Auguste Lesouëf

Description

Auguste Lesouëf (1829-1906) was born in Paris into a family of merchants. His grandfather sold silk and his father gold and silver. Although his father encouraged him from his youth to follow in his footsteps, Auguste's true passion was for the humanities: art, poetry, Latin, etc. He shared with his uncle, who was a great traveler, his fondness for discovering new cultures. This made him interested in the Orient, especially in China and Japan. He was a great bibliophile (Champion, 1930) and during his lifetime he collected some 18,000 works. In 1906 he bequeathed his collection to his sister and nieces (Mouton, 1926; Duhau, 2006).

Bibliography

• CHAMPION, Pierre (1930): Inventaire sommaire des manuscrits anciens de la Bibliothèque Smith-Lesouëf à Nogent-sur-Marne, J. Dumoulin, París.
• DUHAU, Isabelle (2006): "La bibliothèque Smith-Lesouëf à Nogent-sur-Marne, une fondation bien particulière", nº 11, Livraisons d'histoire de l'architecture, pp. 33-50.
• MOUTON, Léo (1926): "La Fondation Smith-Lesouef et sa bibliothèque", nº 36, Revue des Bibliothèques, pp. 193-197.