PIctured above, the library borrowing card given by the Bibliothèque National, Paris to Walter Benjamin (born 15 July 1892; died 27 September 1940), who would die before the term of the card expired
‘The book borrower… proves himself to be an inveterate collector of books not so much by the fervor with which he guards his borrowed treasures… as by his failure to read these books.’
—from “Unpacking My Library: A Talk about Book Collecting,” in Illuminations (translated from the German by Harry Zohn)
Benjamin’s advice to writers here













