On Books and The Housing of Them | Page 6

long ones of the parallelopiped to present
simply a face of books with the lines of shelf, like threads, running
between the rows.
The wall-spaces between the projections ought also to be turned to
account for shallow bookcases, so far as they are not occupied by
windows. If the width of the interval be two feet six, about sixteen

inches of this may be given to shallow cases placed against the wall.
Economy of space is in my view best attained by fixed shelves. This
dictum I will now endeavor to make good. If the shelves are movable,
each shelf imposes a dead weight on the structure of the bookcase,
without doing anything to support it. Hence it must be built with wood
of considerable mass, and the more considerable the mass of wood the
greater are both the space occupied and the ornament needed. When the
shelf is fixed, it contributes as a fastening to hold the parts of the
bookcase together; and a very long experience enables me to say that
shelves of from half- to three-quarters of an inch worked fast into
uprights of from three-quarters to a full inch will amply suffice for all
sizes of books except large and heavy folios, which would probably
require a small, and only a small, addition of thickness.
I have recommended that as a rule the shelves be fixed, and have given
reasons for the adoption of such a rule. I do not know whether it will
receive the sanction of authorities. And I make two admissions. First, it
requires that each person owning and arranging a library should have a
pretty accurate general knowledge of the sizes of his books. Secondly,
it may be expedient to introduce here and there, by way of exception, a
single movable shelf; and this, I believe, will be found to afford a
margin sufficient to meet occasional imperfections in the computation
of sizes. Subject to these remarks, I have considerable confidence in the
recommendation I have made.
I will now exhibit to my reader the practical effect of such arrangement,
in bringing great numbers of books within easy reach. Let each
projection be three feet long, twelve inches deep (ample for two faces
of octavos), and nine feet high, so that the upper shelf can be reached
by the aid of a wooden stool of two steps not more than twenty inches
high, and portable without the least effort in a single hand. I will
suppose the wall space available to be eight feet, and the projections,
three in number, with end pieces need only jut out three feet five, while
narrow strips of bookcase will run up the wall between the projections.
Under these conditions, the bookcases thus described will carry above
2,000 octavo volumes.

And a library forty feet long and twenty feet broad, amply lighted,
having some portion of the centre fitted with very low bookcases suited
to serve for some of the uses of tables, will receive on the floor from
18,000 to 20,000 volumes of all sizes, without losing the appearance of
a room or assuming that of a warehouse, and while leaving portions of
space available near the windows for purposes of study. If a gallery be
added, there will be accommodation for a further number of five
thousand, and the room need be no more than sixteen feet high. But a
gallery is not suitable for works above the octavo size, on account of
inconvenience in carriage to and fro.
It has been admitted that in order to secure the vital purpose of
compression with fixed shelving, the rule of arrangement according to
subjects must be traversed partially by division into sizes. This division,
however, need not, as to the bulk of the library, be more than threefold.
The main part would be for octavos. This is becoming more and more
the classical or normal size; so that nowadays the octavo edition is
professionally called the library edition. Then there should be deeper
cases for quarto and folio, and shallower for books below octavo, each
appropriately divided into shelves.
If the economy of time by compression is great, so is the economy of
cost. I think it reasonable to take the charge of provision for books in a
gentleman's house, and in the ordinary manner, at a shilling a volume.
This may vary either way, but it moderately represents, I think, my own
experience, in London residences, of the charge of fitting up with
bookcases, which, if of any considerable size, are often unsuitable for
removal. The cost of the method which I have adopted later in life, and
have here endeavored to explain, need not exceed one penny per
volume. Each bookcase when filled represents, unless in exceptional
cases, nearly a solid mass. The intervals are