The Library of John Locke

by John Harrison, Peter Laslett

Second edition. An extensive portion of Locke's library was recovered in 1950 along with a master catalogue of the library. This volume describes Locke and his collecting from the 1650's to 1704 and then describes the 3000 volumes owned by Locke. xii, 313 pages. cloth, dust jacket.. tall 8vo..

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1971

About the author

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Reviews

[Alan Johnson]

Although not identified as such, the ISBN number in this entry references the Second Edition, published in 1971. This is the edition (the last one published) that I was able to purchase through an out-of-print vendor listed on Amazon.com in September 2013. For those interested in John Locke's philosophical interests and background, this work is invaluable. I have used it frequently in my research of seventeenth-century intellectual history. Peter Laslett's introductory essay and the scholarly apparatus of the book are excellent. Laslett makes it clear here, and in other writings, that we do not know--and likely will never know--all the books that Locke owned or borrowed; the catalogue printed in this volume is necessarily incomplete. Nevertheless, this is a fascinating introduction to the reading tastes of the man who, perhaps more than any other, influenced Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and many other eighteenth-century American Founders.