librarians at Gunston Hall (his estate) - http://gunstonhall.org/ - have been working for many years to compile a complete inventory of his book collection (I've worked with them on several other libraries and they're looking forward to being able to, eventually, get the George Mason books into LT as well).

Sounds like L'Amour would have enjoyed LT, with all the useful tools it provides for comparing libraries!

Bernard Bailyn in his "Ideological Origins of the American Revolution" devotes much space to the reading habits of the founding generation. Many scholars, including Samuel Eliot Morison, Louis B. Wright, and numerous others, have written about reading habits and, at least tangentially, library reconstructions in their works.