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Media Credit: Laura Bitner Prof. Richard Macksey's book collection has drawn the attention of many publications, from Baltimore publications to Style.

There are few sights on the East Coast as impressive as Professor Richard Macksey's library.

The 75,000-volume collection in his Guilford home is the subject of a documentary to be released this summer, and it has been recognized by sources as variable as Johns Hopkins Magazine, Baltimore publications and Style. It made Macksey laugh to recall it, saying that he had been surprised to be featured in a magazine he associated with home remodeling. His house was used for a story on libraries and architecture.

"Collecting is a pathological thing," Macksey said, sitting in a big chair in his library and smoking his pipe with deliberation. Any question that the professor was asked invariably turned into an epic story.

Recounting how his collection got started, he began with a description of his childhood in New Jersey, when he would take the trolley into town with a few coins to get lunch and a book. The first novel he bought for what would become an immense collection was Henry James's debut novel, Roderick Hudson.

"Some people have a focused idea of what they want to collect. Focus has never been my strong suit. You know, [books] bring people together and you share them. It's not a totally benign vice, but it's not the worst vice either. " Macksey said he has even collected bad poetry, as well as things he really likes, and describes himself as a pack rat.

Some of his volumes are very rare, such as first editions of Tristam Shandy, books inscribed by their authors, and correspondences of authors as varied as Henry James and W.B. Yeats. He has some duplicate volumes, which includes in his collection Coleridge; authors like Coleridge constantly revised their work and published different editions of their works in their lifetimes, as well as different editions which were released posthumously.

When asked what he wishes he had more of, Proust comes up as a favorite author Macksey seems to want to collect forever. He also loves biographies and said that they often get his attention when he least expects it.

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