author
Henry Stevens
1819–1886
Best known as a sharp-eyed hunter of rare Americana, this Vermont-born bibliographer built a career in London helping major libraries and collectors track down early books and documents. His work mixed scholarship, bookselling, and a real enthusiasm for the history of printing.
1 Audiobook
Thomas Hariot, the Mathematician, the Philosopher and the Scholar
by Henry Stevens
About the author
Born in Barnet, Vermont, on August 24, 1819, he studied at Middlebury for a time, graduated from Yale in 1843, and then trained in law before turning fully toward books. In 1845 he moved to London, where he built a reputation as a rare book dealer and bibliographer with a special command of early American printing and historical documents.
Over the course of his career, he worked with major institutions and collectors, including the British Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, John Carter Brown, and James Lenox. He became especially known as an authority on Americana and on early editions of the English Bible, and many of his writings grew out of catalogues, notes, and reprints tied to the books he handled.
He died in England on February 28, 1886. Remembered as both a practical dealer and a serious book historian, he helped shape important library collections on both sides of the Atlantic and left a lasting mark on the study of rare books.