On Stealing Books

Posted 28 November, 2007 in Bookish |

I’ve been undergoing the week from hell thus far, having kicked it off with a touch of what might have been food poisoning, but was more likely a mild bout of stomach flu, then capping that yesterday by taking a chunk out of my right hand by breaking a glass bowl. All of which is to say that you shouldn’t expect much in the way of content from me today, or tomorrow.

In lieu of which, I’ll point you toward an interesting article on stealing books by the venerable Kerry Clare, writing in the Descant blog:

Yes, the biblioklepts: those suffering from bibliokleptomania. There was even an article about it in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, in which writer E.C. Abbott explains that book thieving goes way back to the Middle Ages when books were rare and especially valuable. Abbott also writes of famous book thieves including Dr. Elois Pichler in the nineteenth century who stole 4000 volumes over three years from the Russian Imperial Library in St. Petersburg. He’d sneak them under his bulky overcoat, specially adapted with a storage sack inside, and when he was caught he was sent to Siberia. Also of Gilbert J. Bland, “the Al Capone of cartography”.

For more from Ms. Clare, keep watching this space.

2 comments to “On Stealing Books”

Kerry, November 28th, 2007 at 2:27 pm:

• Mmmmm…. “venerable”. Thank you. I am obsessed with bibliokleptomania, and so glad to spread awareness (it gets overlooked this time of year with all the other charity drives). And I hope you’re better soon.

panic, November 29th, 2007 at 8:49 pm:

• I hope you’re feeling better!

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