First edition. David Hume, well-known as a philosopher and historian, was also an avid reader and collector of books. Unfortunately, no catalogue of his library survives. The Nortons have traced the path of Hume's books to his brother and sister, then to his nephew, David Hume the Younger (later Baron Hume), and, finally, to Thomas Stevenson, an Edinburgh bookseller.
Working from manuscript sources, including an 1840 catalogue of Baron Hume's library, as well as letters to Hume, the authors identify several hundred titles that belonged, or probably belonged, to Hume. Included among these are corrected copies of Hume's own works; a wide range of items presented to him by such friends or acquaintances as Buffon, Burke, D'Alembert, Diderot, Gibbon, D'Holbach, Price, Priestly, Rousseau, Adam Smith, and Horace Walpole; and many now obscure works that may have helped to form the views of one of Britain's most important writers.
