The intellectual torch. Developing a plan for the universal dissemination of knowledge and virtue by means of free public libraries.
Woodstock, Vermont: The Elm Tree Press, 1912. 8vo. xxvi, [iv], 43 pp. With frontispiece and 1 plate. Cloth-backed marbled boards. Item #11630
Later edition of this impassioned plea for a public library system. “While our generous Legislatures are imitating the policy of European Monarchies, by making liberal appropriations for enlightening the few, by the endowment of Colleges and Universities, would not the many...cordially cherish a policy, calculated, at the same time, to diffuse a small portion of the accumulated treasures of intellectual light of the present ear, amongst themselves and their own children.” This work is number three in The Librarian’s Series, edited by John Cotton Dana and Henry W. Kent. Torrey (1787- c.1834) was a Philadelphia physician best known for his work A portraiture of domestic slavery in the United States, compiled from a collection of interviews, narratives and his own first-hand observations. He was a great advocate of libraries, and founder of the Free Juvenile Library in New Lebanon.
Price: $40.00