Watership Down author's personal library reveals precious treasures

Richard Adams’s books, going to auction in December, include a first edition of Jane Austen’s Emma, Shakespeare’s Second Folio and Boswell’s Life of Johnson

The vast library of the late Richard Adams, which ranges from a rare copy of Milton’s epic poem Lycidas to a first edition of Jane Austen’s Emma, is to be sold at auction next month.

Running to thousands of books, the Watership Down author’s collection includes a rare copy of the Shakespeare Second Folio of 1632, Boswell’s Life of Johnson and a Bible that once belonged to Charles II. Adams, who died last year aged 96, also owned a host of first editions by 19th-century English novelists including Austen, George Eliot, Charles Dickens and Anthony Trollope.

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