This study interprets the history of book collecting in America from the point of view of the collectors of the late 19th and early 20th century, the 'Golden Age' of collecting. It examines how, what, and most importantly why they collected, and how they read and interacted with their collectibles. It also incorporates an analysis with larger cultural occurrences related to the decline of Victorianism, modernization, the reaction by the American gentry, and rise of mass, consumer culture.

This first examination of the trade in erotica during the 1920s and '30s provides an understanding of the evolution of both obscenity law and sexual explicitness in literature, and raises fascinating questions about moral control, idealism, and the marketplace in ways that continue to resonate today.