State Library of New South Wales

This guide to the State Library of New South Wales follows David Scott Mitchell, a promising young Sydney lawyer who withdrew from society after his father died and an engagement collapsed, and spent decades quietly amassing manuscripts, rare books and Australiana instead. It traces his single-minded pursuit and the fortune he left the library on one condition after his death in 1907. Along the way it recalls the young woman, Emily Manning, whose broken engagement to Mitchell coincided with his retreat from public life.