Rare Book Monthly

Articles - October - 2019 Issue

What Type of Books Does Gwyneth Paltrow collect?

An example of what can be done with book jackets (from Juniper Books' Facebook page).

An example of what can be done with book jackets (from Juniper Books' Facebook page).

In a time when the role of books in society is in a state of flux, it is always reassuring to learn that a celebrated, well-known person is a book collector. What could be better than a famous actress, superbly talented, beautiful, and a household name, a star many times over? Such describes Gwyneth Paltrow, extraordinary actress, book collector. However, she is not your traditional book collector and this may make some uncomfortable. She is more of a sort of collector we have seen develop in this century, focused on aspects of books other than edition, age, rarity, or any of those factors that usually lead book collectors to pay crazy amounts of money for a particular copy.

 

We learned about Ms. Paltrow's collecting courtesy of Town & Country magazine. They did not interview the collector herself, but rather, her curator, Thatcher Wine. Mr. Wine founded Juniper Books in 2001. It's not a typical book store. Instead, it offers all sorts of services to collectors beyond simply selling books. They will provide specialty covers or jackets to suit your taste, perhaps following a color or fabric scheme. They specialize in helping form collections, but not so much finding first editions as in finding books that fit a collector's personality. For example, rather than building a collection around a specific author or subject, they build one that describes who the collector is. There is no expectation that the owner will ever actually read the books, but perhaps one could say if they did decide to read some books, these would be ones they would likely select. As Wine told Town & Country, "they are a reflection of where you’ve been and where you want to go."

 

While choosing books by color or for specialty dust jackets may seem odd, people choose other features of their homes based on look, such as paint, cabinets, rugs. Why not their books? As Thatcher Wine explains, "someone can have the complete works of Jane Austen, but in a certain Pantone chip color that matches the rest of the room or with a custom image...Why settle for books that a publisher designed?"

 

So, what sort of a collection did Wine develop for Gwyneth Paltrow? He explains that when she moved into her home a few years ago, she discovered she needed another 500 or 600 books to fill her shelves. Wine looked at her existing collection and determined her interests were focused on art, fashion, culture, photography and architecture. She also wanted books her children would like, so some children's classics they might want to read as they grow older were included. For the family room, he integrated books into her collection that "felt very light, inviting, and easy to grab off the shelves." For the dining room, he selected "a more rigid color palette of black, white and gray," since that is a room in which they are less likely to be pulling books off the shelves to read.

 

Looking at books this way is not without controversy, even derision. It can be seen as an offshoot of "books by the foot," something which Juniper also offers. That is where someone orders ten feet of red books and five feet of blue books to fill their shelves. They have no idea what books they are getting nor do they care. They will never be read or even opened. The owner simply wants to see red and blue on the shelves. It can make people who see books as fountains of knowledge and wisdom cringe. Similarly, there is the current fashionable style of putting books on the shelves backwards, that is, with their fore-edges exposed rather than their spines. Obviously, these won't be read since you can't even tell what is the title of any book.

 

But, is it really fair to criticize the use of books this way because it ignores what many of us think is the purpose of books? Is this really a new phenomenon, or a new iteration of something that goes back almost as far as books themselves? Some early collectors commissioned magnificent bindings for their books. Jean Grolier, the 16th century collector for whom America's oldest and largest bibliophile society is named, is not renowned for his selection of the texts he collected. It's for his beautiful bindings. The fine press movement is not noted for its extraordinary texts either, but for beautiful books. Collectors are not paying $50,000 or more for a Kelmscott Chaucer because William Morris' edition of Canterbury Tales is easier to understand than other editions. It is just as incomprehensible to English-speaking readers as a $10 used copy. What, exactly, is the difference? While Gwyneth Paltrow may make her selections for different reasons than I would, she is still a book collector, and I'll bet her shelves look nicer than mine, and nicer than they would if lined with electronic readers and tablet computers. And, what's more, she just may turn her children into book readers along the way.


Posted On: 2019-10-01 15:42
User Name: rtreed

There used to be a café attached to the Museum of Sex here in NYC. It was lined with books, all of which were given plain brown dust-jackets — a gimmick, but an effective one. On any given day, about a quarter of the people there were reading from the library. There were mysteries, and gardening books, but most of the books were about sex, a pretty fascinating topic, which many people are remarkably ignorant about.
My point is that switching up the dust-jackets and covers can enhance, or obscure, meanings and purposes of a book.


Rare Book Monthly

  • DOYLERare Books, Autographs & MapsJuly 23, 2025 DOYLERare Books, Autographs & MapsJuly 23, 2025
    DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
  • Freeman’s | HindmanWestern Manuscripts and MiniaturesJuly 8, 2025 Freeman’s | HindmanWestern Manuscripts and MiniaturesJuly 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
  • Forum AuctionsFine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper  17th July 2025 Forum AuctionsFine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper  17th July 2025
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
  • Sotheby’sBooks, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to ModernNow through July 10, 2025 Sotheby’sBooks, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to ModernNow through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly! Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
    Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
    Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!

Article Search

Archived Articles