The Wall Street Journal Spotlights Private Library Connecticut Resident and Inventor, Jay Walker

The Walker Library of the History of the Human Imagination, an awe-inspiring library located inside the Ridgefield home of Jay and Eileen Walker was featured in Thursday's Wall Street Journal in a piece titled, “Private Libraries That Inspire”. 

According to the Walker Digital website, the library, constructed in 2002, boasts 3,600 sq. ft. multi-level tiers, “floating” platforms, connecting stairways, glass-paneled bridges, dynamic lighting and music, and specially commissioned artworks that celebrate major achievements in the history of human invention.

“The Walker Library of the History of Human Imagination celebrates humanity’s intellectual and emotional adventure of discovery, learning, and creativity by showcasing thousands of rare books, artworks, maps and manuscripts as well as museum-quality artifacts both modern and ancient,” Walker Digital says.

“It is designed to be intentionally disorienting,” Walker told WSJ writer, Katy McLaughlin.

McLaughlin digs into the passion that fuels some of the world’s most fascinating literary collectors, and examines the arduous task of designing, building and maintaining a library capable of housing some 25,000 collectible books.

Walker’s personal collection is not just for him to enjoy, the WSJ reveals Walker’s philanthropic use of the library for school tours and to help raise funds for local nonprofits.

McLaughlin writes, “The Walker Library of the History of the Human Imagination is a dramatic example of the rarest of residential amenities: A vast, personal, custom-built repository of intellectual stimuli. In the age of the e-reader, it is a status symbol on par with wearing a Patek Philippe watch when the cellphone already tells the time.”

Read the article in its entirety and view images of The Walker Library of the History of the Human Imagination, on The Wall Street Journal online here.

*Images courtesy Walker Digital

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Submitted by Redding, CT

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