{"id":15803,"date":"2020-09-23T07:35:49","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T07:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/?p=15803"},"modified":"2021-05-11T22:48:56","modified_gmt":"2021-05-11T22:48:56","slug":"the-nomadic-book-collector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/2020\/09\/23\/the-nomadic-book-collector\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nomadic Book Collector"},"content":{"rendered":"

Article by Allison Ebner | Photos courtesy of Edward Benner<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the first in a series of articles highlighting the winners of the second annual Seth Trotter Book Collecting Contest<\/a>, hosted by the Friends of the University of Delaware Library. <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Edward Benner will be the first to tell you it\u2019s \u201cvery rare\u201d for someone to make a second trip to a bookstore with him. With no less than six active book collections, his weekly trips to bookstores are especially time consuming as he moves section to section in a state of sensory overload.<\/p>\n

Edward, a senior studying English education, collects books of and on poetry, art and music, environmental literature, existential philosophy, and spirituality and religion. His largest and most nuanced collection focuses on the works of musician, author and poet Patti Smith and her influences and inspirations.<\/p>\n

Collecting, it turns out, is in his blood. Growing up, Edward spent his time in flea markets, thrift stores and antique shops with his father, who is an avid collector of American military artifacts. While Edward wasn\u2019t interested in military items, over time, he developed his own collecting interests, including books, photographs and vinyl records.<\/p>\n

This experience growing up turned collecting into a meaningful activity. For each item, Edward has a memory of how, where and when he acquired it.<\/p>\n

\"A

Another view of Edward’s packed bookshelves.<\/p><\/div>\n

His childhood experience also instilled in him a love for used items. \u201cI love it if there is some mark left on a book by either time or an individual who previously owned it,\u201d Edward said. \u201cWhile it is an object, you get so many elements of life within it.\u201d A curled or dog-eared page, a note in the margins, a makeshift bookmark like an airplane ticket or park permit\u2014these all represent the connection or interaction someone had with the book. (Edward even found a sonogram stuck in between the pages of a book once.) \u201cWhen you get these little glimpses and snippets of life experience, it makes you feel that human connection. You\u2019re sharing words, but you\u2019re also sharing something deeper.\u201d Edward continued.<\/p>\n

This sense of shared experience is exemplified in Edward\u2019s Patti Smith collection.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made a vow to actively procure used copies of books for my budding collection and to do so by traveling to independent bookstores,\u201d Edward explained. \u201cI value recreating the spirit of Patti Smith by embracing chance encounters and revealing mysteries of the pages at destined moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edward can easily list off his moments and memories of discovery for each title in the collection\u2014discovering a copy of Roberto Bola\u00f1o\u2019s 2666<\/em> just before a poetry reading in Philadelphia; finding a ripped paperback copy of J.D. Salinger\u2019s Nine Stories<\/em> while out with his little sisters; or stumbling upon a copy of Albert Camus\u2019 A Happy Death<\/em> while reuniting with a friend in Baltimore.<\/p>\n

Of course, his literary meet-cute with Smith has a similarly rich story attached to it. About three years ago, Edward became fascinated with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, seeking out all he could about the artist\u2019s life and work. Smith was Mapplethorpe\u2019s partner and muse in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and wrote a book, Just Kids<\/em>, about their time together. As Edward read Smith\u2019s book, he felt connected, inspired and understood.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmith\u2019s voice and whimsical personality appealed and spoke to my sense of longing and constant searching for spiritual, literary and personal fulfillment as no one else had or could,\u201d Edward said. \u201cBefore I was halfway through Just Kids<\/em>, I knew in my heart that I had discovered my favorite author.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the book that inspired Edward\u2019s collection was Smith\u2019s second memoir, M Train<\/em>. The memoir\u2014one of the most important books to make an impression on Edward\u2014follows Smith as she travels from one cafe to the next, visiting significant locations of artists and writers as part of her creative process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of literary references in Smith\u2019s work is staggering,\u201d Edward said. \u201cThe admiration of and relationship with the authors and works Smith references is so convincing that I felt wholly compelled to acquire and read them for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several of these references pointed directly to many of Edward\u2019s biggest literary influences\u2014Albert Camus, William Blake and Herman Melville\u2014which made Smith feel like a kindred spirit.<\/p>\n

\"A

A closer look at some of the titles in Edward’s collection on Patti Smith and her influences and inspirations.<\/p><\/div>\n

And thus, his collection was born. While Smith\u2019s influences and references led Edward to authors he was more familiar with, like William Shakespeare and Emily Bront\u00eb, they also ushered him into new territory with figures like Japanese writer Haruki Murakami and French poet Arthur Rimbaud.<\/p>\n

But Edward\u2019s collection isn\u2019t just a list of Smith\u2019s influences\u2014it is an embodiment of her nomadic spirit as he searches bookstore after bookstore for further insight and inspiration.<\/p>\n

This past January, Edward took a solo trip abroad while working on his poetry to see a retrospective of William Blake at the Tate Britain. As he traveled through London, Dublin and Edinburgh, bookshops were a common stopping point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent two weeks walking from morning until night, getting lost in art museums, haunting cafes, writing incessantly, and stepping foot into, quite literally, every bookstore I encountered\u2014all in the vein of Patti Smith,\u201d Edward recalled. \u201cFrom my simultaneous loneliness, excitement and creative fervor, I felt closer to her than I had before.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he wandered abroad, he found a number of titles for his collection he hadn\u2019t been able to locate stateside, including a used copy of Our Lady of the Flowers<\/em> by Jean Genet, Smith\u2019s favorite author.<\/p>\n

Along with these sought-after additions to his collection, the focus on William Blake\u2014a major inspiration for both Edward and Smith\u2014made the trip that much more poignant. While the Blake exhibition made Edward feel more connected with Smith, it also provided him a shared experience with so many others in the museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was able to take my eyes off of Blake\u2019s work and look up from my notebook, I realized that so many others were having the same powerful experience,\u201d Edward said. \u201cThere were more people jotting down and writing than I had ever seen in a museum before. There was just a sort of reverence in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Edward, these shared experiences rest at the heart of collecting. \u201cTo me, the purpose of collecting is making meaning and gaining insight for oneself by the appreciation and admiration of works written and owned by others\u2014connecting experiences and history into a shared, breathing understanding,\u201d Edward explained.<\/p>\n

While collecting fosters a unique set of shared experiences, it is also deeply personal.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach acquisition for my collection has brought me fulfillment and happiness, tying the experience of finding them with the books themselves,\u201d Edward said. \u201cThe tying of words, memories and inspirations allows me to learn more about my favorite author while learning about myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Edward collects and reads the works that have inspired his own favorite author, he not only expands his own realm of influences and exploration of literary history, but he can better understand why and what about her writing connects and resonates so deeply with him.<\/p>\n

With a collection that is constantly growing, it\u2019s a journey that will continue forever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Article by Allison Ebner | Photos courtesy of Edward Benner This is the first in a series of articles highlighting the winners of the second annual Seth Trotter Book Collecting Contest, hosted by the Friends of the University of Delaware …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":15805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 03:01:49","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15803"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15803"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16045,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15803\/revisions\/16045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}