"PARIS: Literary fame is ephemeral, and books that once announced events of world importance become little more than extremely expensive collectibles.

When the first part of the library of the rare-book seller Pierre Berès, who spent six decades tracking the first editions of works that changed the course of Western culture, comes up at Drouot in a sale conducted by Frédéric Chambre on Oct. 28, bibliophiles from around the world will be there, furiously competing over the spoils. And yet most of them would find it difficult to sum up with reasonable accuracy the substance of books that they carry away like trophies rather than literary monuments."

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