New at IWP Articles: If My Library Burned Tonight (1947) by Aldous Huxley.

If my library burned down… fortunately for me, it never has. But I have moved house sufficiently often and I have had enough book-borrowing friends to be able to form a pretty good idea of the nature of the catastrophe. To enter the shell of a well-loved room and to find it empty, except for a thick carpet of ashes that were once one’s favorite literature – the very thought of it is depressing. But happily books are replaceable – at any rate the kind of books that fill the shelves of my library. For I lack the collector’s spirit and have never been interested in first editions and rare antiquities. It is only about the contents of a book that I care, not its shape, its date, or the number on its flyleaves. Fire, friends, and changes of residence can never rob one of anything that cannot, like Job’s children, camels, and she-asses, be restored in fullest measure.