Alexander Pope's biographer Maynard Mack has estimated that the poet's personal library contained between 650 and 750 volumes. Such a collection would have been similar to those of other contemporary men of letters, such as Jonathan Swift, although far smaller than those of such avid and wealthy bibliophiles as Pope's friend Edward Harley, second Earl of Oxford, whose books and manuscripts eventually formed the core of the British Museum's library. Of Pope's library, only about 165 books survive; he is known, through references by himself or by contemporary witnesses, to have owned approximately 100 more titles.

Alexander Pope was born on 21 May 1688 in London to Alexander and Edith Pope, née Turner. Around 1700 the family moved to Binfield, Berkshire, to comply with laws forbidding Catholics to reside within ten miles of the capital. As an infant Pope contracted tuberculosis of the spine, most likely by drinking contaminated milk from his wet...