Who was the Sexiest Librarian to Ever Live

All right, all right, I mean the second sexiest librarian to ever live.

As everyone knows librarianship is one of the hottest and sexiest professions in history. Popular culture is awash in librarian fashion accessories (like the ever popular librarian glasses), images of irresistible librarians and even using the librarian mystique to sell products.

Books and those who care for them have always had a special place in society. They were often priests, scholars or imperial officials. Then in 1966 in a journal article from Psychoanalyst Dr. Norman S. Weiner wrote an article called “The Bibliomaniac.” He described a bibliomaniac as a person “with an inordinate desire” for books “who will “pursue a volume in an active or seductive way; he will use intrigue and stealth; he will hazard his fortune and he will journey around the world, or even marry for the gain of a coveted book.” At first it almost sounds like an addiction, but as the article goes on it sounds more like an obsessive compulsive disorder. “Bibliomania is a problem solving complex of activity that relieves anxiety or directly gratifies certain instinctual drives.” “The book is a talisman for its owner but it is a temporary and fleeting passion.” Then in an interesting twist Dr. Weiner compares the disorder with a “hyper sexual male hysteric who must constantly reassure himself he has not been castrated”

Now there are a lot of people who collect and like books however, it is unlikely that they fit that last description. Interestingly though the author points out that our famously sexy librarian settled down after his legendary amorous adventures and became a librarian. He worked (or hid out) as a librarian in the castle of Count Waldstein at Dux in Bohemia for thirteen years until his death in 1798. Who was he?

Giacomo Casanova (1725 – 1798)

For an excellent read on the subject of peoples’ passion for books get a copy of A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books by Nicholas A. Basbanes.

	R. Philip Reynolds preynolds@sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy/Religion, Political Science/Geography