A former professor of Slavic languages at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Lawrence L. Thomas, found an escape in books as a child. When his wife died in 1976, he devoted himself entirely to books. When he died in February 2013, aged 88, his modest 2,514-square-foot house contained more than 59,000 books.
His youngest daughter, Mary Winchester, describes the living room as "a fortress of books around where he sat and read." Many rooms had books, books, and more books -- and no furniture. This was not a case of hoarding though. These books were organised, with dehumidifiers running all the time, keeping the books in good condition. Prof. Thomas had a book catalogue in spiral notebooks, with entries noting the specific location of each book.
In March 2013 the collection went to auction. There were no bidders, as the magnitude of the collection astounded collectors and impeded its sale. Cataloguing all the books would be daunting in itself, so booksellers wanted to cherry-pick the best titles and leave the rest to the family to liquidate. Mary Winchester's husband even joked that they could advertise "LIBRARY FOR SALE; COMES WITH HOUSE." More »
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