WALTER BENJAMIN on books collecting

"It is widely acknowledged that Walter Benjamin was not only a singu-lar philosopher but also the most important and innovative literary criticand essayist in twentieth-century Germany. What is perhaps less well-known is that Benjamin was an accomplished and passionate bibliophile,collecting everything from German literature (especially Baroque),theology, fairy tales, and antiquarian children’s books. Such a collection:the magic of children’s books alongside the mosaic occultism of thoseBaroque texts and the metaphysics of the theological ones! Benjaminhimself was wont to describe his book acquisitions in unabashedly enthu-siastic and historical terms, as in his 1925 letter to Gershom Scholem,where he describes his “epochal” purchase of Von dem Werder’s 1624text, Der deutsche Tasso von Paris. In the course of Walter Benjamin’s shortand wandering life, books were, along with his Paul Klee painting AngelusNovus, his most beloved possessions. Benjamin referred to his love ofbooks as his “bibliomania.” Even when broke, virtually homeless, and inpoor health, he spent what money he had on books."

[Joseph D. Lewandowski]