Amor Towles’ Library is home to beautiful first editions and hints to his iconic career as an author.
Nestled near Gramercy Park in Manhattan, best-selling author Amor Towles lives with his family in a Victorian townhouse with elegant touches from bygone eras. Marble fireplaces, french doors, and antique furniture adorn the home fitting for a writer who loves the past.
The whole house is a sight to behold, but the real gem is his library. Lined with hints of his own work and priceless first editions, Towles’s library is a reader’s dream.
Lifetime Book Lover
With an undergraduate degree in literature from Yale and a Master of Arts in English from Stanford, Towles has a deep understanding and long history with books and writing. In a story told to the Washington Post, Towles shares that while at Yale, he received a list of 100 obscure works of writing from visiting lecturer Walter Abish. From then on, any time Towles was in a bookstore, he’d search for the books and cross them off the list one at a time. The collection took hold and was the beginning of a beautiful home library.
Around the time of his 40th birthday, Towles realized that his time to read everything was limited, so he better become choosier with his reading list. With the encouragement of fellow novelist and friend Ann Brashares, Towles gathers with a small group of friends for book club. They started with Proust and mostly focused on dead writers, diving into the material with lengthy discussions and group projects.
Career Insights
Hidden amongst the shelves of his library are hints of Towles’s writing career. Here is where the self-described “design books” live. These are full notebooks of notes and ideas that inspired some of Towles’s greatest works. There are also shelves full of vintage reference and guidebooks on cities featured in his novels, like one featuring the Metropol Hotel, the main setting for “A Gentleman in Moscow.”
Aside from books, there are mementos scattered throughout the library. On the fireplace mantel, there sits barware and recipes for a Sidecar or a Metropolitan, both featured cocktails for his character in “Rules of Civility.”
A Home for Ideas
One bookshelf has grouped some of history’s greatest thinkers. Here you’ll find the works of Freud, Marx, Augustine, and Nietzsche, among others. Towles refers to these as the “big ideas,” which help him reconcile his being both a reader and a writer.
To the Washington Post Towles shared, “What these things have in common for me is that [their authors] had to invent a new language to express their discovery. They weren’t doing the new version of something or doing a ‘spin’ on so and so. [Freud’s] ‘Interpretation of Dreams’ is a totally radical, weird book.”
Finer First Editions
As any self-respecting book collector would, Towles has a healthy collection of first editions and rare books in his library. There are first editions from many of the greats: Hemingway, Faulkner, Thoreau, and Emily Dickinson. There are also several editions of Proust and a signed copy of Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize lecture.
His rarest find? A first edition of Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” once owned by Dorothy Ann Scarritt, secretary to J. Robert Oppenheimer.
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Carley Bishop
Carley is an editorial lifestyle writer and aspiring novelist. She is based in North Carolina where she resides with her husband and their puppy, Daisy, and is a proud graduate of University of South Carolina. Carley is a lifelong bookworm who enjoys reading everything from the classics to modern romances. When she's not reading or writing, she enjoys traveling, getting outside and trying new recipes at home.
