Excerpt from Inscribed Books, Vol. 1: November 15 and 16, 1916The large and remarkable collection of books, made by James Carleton Young, F.R.G.S., LL.D., L.H.D., which is as well known in Europe as in this country, is now to be dispersed. The sale will be an unusually interesting and important event.Mr. Young is a member of nearly all the important book clubs in the United States, he is the only American member of the Societe des Amis des Livres, the mostexclusive book club in the world, and is enrolled in many other organizations, including the Authors Club of London and the Men of Letters of France. In 1878 he was Honorary Commissioner to the Paris Exposition, in 1902 the Paris Figaro spoke of him as Le Roi des Livres, a title by which he is well known abroad, and in 1910 he was decorated by the French Government with the Cross of the Legion of Honor on the petition of Maurice Maeterlinck and twenty-five distinguished citizens of France.When a young man Mr. Young resolved to devote his life to the collection of modern literary masterpieces in all languages, believing that this would be the best tribute he could pay to literature, and he particularly desired that each book should be inscribed by its author. The work progressed rapidly in America, but as it is unusual for the writers of any language other than English to inscribe their books, very little could be accomplished by correspondence with foreign authors. Mr. Young resolved, therefore, to travel around the world, and later he made frequent visits to Europe, to obtain personal interviews with distinguished authors. In all, two years were passed in Paris, where he not only secured the inscriptions he desired but collected many rare books that had been inscribed by authors who had died, among these being Victor Hugo, Daudet, and Dumas. Most of Mr. Young's time for twenty years was devoted to this work, and he has often said that if he had known the labor required he would not have had the courage to undertake it. The books of Count Tolstoi illustrate the difficulties Mr. Young encountered.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.