Harry Elkins Widener once remarked of his family to fellow bibliophile A. Edward Newton: "We are all collectors. My grandfather collects paintings, my mother collects silver and porcelains, Uncle Joe collects everything, and I collect books." Given his background, it was perhaps inevitable that Widener became a collector. His grandfather, P. A. B. Widener, had made a considerable fortune through varied investments in streetcars, oil, steel, and tobacco, and he built Lynnewood Hall, an enormous, Versailles-like mansion in Philadelphia, which he filled with Old Master paintings. His eldest son, George, eventually took over the management of the family investments and married Eleanor Elkins, the daughter of his father's close business associate William Elkins.

Harry Widener, born in Philadelphia on 3 January 1885, was the eldest of the three children of George and Eleanor Widener. The family all lived at Lynnewood Hall, and Widener grew up in a protected and privileged...