Henry Spencer Ashbee

Henry Spencer Ashbee (21 April 1834 – 29 July 1900) was a book collector, writer and bibliographer. He is notable for his massive, clandestine three-volume bibliography of erotic literature published under the pseudonym of Pisanus Fraxi. Quotes Index Librorum Prohibitorum (1877) . . . no production of the human brain should be ignored, entirely disregarded, or allowed to become utterly lost; for every writing, however trifling or insignificant it may seem, has a value to the true student, in estimating the individual who wrote it, or the period in which it was produced. . . . it is as necessary and profitable for the student to know such books, as it is for the naturalist to be acquainted with the less known and less lovely members of the animal kingdom, or for the astronomer to watch the obscurer and minor celestial bodies — the wood-louse being (in my opinion) as worthy of study as the elephant, or the transit of Venus as the daily rising and setting of the sun. Introduction (pp. xxiii–xxv) My object is to collect into a common fold the stray sheep, to find a home for the pariahs of every nation. I do not then hesitate to notice the catchpennies hawked in the public streets, as well as the sumptuous volumes got up for the select few, and whose price is counted in guineas. I embrace indeed that which should be avoided as well as that which should be sought. Introduction (pp. lii–liii) Centuria Librorum Absconditorum (1879) This book for men alone is meant,Book-worms, or bibliophiles anent,Of solid mind, of serious bent,On curious, hidden books intent,   On odd research and learning. To the Reader Catena Librorum Prohibitorum (1885) No book exists, however bad,From which some good may not be had. To the Reader Quotes about Ashbee Having amassed a handsome fortune he devoted his leisure to travel, bibliography, and book collecting. He compiled the finest Cervantic library out of Spain, and perhaps the finest private library of the kind anywhere, if that of Señor Bonsoms at Barcelona be excepted. He indulged in extra-illustrated books, the gem of his collection being a Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, extended from nine to forty-two volumes by the addition of some five thousand extra plates; he possessed an extraordinary series of books illustrated by Daniel Chodowiecki, the German Cruikshank; and he formed an unrivalled assortment of kruptadia. Thomas Seccombe, "Ashbee, Henry Spencer", Dictionary of National Biography, 1st suppl. (1901), vol. i, p. 80 External links Category:1834 births Category:1900 deaths Category:Non-fiction authors from England Category:Bibliographers