Customer Reviews

The Golfer's Library: A Reader's Guide to Three Centuries of Golf Literature

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This book provides approximately half-page comments about the author's selection of the top 400 golf books. There are brief introductions describing the major works prior to each chapter, as well as general comments on building a golf library in the introduction.

The book seems best suited for a golf book collector who may be beginning a collection, although more avid collectors will still gain some nice tidbits of information. In general, I think Daniel Wexler has done a fine job of introducing us to the cream of the crop and weeding out the junk. I was delighted to see that we shared positive opinions of some of the lesser known titles ("Great Golfers in the Making" comes to mind). Of course, in a book like this there is bound to be the "What, he didn't include that book". One of my favorites, the Golf Book of East Lothian, was not included. The descriptions of the books are accurate and often accompanied by his personal opinions, which are helpful when trying to decide if one should purchase a rare book without having had the luxury of physically seeing / reviewing the book ahead of time.

"The Golfer's Library" has a unique format among golf collecting books. The book does not intend to provide a comprehensive list of all known golf books. For this, I would suggest "The Game of Golf and the Printed Word", although now becoming outdated (1985). For more of a historical perspective of golf books, consider a copy of "Aspects of Collecting Golf Books", (out of print, scarce). Another book, "An Introduction to the Literature of Golf", by Classics of Golf, is similar to Wexler's book in that it is a book about golf books, but the former describes far fewer books but in much greater detail.