Collecting the World

A magnificent scholarly coup and an enthralling read – John Carey * The Sunday Times *A superb biography - human, judicious and as passionately curious as Sloane himself - and a model of how to write a history of collecting – Arnold Hunt * Times Literary Supplement *Robust, thoughtful and elegantly crafted … Not before time, the smart lad from Killyleagh, creator of one of the world’s great civilising resources, has found his ideal chronicler – Jonathan Keates * Spectator *In this fine and erudite book, Delbourgo recovers Sloane from the oblivion into which he has fallen – Ruth Scurr * Financial Times *Approachable yet authoritative … Delbourgo has at last given us a readable and entertaining single-volume account of Sloane’s life and legacy – Michael Hunter * Literary Review *

James Delbourgo was educated at East Anglia, Cambridge and Columbia universities, and previously taught at McGill University, Montreal. In 2008, he became Associate Professor in the History of Science and the Atlantic World at Rutgers - the State University of New Jersey. He has written for the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Atlantic and Cabinet Magazine. His previous books include A Most Amazing Scene of Wonders- Electricity and Enlightenment in Early America (2006), which won the Thomas J. Wilson Memorial Prize. In 2016, he was Visiting Professor of History of Science at Harvard University. Collecting the World won the British Society for the History of Science Hughes Prize (2019), the Annibel Jenkins Biography Prize (2019), the American Historical Association Leo Gershoy Award (2018) and the Louis Gottschalk Prize (2018).

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