John Roland Abbey

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John Roland Abbey (November 23, 1894 – December 24, 1969) was the greatest English book collector of his time, born in Horsham, Sussex. He served in World War I, and was at one point hospitalised for a longer period after being gassed. Abbey also served in World War II.

After WWI he started working in his family brewery business, and took over after his father’s death in 1943. He sold the business in 1954. In 1929 Abbey started buying books, initially from the modern private presses, but eventually moving onto antiquarian volumes. In 1946 he started collecting medieval illuminated manuscripts. He died in London on 24 December 1969. Apart from a few books that had already been sold off or donated, the collection was sold after his death, for a total of £993,509.

[edit] Reference

  • Anthony Hobson, "Abbey, John Roland (1894–1969)", rev., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [1] (accessed 19 March 2007)
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