A wonderful piece from Donald Kerr, Special Collections Librarian,University of Otago which as he said to me is too good not to share:

A little light relief reading, taken from Alberto Manguel's The Library at Night (2006), pp. 282-283.
Colette, in one of her books of memoirs with which she delighted in scandalizing her readers in the 30s and 40s, tells the story of imaginary catalogues compiled by her friend Paul Masson, an ex-colonial magistrate who worked at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France. (Masson was an eccentric, who ended his life by standing on the edge of the Rhine, stuffing cotton wool soaked in ether up his nose and, after losing consciousness, drowning in barely a foot of water.) According to Colette, Masson would visit her at her seaside villa and pull from his pockets a portable desktop, a fountain pen and a small pack of blank cards.

"What are you doing? She asked him one day.

"I am working." "I am working at my job. I've been appointed to the catalogue section of the Bibliotheque Nationale. I'm making an inventory of titles."

"Oh, can you do that from memory", Colette asked.

"From memory?" replied Masson. "What would be the merit? I'm doing better. I've realized that the Nationale is poor in Latin and Italian books from the fifteenth century. Until chance and erudition fill the gaps, I am listing the titles of extremely interesting works that should have been written. At least these titles may save the prestige of the catalogue."

"But if the books don't exist.?" asked Colette.

"Well," Masson answered with a frivolous gesture, "I can't be expected to do everything!"

Dr. Donald Kerr, F.L.S.
Special Collections Librarian
University of Otago
P.O. Box 56
Dunedin, New Zealand
Phone: (03) 479-8330
Email: donald.kerr@otago.ac.nz

Current Exhibition:
'I sat down in the evening to read...'. Books from the Library of Charles Brasch, Poet, 1909-1973.
13 July to 23 October 2009