Peter Anson was something of a collector of books, as well as an author in his own right. His library closely reflects his Faith and the Sea, the two subjects closest to his heart, and includes first editions of many of his own publications.
'How to Draw Ships' was published in two volumes (this is volume 2) in 1941, and reprinted many times. This is the 1955 edition. Much of the text was written by Campbell Cowie, a close friend of Peter Anson at that time.
This 'Dictionary of Sea Terms' (Ansted, 1933) is just one of a large number of nautical reference books contained within the Anson Library.
'Abbot Extraordinary' by Anson was published in 1958, three years after the death of the subject of the work, Abbot Aelred Carlyle. Abbot Aelred was the founder of the Anglican Monastic Community on Caldey Island, off the Welsh coast, where Anson made his home for many years. This copy, from Anson's own shelf, was obviously a gift at one time to another friend, possibly returned to Anson on the death of the original recipient. It contains an interesting typewritten correction - yet another example of Anson's almost obsessive attention to accuracy and detail.
This First Edition by Anson has, as its frontispiece, one of his own paintings of Anstruther, dated 1929.
Two years later, in 1932, Anson published 'Fishermen and Fishing Ways', an amazing collection of folk lore, festivals relating to the sea, and ancient fishermen of Greece and Egypt, as well as chapters on trawl fishing, line fishing and drift netting.
Probably one of his most popular and widely read books, 'Life on Low Shore' (published in 1969) is described as 'Memories of twenty years among fisher folk at Macduff, Banffshire, 1938 - 1958'.
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