Tuesday 11 October 2022

'I learned a lot about anatomy but didn't find the book'

 'When you are growing up, there are two institutional places that affect you most powerfully: the church, which belongs to God, and the public library, which belongs to you.'
These wise words were spoken (in an interview) by erstwhile hard-living, hell-raising wild man of rock Keith Richards. He is well known to be a bibliophile with an extensive personal library (extending across several of his homes), and in 1998 he hit the headlines when he fell off his library steps (I like to imagine him wearing a smoking jacket and cap when this happened). Richards broke three ribs and punctured a lung in the fall, and afterwards remarked, 'I was looking for Leonardo da Vinci's book on anatomy. I learned a lot about anatomy but didn't find the book.'
At one time Richards decided to get his burgeoning library properly organised, and seriously considered taking a professional course in the mysteries of the Dewey decimal system, but he gave up the idea in favour of organised chaos, the default position of most bookmen. I wonder if he has a copy of that indispensable vade mecum My Duties As My Own Librarian by Arthur H. Jenn and Edward P. Gray...

2 comments:

  1. In childhood, I vaguely supposed the John Dewey had invented the Dewey Decimal System. Given that he thought and wrote a great deal about education, this made a degree of sense, as compared to ascribing it to Admiral George Dewey or to Thomas Dewey, who did not defeat Truman. But it was still wrong.

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    1. Yes, a reasonable assumption, George. I don't think I'd hear of any other Deweys when I first encountered DDC. A strange man, Melvil [sic] Dewey...

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