Alex Johnson – Interesting Literature

In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle enjoys Alex Johnson’s new compendium of writers’ loyal furry and feathered friends

When Percy Shelley visited Byron in Ravenna, he found the Don Juan author at home with ‘ten horses, eight enormous dogs, three monkeys, five cats, an eagle, a crow, and a falcon; and all these, except the horses, walk about the house, which every now and then resounds with their unarbitrated quarrels, as if they were the masters of it.’ Shelley goes on to note that on Byron’s staircase he encountered five peacocks, two guinea hens, and an Egyptian crane.

Byron, of course, is the poet who kept a pet bear, Bruin, in his rooms at Cambridge while he was a student there (because the college authorities forbade the keeping of a dog). When Byron arrived with the bear at Cambridge, and ‘they asked me what to do with him … my reply was he should sit for a fellowship.’

In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle delves into a range of fascinating literary lists courtesy of Alex Johnson’s new book

There is something comforting in a list. The human mind craves order amidst chaos: the inventor of the modern thesaurus (and the one who first gave a book of synonyms that name), Peter Mark Roget, began to compile the book that is now synonymous with his name as a way of coping with depression and personal tragedy. Lists can also offer guidance, of course. It was John Aikin who said, ‘To choose a good book, look in an inquisitor’s prohibited list.’ And book lists can be of great service to the bibliophile.

I’m not talking so much about chart lists such as the New York Times Bestseller List or the Amazon charts, but something more timeless and enduring. Which is why Alex Johnson’s A Book of Book Lists: A Bibliophile’s Compendium(British Library) makes for such informative and enjoyable reading. As he announces in his brief introduction, A Book of Book Lists is not a ‘1,001 Books You MUST Read Before You’re 40’ kind of book. Instead,

An Author’s Best Friend? Famous Writers and Their Pets

Review: Alex Johnson, A Book of Book Lists