ABSTRACT
Collectors, if not totally idiosyncratic in their collecting interests, nevertheless tend to develop idiosyncrasies. A lawyer of my acquaintance collects defense lawyers’ winning statements that are unusually imaginative. Another lawyer collects admonitions to the jury by judges in trials. I have heard of a dentist who amassed a fine collection of 4 ‘five point molars” that he himself had extracted. I know more than one professor who have collections of ingenious responses by students to examination questions. (I have a favorite student answer of my own. Asked to identify Assurbanipal, one of the earliest librarians, the student replied that Assurbanipal was an “association of urban and municipal libraries.” He almost received credit.) But among bookmen and book collectors—and let us add librarians—idiosyncracies seem to reach new heights of both variety and imagination.
