Having spent a week indulging the collector in me, I’ve returned newly sensitized to the issues behind being bit by the collecting bug. Strangely enough, there are few books that really explore the motivations and psychology behind collecting. While a collector may wax eloquent about his or her objects of desire, that person is often tongue-tied when it comes to explaining just why they had to acquire those items.

A number of the main articles in Art & Antiques and ArtNews often include interviews with wealthy collectors of the fine arts. Yet I’ve usually found that their acquisition motivations were fairly predictable, and undoubtedly not the whole (and more interesting) story. My excursions to the Popular Culture Association’s Collectibles section talks led me to more intriguing individuals: the collector of virtual reality games, Texas’s Dr. Pepper collectible fanatics, and the person planning to open a museum with a comprehensive collection of barbed wire. And let’s not forget the many, many people who enjoy collecting vintage fashions and accessories.

The literature on collecting is actually pretty amusing. You can find a number of titles in the NYPL that purport to “explain” collecting. Some are from the 1920s, like The Amateur collector; everybody’s book on collecting (1924), and a surprisingly large number of books on collecting date from the 1950s. For a more modern, realistic take on collector pathology, you can look at Hugo Munsterberg’s Collecting: an unruly passion. The magic of auctions is well scribed by John L. Marion, of Sotheby’s fame, in his The Best of Everything: the insider’s guide to collecting-for every taste and every budget.

Yet even with these publications, an overarching question remains. Why has collecting become so important in our contemporary pop culture? Surely consumerism isn’t reason enough…is it? P.S. Rest in peace, Mr. Blackwell. Your rhymes were a sort of inspiration to me. Do others feel as I do that Richard Blackwell’s often scathing remarks were made actually because he really did care so much about fashion?