Gordon Norton Ray was a passionate and discerning book collector; his collecting habits serve as a reflection and representation of his scholarly interests. He collected for institutions, such as the University of Illinois at Urbana Library, and for himself. His personal books, manuscripts, and papers have been left to the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, which has held two exhibits representing his collecting interests. The exhibits of the English illustrated book held in 1976 and of the French illustrated book held in 1982 were drawn from his collection. In his introduction to The Illustrator and the Book in England from 1790 to 1914 (1976) Ray notes, "Two things are needed to keep a collector interested in a chosen specialty: he must be continuously absorbed in the field and the material must be there to collect."

Gordon Norton Ray was born to Jessie Norton and Jesse Gordon Ray in New York City on...