The proper fulfillment of John Cook Wyllie's greatness was impeded by his refusal to recognize his greatness: he did not know how extraordinary his mind was. Wyllie did not achieve the high reputation accorded lesser librarians and bibliographers because he cared nothing for personal credit; he routinely gave away his ideas and discoveries. Wyllie's career inspires admiration and regret among those who worked with him because he accomplished so much but left so little of his mind on paper.

Wyllie was a double anachronism, joining old allegiances with an awareness of future requirements. One of those professionals who are described by amateurs as eccentric, he was a self-reliant man of principle who was too busy to be eccentric. Consistently truthful, he expressed apparently contradictory positions. Thus he was a generous benefactor of scholars and a dedicated preserver of research material who had reservations about promiscuous publication: "The frequent...