最後一位藏書家的日常

雙語書話專欄

在這個世界上，有這樣一些人——他們一走進書店，心就怦怦亂跳，不管有多少瑣事纏身，總忍不住進店轉轉；見到一本心儀的書，不弄到手就坐立不安，哪怕買了書就要挨餓，也覺得心滿意足。許多名人亦為愛書人，他們會在文章中不經意間流露愛書之情。而「雙語書話」專欄，將會每周截取一篇《新東方雙語書話譯叢》中的一部分和您一起分享西方大文豪的藏書趣聞或者是讀書歷程......

The Last of His Race

最後的藏書家

作者介紹

Alfred Edward Newton

阿爾弗雷德.愛德華.紐頓

阿爾弗雷德.愛德華.紐頓（Alfred Edward Newton，1864—1940），美國作家，20世紀歐美最重要的藏書家之一，開創了西方書話的新氣象。他生前一共收藏了近10萬冊書，數目之大讓人驚嘆。他最富盛名的著作《藏書之愛》（The Amenities of Book-Collecting and Kindred Affections），以談論藏書為中心，對書店經營、拍賣風雲等也多有涉獵，語言詼諧，妙趣橫生。

本文節選自1925年出版的《最偉大的書與其他零篇》（The Greatest Book and Other Papers）。文章通過幾個小故事表達了對「最後一位藏書家」丘先生的懷念之情。

丘先生愛書如命，與作者一唱一和，互相推薦舊書；丘先生眼光獨到，但作者在他指點下進行的投資被證明是浪費金錢。不過，這點小紕漏不會對丘先生的形象有半分損害，反而讓他顯得更加可愛、更加有血有肉。

故 事 節 選

有一個有趣的故事，說的是丘先生對珍本的熱愛。丘先生聽說亨廷頓先生弄到了兩本版本說明不同的《莎士比亞十四行詩》初版，便登門造訪，請求拿一會兒那兩本書。他一手捧著一本——那恐怕是英語文學中最珍貴的兩本書了。我真想抓住那個時刻給他拍張照片，不過我還是有一張他的絕妙畫像的。畫中，他正在看赫里克[1]的一本詩集，那是他最喜愛的書之一。我在日內瓦最後一次見到他時，他就在研讀這本書。

還有一個故事。丘先生待在紐約的最後幾年有個習慣——周六不上街，而是在羅亞爾頓的公寓里與書為伴，靜靜地度過早晨的時光。知道這一點後，我也養成了一個習慣——周六如果在紐約便去拜訪他。

一天早晨，我們一起聊了幾個小時後，我突然想起第四十街的書商德拉克邀請了我去看剛從倫敦進的書。恰好丘先生也與人有約，我倆互相致歉後，帶著遺憾道了別。我立刻去了德拉克的店裡。到那兒不到十分鐘後，丘先生走了進來。原來我們約的是同一個人。我們開懷大笑，然後轉頭看起了書。

丘先生拿起一本裝幀很舊的《農夫皮爾斯》[2]，對我說：「你要是沒有這本書的話，可以把它買下來。」他提醒我注意書的修訂年份是1550年。我回答說：「但這個我不懂。」「不會的。」他說道。

接著我碰巧看到一本布萊克的《詩草》。那是喬治?坎伯蘭的藏書，書里有他所謂的藏書票，還有一張布萊克晚年的雕版畫。「你可以買這本。」我說，心知丘先生想要的那本已經進了亨廷頓圖書館。德拉克先生在一旁樂滋滋地看著我們：「繼續繼續，先生們；我可雇不起你們這麼好的推銷員呢。」之後，我們離開書店共進午餐時，我成了《農夫皮爾斯》的主人，丘先生口袋裡則裝著布萊克的《詩草》。

回首過去，1918年對買書人和賣書人來說，都是格外愉快的一年。當時大戰即將結束，資金比較充裕，許多優秀的藏書都在米切爾?肯納利[3]的安德森藝廊拍賣。我印象最深的是5月份賣出的哈根藏書，以及12月份賣出的赫歇爾? V. 瓊斯藏書。

那時大家與國外同行關係不錯，我們一群人習慣在拍賣結束後去廣場聚會，圍著一張大桌子再展開鏖戰。丘先生經常受邀參加這些聚會，因為他是哈根先生的老朋友，為他的拍賣書目寫了序，而且他自己對哈根藏書的拍賣也很感興趣。

他在序中寫道：

「

如果有人問我拍賣的書中最珍貴的是哪本，我會毫不猶豫地說，是那套包含亨利七世時期的桂冠詩人約翰?斯凱爾頓四本詩作的迷人的小書。霍的藏書里有其中兩本小冊子，但這套來自洛克的藏書、包含四本詩集的小書很可能是孤本。

」

丘先生很少透露一本書的「機密」，但他說的是實情，最後那件藏品拍出近一萬美元的高價。拍出高價後他很高興，但並不驚訝。他說：「它們的價格還會漲。」在這兩次拍賣中，我根據丘先生的指導，在財力允許範圍內給自己買了很多書。我又一次將自己的奢侈視為投資，我的經濟狀況卻證明這存心是浪費錢。

「

友人雖已仙逝，如眾人之命所歸，

然其生命極其純潔，目標極其高尚。

」

他的遺囑公開後，人們發現他與法國偉大的收藏家埃德蒙?德?龔古爾一樣，留下遺言說他的油畫、版畫、古董、書籍——一切曾給他帶來快樂的東西，都不能移交到博物館那冰冷的墳墓里，任由無心的觀眾隨意觀看；他要求將它們送到拍賣師的錘下，以便與同好者分享自己獲取它們時的快樂。

因此，丘先生的全部藏品都交由他的朋友——安德森藝廊的老闆米切爾?肯納利出售，除了四幅畫：

赫拉德?洪特霍斯特繪製的本?瓊森肖像、

戈弗雷?內勒爵士繪製的蒲柏和德萊頓畫像、

愛德華?盧特雷爾繪製的德萊頓蠟筆畫像，

還有他收藏的上乘的德語、荷蘭語、佛蘭芒語的鍍銀裝幀本的套裝。

這套書他有50幾冊樣本。他將畫作和鍍銀裝幀本遺贈給了格羅利耶俱樂部。丘先生無疑認為，這樣做將使它們像在他自己的書房裡一樣得到精心照料，也能讓自己的名字與俱樂部的其他捐贈者同列。

他的想法很正確。這傢俱樂部是世界上最有地位、最成功、最具權威的讀書俱樂部。願它永遠繁榮昌盛！

英 文 原 文

A pretty story is told of Mr. Chew』s love for a rare book. Hearing that Mr. Huntington had secured two copies of the first edition of Shakespeare』s Sonnets with the two different imprints, he called upon him and asked for the privilege of holding the two books—they are perhaps two of the most valuable books in the language—in his hands at the same time, one in each hand. I would like to have had a photograph taken of him at this moment, but I have an excellent picture of him, looking at a copy of Herrick, one of his favorite books, the one I saw him examining when I was last with him in Geneva.

Another story. During the last years of Mr. Chew』s life in New York it was his habit not to go downtown on Saturdays, but to spend the morning quietly among his books in his apartment in the Royalton; knowing this, it became my custom, when in New York on a Saturday, to call upon him.

One morning we had spent several hours together when I suddenly remembered that Drake, the bookseller in Fortieth Street, had asked me to call to look at some books just in from London. So cutting my visit short, more especially as Mr. Chew too pleaded an engagement, with professions of mutual regard and regret we parted and I went at once to Drake』s. I had not been there more than ten minutes when in walked Mr. Chew; his engagement was the same as mine. We laughed heartily at each other and turned to the books. 「Here is something you should buy, if you haven』t it,」 said Mr. Chew, taking up a copy of Piers Plowman in old binding, calling attention to the corrected date, 1550. 「But it is out of my line,」 I replied. 「It shouldn』t be,」 said he.

Then my eye chanced to light upon a copy of Blake』s Poetical Sketches, George Cumberland』s copy with his so-called bookplate, one of Blake』s last engravings, therein. 「And you should have this,」 I said, knowing that his copy had gone into the Huntington Library. Mr. Drake looked on with amusement. 「Go to it, gentlemen; I cannot afford salesmen such as you」; and when a little later we left the shop to lunch together, I was the owner of Piers Plowman and Mr. Chew had a copy of Blake』s Poetical Sketches in his pocket.

Looking back, one recollects that the year 1918 was a particularly pleasant one for book-buyers, and booksellers too. It saw the end of the war, money was plentiful, and several fine libraries were dispersed at Mitchell Kennerley』s Anderson Galleries. I have in mind especially the Hagen collection, sold in May, and the Herschel V. Jones library in December. There was a feeling of good-fellowship abroad, and after these sales a group of us were wont to forgather at the Plaza around a well-spread table, there to fight our battles o』er again. Mr. Chew, who would always be invited to join these parties, was an old friend of Mr. Hagen, and had written an introduction to his sale catalogue, and was especially interested in the sale of his library.

In the introduction he had written: 「If I were asked what is the scarcest item in the sale, I should unhesitatingly say that charming little volume containing four of the poems of John Skelton, Poet Laureate to King Henry VII. Two of these little booklets were in the Hoe library, but this lot of four from the Locker library is probably unique.」 It was not often that Mr. Chew would give a 「tip」 on a book, but this was a sure thing, and the item realized just a trifle short of ten thousand dollars. The high prices pleased but did not surprise him. 「They will go higher still,」 he said. At both of these sales I bought—for me—largely, being guided, as far as my means would allow, by Mr. Chew』s judgment. Once again I record that my extravagances were investments, and my economies proved to be a willful waste of money.

Our friend is gone, if any man die,

Who lived so pure a life, whose purpose was so high.

When his will was opened, it was found that Mr. Chew had followed in the steps of the great French collector Edmond de Goncourt, who left instructions that his drawings, his prints, his curiosities, his books—in a word, all those things which had been the joy of his life—should not be consigned to the cold tomb of a museum, to be subjected to the stupid glance of the careless passer-by; but required that they should be dispersed under the hammer of the auctioneer, so that the pleasure which the acquiring of them had given him should in turn be given someone of his own taste.

Thus to his friend Mitchell Kennerley, the president of the Anderson Galleries, passed—for sale—Mr. Chew』s entire collection, with the exception of four paintings: his portraits of Ben Jonson by Gerard Honthorst, Pope and Dryden by Sir Godfrey Kneller, and a pastel of Dryden by Edward Lutterel; and his fine collection of German, Dutch, and Flemish silver bindings, of which he had some fifty or more specimens; these he bequeathed to the Grolier Club. No doubt he felt, and correctly, that there they would receive the same loving care that they had in his own library and would serve to link his name with those of other benefactors of the Club, which is the most important, successful, and authoritative book-club in the world. Long may it continue to flourish!

相關注釋

[1]羅伯特.赫里克（Robert Herrick，1591—1674），英國騎士派詩人，擅寫宗教詩和愛情詩。

[2]《農夫皮爾斯》（Piers Plowman），英國詩人威廉·朗蘭的寓言長詩，英國中世紀最優秀的詩作之一。

[3]米切爾.肯納利（Mitchell Kennerley，1878—1950），美國出版商。

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