It is interesting to me that Sturgis did not cause a new building. Instead, this homestead was purchased intentionally for the library.
When books were purchased with William Sturgis’s endowment, each one was painstakingly hand-entered into a ledger, which, by number, spelled out the author, the title, the place and year of publication, the place from which the volume came (whether it was a donation or an outright purchase) and the cost. In each book, the Library placed a beautiful bookplate, hand-numbered and hand-dated. It mattered to the library that there be a record of when each book was purchased, and in what order.
After poking around a bit with the Library Director, Lucy Loomis, we re-discovered the earliest record of Sturgis’s acquisitions — a leather-bound quarto, the spine separated from the binding, containing ruled pages filled with these inked records. What a find! Now I could surmise — or perhaps imagine — what was in the minds of the people who were entrusted with Sturgis’s small fortune and commissioned to convert commercial paper wealth into food for the imagination.
I always thought that the library began with a donation of books from the estate of William Sturgis, and it’s true that he did give bequeath 1,300 books to the new collection, but these were not the first books officially received or entered into the library’s acquisitions ledger.
The Sturgis Free Library’s first trustees were personally selected by William Sturgis: Samuel Hooper, Lemuel Shaw, and Edward W. Hooper. Their first purchase for the library was the 8th Edition of the Encyclopaedia Brittannica. There was always a strong Anglophile thrust in the early Sturgis acquisitions, and the Brittanica was (and still is) the nec plus ultra compendium of useful information in the English language. This purchase was followed quickly by the New American Cyclopaedia and the American Annual Cyclopaedia, pale cousins of their British counterpart.
The third acquisition listed was another safe choice — a current 1865 edition of Noah Webster’s American Dictionary. This was quickly followed by two atlases: Colton’s General Atlas, and Black’s General Atlas. Founded by an adventurer/entrepreneur and being on the East coast and physically sited among sea captains’ houses, the Sturgis Library immediately took a stand beyond regional parochialism and reached out for knowledge about the rest of the world.
Having made basic purchases in general knowledge, geography, and linguistics, it was time to feed the mind and the spirit. The Sturgis trustees chose the Works of William Shakespeare as their seventh acquisition.
The 8th and 9th choices, I think, were more motivated by personal passion than as choices for the commonweal. The trustees acquired the three-volume Naval Biographical Dictionary, published in London, 1849, by William R. O’Byrne. This was a huge compendium of the lives of every living officer — some 5,000 or so — still serving in Her Majesty’s Navy in 1845.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Francesco Colonna. Hypnerotomachie, Paris, 1546, Parisian calf by Wotton Binder C for Marcus Fugger. €200,000 to €300,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Nausea. De principiis dialectices Gorgias, and other works, Venice, 1523, morocco gilt for Cardinal Campeggio. €3,000 to €4,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Billon. Le fort inexpugnable de l'honneur, Paris, 1555, Parisian calf gilt for Peter Ernst, Graf von Mansfeld. €120,000 to €180,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Salinger, J.D. The Graham Family archive, including autographed letters, an inscribed Catcher, a rare studio photograph of the author, and more. $120,000 to $180,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of Sense and Sensibility, the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Massachusetts General Court. A powerful precursor to the Declaration of Independence: "every Act of Government … without the Consent of the People, is … Tyranny." $40,000 to $60,000.
Heritage Auctions Rare Books Signature Auction December 15, 2025
Heritage, Dec. 15: John Donne. Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death. London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
Heritage, Dec. 15: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night. A Romance.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
![<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 16:</b> [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of <i>Sense and Sensibility,</i> the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/9a74d9ff-42dd-46a1-8bb2-b636c4cec796.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 16:</b> [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of <i>Sense and Sensibility,</i> the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.")
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
