Sometime around 1895 a developing interest in Arthurian legend led Paul Louis Feiss to acquire a copy of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur (1485) at a secondhand book sale. There is no record of the edition or distinguishing features of this particular book; but around what was most likely a modest initial purchase, Feiss began to build a library of medieval romances and histories. His interest and acquisitions soon expanded to embrace British and European history, classics of French and English literature, and examples of fine printing. Through a deep love of books and commitment to scholarship, Feiss achieved encyclopedic knowledge in his areas of interest and until his death in 1952 enjoyed a reputation among Ohio book collectors as an expert in incunabula, the early history of printing, and rare editions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as well as pre-Victorian and nineteenth-century authors.

Feiss was born in Cleveland...