Mr. Henry Stevens printed in 1853 his pretty little book entitled _Catalogue of my English Library_, which contains a very useful selection of Standard books. In his Introduction the author writes, "It was my intention in the outset not to exceed 4000 volumes, but little by little the list has increased to 5751 volumes. I have been considerably puzzled to know what titles to strike out in my next impression, being well aware that what is trash to one person is by no means such to another; also that many books of more merit than those admitted have been omitted. You may not think it difficult to strike out twenty authors, and to add twenty better ones in their place, but let me relate to you a parable. I requested twenty men, whose opinions on the Literary Exchange are as good as those of the Barings or the Rothschilds on the Royal, each to expunge twenty authors and to insert twenty others of better standing in their places, promising to exclude in my next impression any author who should receive more than five votes. The result was, as may be supposed, not a single expulsion or addition."
In 1855 Mons. Hector Bossange produced a companion volume, entitled _Ma Bibliothèque Française_. It contains a select list of about 7000 volumes, and is completed with Indexes of Subjects, Authors, and Persons.
For helpful Bibliographical Guides we often have to look to the United States, and we do not look in vain. A most useful Handbook, entitled _The Best Reading_, was published in 1872 by George P. Putman, and the work edited by F.B. Perkins is now in its fourth edition.[2] The books are arranged in an alphabet of subjects, and the titles are short, usually being well within a single line. A very useful system of appraisement of the value of the books is adopted. Thus: _a_, means that the book so marked is considered _the_ book, or as good as any, _at a moderate cost_; _b_ means, in like manner, the best of the more elaborate or costly books on the subject. In the department of FICTION, a more precise classification has been attempted, in which a general idea of the relative importance of the _authors_ is indicated by the use of the letters _a_, _b_, and _c_, and of the relative value of their several works by the asterisks * and **."