Originally published in 1958, and based on The Sandars Lectures for 1957, this volume provides a historical study of the library belonging to eighteenth-century man of letters Horace Walpole (1717-1797). The book is divided into three chapters: the first focuses on the library itself; the second on Walpole"s reading; the third on the dispersal of the library following Walpole"s death. This is a highly informative text, containing numerous illustrative examples, that will be of value to anyone with an interest in bibliography and eighteenth-century British history.