Catalogue Of The John Adams Library In The Public Library Of The City Of Boston PDF Download

Excerpt from Catalogue of the John Adams Library: In the Public Library of the City of Boston In 1822, John Adams, then in his eighty-seventh year, presented the Town of Quincy, Massachusetts, with (to use the wording of the deed): "the fragments of my Library, which still remain in my possession, excepting a few that I shall reserve for my consolation in the few days that remain to me." Upon this gift he imposed several conditions, the first being that a catalogue of the books be made and printed. This catalogue was prepared and issued under the title: "Deeds and other documents relating to the several pieces of land, and to the Library presented to the town of Quincy by President Adams, together with a catalogue of the books" (Cambridge, 1823). As a present means of reference this catalogue is wholly useless, since the titles are arranged neither alphabetically under the authors names nor under the subject of which they treat, but according to the languages in which the books are printed, and to some extent according to the sizes of volumes. Another condition of deed was that "none of the books shall ever be sold, exchanged or lent, or suffered to be removed from the apartment, without a solemn vote of a majority of the superintendents." Unfortunately this condition has not been complied with, for a comparison of this first catalogue with the present will show that some volumes are missing. One loss in particular, Thomas Morton's New English Canaan, is a severe one. For this rare volume there has been substituted a copy of the late Charles Francis Adams, Jr.'s edition of Morton's book made for the Prince Society. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This 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.