January 20th, 2026 – April 18th, 2026
A new exhibition on view at Glickman Library this winter is part conceptual art installation and part bibliophilic entertainment, featuring a collection of books that do not really exist. On view during library hours from January 20 through April 18, Imaginary Books: Lost, Unfinished, and Fictive Works Found Only in Other Books presents an alternative library that encourages speculation on some of the major “what ifs” of bibliographic history.
Curated by Baxter Society member Reid Byers from his unique collection, the exhibition includes more than 100 imaginary books: lost texts that have no surviving example, unfinished books, and fictive works that exist only in story. In this post-structuralist art project, presented with a dry wit, all of the “books” are simulacra meticulously created by Byers with a team of printers, bookbinders, artists, and calligraphers.
Presented jointly by the Baxter Society and the Kate Cheney Chappell ’83 Center for Book Arts, the exhibition will be on view in the seventh floor gallery of the Glickman Library. Highlights include William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labours Won, the lost sequel to Love’s Labour’s Lost,of which no known copies survive; Ernest Hemingway’s first novel, which vanished when his wife’s suitcase was stolen from a train at the Gare de Lyon, Paris, in 1922, never to be recovered; and the Necronomicon, a magical textbook sealed in a strongbox as a precaution. An accompanying book is published by Oak Knoll Press and Le Club Fortsas in Paris.
Lost Books
On view are a wide range of lost books that we know once existed but of which no examples now survive. Some were intentionally destroyed, such as Lord Byron’s memoirs, which he said detailed “the evils, moral and physical, of true dissipation.”
Other works lost, but shown here, are such risqué tales as Sir Richard Burton’s translation of The Scented Garden, which was burned at his death by his wife Isabel. The second book of Aristotle’s On Comedy was lost in the late Middle Ages when the last surviving copy was burned in an Italian monastery in 1327. Other tragic losses include philosopher Pierre Abélard’s Poèmes pour Héloïse and the beautifully bound Poems of Sappho.
Fictive Books
Fictive books exist only in story and never had any physical form of existence whatsoever. Two such books on view, featuring striking purple covers, are The Songs of the Jabberwock, first mentioned in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, with mirror-image writing; and the dark farce The Lady Who Loved Lightning by Clare Quilty, first mentioned by Humbert Humbert in Nabokov’s Lolita. Magical books include The History and Practice of English Magic by Jonathan Strange and The Necronomicon, the most notorious of the Levantine grimoires (or magical textbooks). Mentioned in many works by H.P. Lovecraft, legend claims that its use results in a horrible death at the claws of invisible monsters. Though we know such fears are silly, it has been kept sealed in a strongbox since the Crickle accident in 1968.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, displayed on a tablet using a massive interstellar infrastructure, is a guidebook for the entire universe and the most useful book ever written, even when it is wildly inaccurate.
Visiting The Exhibition
Glickman Family Library, 314 Forest Ave, Portland ME 04103. Exhibitions are open to the public free of charge. 207-780-4270. https://usm.maine.edu/library/
Publication & Programming
A catalogue titled Imaginary Books is available for $65 through Oak Knoll Press. The exhibition will host related free public programs, including lunchtime exhibition tours on Thursdays in February, Fridays in March, and Saturdays in April, all at 1pm, and a special lecture on “Collecting the Imaginary.” Details can be found at http://www.baxtersociety.org.
About the Baxter Society
The Baxter Society was founded in 1984: its object is to advance the quality and diversity of private and public libraries, to promote excellence in the arts pertaining to the history, design, and production of books, and to provide a supportive environment for those interested in the creation, preservation, and collection of books.
President: Bob Macdonald | http://www.baxtersociety.org
About the Kate Cheney Chappell ’83 Center for Book Arts
The Center for Book Arts celebrates the innovative and engaging nature of book arts through lectures and workshops by national and regional book artists, and through exhibits of artists’ books.
Director: Annie Lee-Zimerle | https://usm.maine.edu/book-arts/