Imaginary Books

an “…irresistible conceptual-art installation…”- The New York Times

Lost, Unfinished, and Fictive Works Found Only in Other Books

Part bibliophilic entertainment and part conceptual art installation, Imaginary Books: Lost, Unfinished, and Fictive Works Found Only in Other Books features a collection of books that do not really exist. Curated by Grolier Club member Reid Byers, the exhibition includes approximately 100 books and associated arealia from his collection—all simulacra created with a team of printers, bookbinders, artists, and calligraphers—of lost books that have no surviving example, unwritten books that were planned but left unfinished, and fictive works that exist only in fiction. Highlights of the exhibition include William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Won, the lost sequel to Love’s Labour’s Lost; Ernest Hemingway’s first novel, stolen from his wife’s bag on a French train in 1922; and the Necronomicon, John Dee’s copy of the eldritch grimoire that has been kept sealed in a Wells Fargo strongbox, as a precaution, since the Krickle accident of 1967. An accompanying book will be published by Oak Knoll and Club Fortsas.

The New York Times said:

This irresistible conceptual-art installation displays meticulously constructed simulacra of books that don’t exist — some because they’ve been lost, others because they never did exist. Look for “Love’s Labour’s Won,” Ernest Hemingway’s first novel, and the “Necronomicon.” (Dec. 5-Feb. 15, 2025; Grolier Club) – Will Heinrich, NY Times, Sept 6, 2024.

The Private Library

The third printing is currently available from Oak Knoll Press.

The Private Library was published by Oak Knoll in 2021 and was listed by the Washington Post among the best non-fiction books of the year. Now in its third printing, it is Oak Knoll Press’ all-time best-selling publication.

Praise for the book:

“. . . a major work . . . witty and wise . . . .”
Michael Dirda, Washington Post, 9/29/2021

“After a page or two . . . you are hanging on his every word and enjoying all the asides and the joky tone. The shaggy dog has got into the library. . . .”
A. N. Wilson, Times Literary Supplement, 7/23/2021

“. . . a profusely illustrated, detail-crammed, Latin-strewn and yet remarkably unstuffy book . . . goes to the heart of why physical books continue to beguile us.”
Julie Lazly, The New York Times, 12/24/2021

“This year’s best nonfiction illuminated complicated subjects, deepened our understanding of history and pulled back the curtain on fascinating lives…. Beautifully designed, Byers’s 500-page masterwork lays out how cultures from antiquity to the present created welcoming, comfortable spaces to house books.”
50 notable works of non-fiction, The Washington Post, 11/18/2021

“Reid Byers’ opus magnum on private libraries is everything it says in the title, but above all it is about the ways people contrive to have their books about them…. Byers wears his considerable scholarship lightly… So sprightly and charming is his style that I might call this light reading, were it not that the physical book weighs in at nearly four pounds.”
Jennifer Larson, FABS Journal, Spring, 2022

The Private Library is one of those books that, when you turn the last of its 540 pages, makes you sigh with pleasure. This densely informative, thought-provoking and entertaining volume proves as stimulating an experience as the room it studies and celebrates.”
-William Butts – Manuscripts, Vol. 75, No. 4 (Fall)

“For the bibliophile there is on practically every page something to learn, something to delight and something to amuse.”
Charles Spicer, The Book Collector

“Highly recommended.”
Nicholas A. Basbanes, author of A Gentle Madness

“Excavating deeply into design history, and the ways the past is continuously reinterpreted, can suggest paths to fresh ideas…writer and bibliophile Reid Byers has pored through centuries of evolving concepts….”
Eve Kahn, New York Times, 10/28/2021

“. . . fascinating as well as extremely useful . . . .”
Konstantinos Sp. Staikos, author of The History of the Library in Western Civilization

***** – Goodreads