JOHN BARTLETT. 843 



of the shop was a little room in which Mr. Bartlett took much pride, 

 and he has often been heard to speak with regret of its disappearance 

 after he had ceased his connection with the business. In this place were 

 laid out copies of new books and of foreign periodicals and journals, and 

 the professors in the college were in the habit of frequenting it as a sort 

 of reading room. To this custom Mr. Bartlett no doubt owed much of 

 his close friendship with many of the remarkable men of the time. He 

 was fit to be their associate, being already well acquainted with the best 

 literature and, as a bookseller, a vara avis, for he had actually read the 

 books which he offered for sale, and could speak with authority on their 

 contents. In 1859, however, he disposed of the store to Sever, Allyn, 

 & Francis, and for the next four years was not engaged in business. 

 During the Civil War he served from November, 1862, to July, 1863, as 

 volunteer paymaster in the South Atlantic Squadron. After this he 

 associated himself with the firm of Little, Brown, & Co. in Boston, 

 becoming a partner in that house in February, 1865. Here his chief 

 work consisted in personally dealing with the authors for whom the firm 

 published, but he was also generally recognized as an expert in all 

 matters connected with the actual manufacture of books. He retired on 

 February 1, 1889, in order to be able to devote his time to finishing his 

 Concordance to Shakespeare. 



In these many years of a business career there were three directions 

 in which Mr. Bartlett was particularly active outside of business hours, — 

 in reading, in compiling literary manuals, and in collecting books in two 

 special fields. 



He was an omnivorous reader, and remembered and digested what he 

 read. In 1900 he deposited in the University Library a thick pamphlet 

 entitled by him "A Record of Idle Hours." Herein he wrote thus : 

 "In 1837 I was entered as clerk in a bookstore, and found myself in 

 wandering mazes lost. Without a guide, philosopher, or friend I plunged 

 in, driving through the sea of books like a vessel without pilot or master. 

 My clerical duties were unusually onerous, yet I always found time for 

 study and reading ; and during my active business life of fifty-two years 

 I devoted much time to these purposes. My library was dukedom 

 large enough, with few exceptions, for all my wants. The following is a 

 list of the books which I have read." Then follow about seventeen 

 hundred titles,* in every department of literature, " from grave to gay, 



* In this enumeration, Shakespeare's Works, Scott's Novels, Byron's Poems, and 

 similar titles are counted only as units. 



