About
Reid Byers is a longtime celebrant of the private library. He has been a Presbyterian minister, a C language programmer, and a Master IT Architect with IBM. The writing of his book, The Private Library, a procès de longue durée, has itself extended through part of the history it describes and has been equally divided between Princeton, New Jersey, and the Blue Mountains of Maine.
Featured Work
The Private Library: The History of the Architecture and Furnishing of the Domestic Bookroom
The Private Library is the domestic bookroom: that quiet, book-wrapt space that guarantees its owner that there is at least one place in the world where it is possible to be happy. The history of its architecture and furnishing extends back almost to the beginning of history and forward toward a future that is in equal parts amazing and alarming.
In this book, Mr. Byers examines with a sardonic eye the historical influences that have shaped the architecture of the private library, and the furnishings, amenities, and delightful anachronisms that make the mortal room into what Borges so famously called Paradise.
Other Works
Awards and Recognition
- The Private Library rated among the Top 50 Non-Fiction books of 2021. The Washington Post rated The Private Library among the top 50 nonfiction books of 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
Press and Media Mentions
- “. . . a major work . . . witty and wise . . . .” –Michael Dirda, Washington Post, 9/29/2021
- "... 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 Lasky, The New York Times 12/25/21
- If you dream of building a library in a private house, buy this unusual book... For the bibliophile there is on practically every page something to learn, something to delight and something to amuse. - Charles Spicer, The Book Collector, Winter 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
- “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
- "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
- "Highly recommended." -Nicholas A. Basbanes
- "A fascinating as well as extremely useful and well-documented study. . . I believe it must become a companion to all book and library historians, as well as scholars of humanistic disciplines overall." - Konstantinos Staikos
