LIBRARY TIPS?
Does anyone out there have suggestions on a library that might be interested in books with marginalia from our 15th Chief Justice? I have contacted one special collections department at a local law library, but they haven't gotten back to me, which I take to be a sign of disinterest.
The fact that these books were up for sale in an anonymous warehouse in Rockville - no disrespect intended to Second Story Books, of course, the best used book store I have ever seen - says something about the relative anonymity of members of the Supreme Court. (The books were very cheap.) But it also says something about American approaches to history, I think. We like myths more than we like documents. Maybe there is nothing particularly American about that. And I, too, was affected enough by my graduate training in political science that I am suspicious of the merely antiquarian. Law school reinforces that suspicion.
At any rate, if you or someone you know has a good special collections infrastructure and would like to have these books, let me know and we can talk about it.
Labels: Burger, marginalia
3 Comments:
Is there a definitive biography/biographer of Burger? Maybe he/she would like the books, or would know who else would. I assume you've contacted the Earl Gregg Swem Library at William and Mary? They were given other papers of Burger's; even if the Burger estate tossed the books you have, maybe it was a mistake on their part, and not disinterest by the W&M people.
Hey, Thomas:
I did contact W & M earlier, but they didn't express a direct interest (granted, I didn't ask them if they wanted them, but I would have been open to it). I think that I have a taker, though; more details when it's finalized!
OK, just be sure to squeeze every penny you can out of them -- that way you maximize overall utility, and that's patriotic.
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