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Freud's Library
Note on the History of Freud's Library
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The largest remaining part of Freud's personal library is now on display at
20 Maresfield Gardens,
London
In 1938 during the last weeks in Vienna
before emigrating, Freud spent some of his time selecting those volumes he
wished to bring with him to London.
A selection of his library (over 800 titles) he disposed of through book
dealers. It is still not clear upon what basis this selection was made.
Most of this.part of the library was bought by the New York State
Psychiatric Institute and taken to America,
and is now housed in a special collection in the Augustus
C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia
University, New York. A
smaller number was eventually donated to the Library of Congress in Washington
D.C. The remainder, over 1600 titles
plus various offprints and journals, he was able to bring to London
and they surrounded him in his study as they had done in Vienna.
There are some smaller collections of volumes from Freud's library,
elsewhere. Some were found on the second-hand market in Austria
and are now in the Sigmund Freud
Museum, Vienna.
A number remain in private hands.
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Freud lent, gave and exchanged books throughout his life
and few of the volumes he is known to have owned early in life have
survived. Those surviving represent mainly, but not exclusively, the
interests of his mature years. However, he still retained medical and
scientific texts, editions of Darwin,
Charcot, Krafft-Ebing, etc. from his early years.
There is an extensive collection of volumes on archaeology, and all
aspects of the world of antiquity.
Freud's interest in religion and particulaly the history of Moses and
the Jews is well represented, as are figures in the history of art, e.g.
Leonardo da Vinci.
Literature figured largely in Freud's interests, and a complete edition
of the works of Goethe has pride of place. There are also, amonst others,
editions of Shakespeare, Gogol, Balzac and Anatole France.
Once psychoanalysis became established and attracted supporters and
practitioners Freud received a flow of works, often with dedications, from
the followers and admirers.
A small number of volumes contain a bookplate which was given to Freud by a
pupil.
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Freud's bookplate
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Freud Library Catalogue Publication
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Ever since the Museum opened it planned to publish a
catalogue of the personal library of Sigmund Freud, which is of great
interest to academic researchers in many fields of study.
The Museum has now published the catalogue in
collaboration with the German publisher edition diskord. It brings
together information on all known holdings, including those held in the USA
and Vienna as well as those in
private hands. This has been made possible by the collaboration of J. Keith
Davies, Librarian of the Freud Museum
and Professor Dr Gerhard Fichtner, Director Emeritus of the Institute for
the History of Medicine, University
of Tübingen. The catalogue is
in the form of a book with an introductory text in both German and English
and a heavily illustrated CD (in English) with the full catalogue listing.
It is available now from the Freud Museum shop.
Massenpsychologie des Faschismus
with dedication by Wilhelm Reich
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Appeal for information:
It is clear from Freud's writings and correspondence that there are many
volumes he once possessed or had access to which are now "lost",
that is not present in any of the known remaining collections. Some are possibly
in unknown private or institutional collections.
We would like to trace as many of these as possible, in order to publish
the bibliographical data, ownership signature, dedications and any
marginalia.
If you know of any such volumes, please contact the Librarian, Keith Davies.
Photocopies of title page, and pages with signatures, dedications, etc. and
any relevant provenance and authentication information would be gratefully
received.
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Information for Researchers:
That part of Freud's Library housed in Maresfield
Gardens is open to serious
researchers, (usually at post-graduate level and above).
Access to volumes is restricted only by considerations of conservation of
the volumes themselves. (Many volumes are very fragile and in general
researchers are encouraged to seek out volumes elsewhere for general
consultation).
To arrange an appointment, please apply in writing or by e-mail to the Librarian.
Times: Monday to Friday 10.00 am to 4.00pm
Reference Library:
The Museum maintains a research reference library on Freud and the history of
psychoanalysis.
[Click for Research Library and
Catalogue.]
We welcome donations of relevant volumes by authors and publishers so that
the library may be as comprehensive as possible. All donated books are
acknowledged on our listing of New Books.
Use of the reference library is free, but it is not a lending library: books
may only be consulted on-site and by prior appointment.
[Click for more
information on the Research Centre. ]
References to the Library of Sigmund
Freud
20 Maresfield Gardens: A guide to the Freud Museum London. (Section
on "The Library"). London: Serpent's Tail, 1998.
Bakan, David. (1975) The authenticity of the Freud Memorial Collection.
Journal of the history of the behavioral sciences, Oct. 1975, 11(4):
365-7.
Brückner, Peter. (1975) Sigmund Freuds Privatlektüre. Köln: Verlag
Neue Kritik.
Davies, J. K.& Fichtner, G., eds. (2006) Freud’s Library. A Comprehensive Catalogue /
Freud’s Bibliothek. Vollständiger Katalog.
London/Tübingen: Freud Museum London/edition diskord.
Davies, Keith. (1998) Die archäologische Bibliothek Freuds. In: "Meine
alten und dreckigen Götter", Hrsg. Lydia Marinelli. Frankfurt am
Main: Stroemfeld.
Eissler, Kurt R. (1979) Bericht über die sich in den Vereinigten Staaten
befindenden Bücher aus S. Freuds Bibliothek. Jahrbuch der Psychoanalyse,
Bd. XI, pp. 10-50.
Gay, Peter. (1990) Reading
Freud: Explorations and entertainments. New Haven
and London: Yale
Univ. Press.
Gilman, S. et al., eds. (1994) Reading
Freud's reading. New York: New
York Univ.
Press.
Ginsburg, Lawrence. (1997) An "unremembered" book from Freud's
juvenile era. The Annual of Psychoanalysis, vol. 25, pp.
249-260.
Harms, Ernest. (1971) A fragment of Freud's library. Psychoanalytic
Quarterly, vol. XL, no. 3, pp. 491-495.
Holt, Robert. (1988) Freud's adolescent reading. Some possible effects on
his work. In, Paul Stepansky (ed.) Freud: Appraisals and reappraisals,
Hillside, NJ:
The Analytic Press.
Lewis, Nolan D. C.; Landis, Carney (1957) Freud's library. Psychoanalytic
review, vol. 44, pp. 327ff.
Lobner, Hans. (1975) Some additional remarks on Freud's library. Sigmund
Freud House Bulletin, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 18-29.
Sulloway, Frank J. (1979) The dating of Freud's reading of Albert Moll's
Untersuchungen über die Libido sexualis. Appendix D in, Freud, Biologist
of the mind. New York:
Basic Books.
Timms, Edward. (1988) Freud's library and his private reading. In, Freud
in exile: Psychoanalysis and its vicissitudes, E. Timms
and N. Segal (eds.). New Haven
and London: Yale
Univ. Press, pp. 65-79.
Trosman, Harry; Simmons, Roger Dennis. (1973) The Freud library. Journal
of the American Psychoanalytic Association, vol. 21, no. 3, pp.
646-687.
Weiss, Robert J. (1978) Dr Anna Freud, on a visit to P & S, recalls
past of her father's books. Physicians and Surgeons Journal, vol.
23(3).
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