Yes, the moon rock is all well and good, but...

January 23, 2021 7:19 AM

Does anyone know what the books on the bookshelf in the Oval Office are?

So I've been hearing a lot about the (much-needed) changes Biden has made to the decor and art in the Oval Office, but I cannot find a list of the books that are in the bookshelf with the moon rock. That's it, that's the question, really. Apologies for the lack of photo, but I'm on mobile. Does anyone know what's in that shelf, apart from, presumably, a copy of the Constitution?

posted by Tamanna to Grab Bag (9 answers total)

Looking at the pictures here, the dark blue volumes seem to be Writings of Washington (similar set partially pictured here.) I can't make out enough of the writing on the other ones to guess.
posted by needs more cowbell at 8:12 AM on January 23, 2021

The blue ones on the 2nd and 4th shelves are The Writings of Washington, volumes 20-30.
posted by aniola at 8:13 AM on January 23, 2021

Zooming in, The red ones on the 3rd shelf are American Works.
posted by aniola at 8:15 AM on January 23, 2021

This is the biggest copy of the first one I linked to that I could find (thanks, Tin Eye!), but I couldn't figure out the titles on the first shelf from a zoom in.
posted by aniola at 8:25 AM on January 23, 2021

I think the red books may say "Hawthorne's Works" - I can make out what looks like the W and the T, and an apostrophe S, on a few. It seems that is what some old collections of Nathaniel Hawthorne's work were titled, though I can't find any with the exact same spine decoration.
posted by needs more cowbell at 8:27 AM on January 23, 2021 [1 favorite]

Yup, whoops, not American Works. It looks like Hawthorne's Works might be from around the 1880s.

- tiny google result of a dead ebay page for 1884 hawthorne's works
- similar but not identical 1882 set
posted by aniola at 8:37 AM on January 23, 2021 [2 favorites]

Top shelf looks like a series with changing author and title.
posted by crazy with stars at 8:43 AM on January 23, 2021

Top shelf seems to be Yale University Press Chronicles of America, example here
posted by alb at 8:58 AM on January 23, 2021 [1 favorite]

So, not much of a library. You know, someone ought to donate a full set of the 342-volume Library of America.
posted by lathrop at 12:25 PM on January 23, 2021 [2 favorites]