William Brooks Greenlee was a Chicago businessman who, as a young man, became interested in the Portuguese and their far-flung overseas empire. During a trip around the world after graduating from college he began his lifelong pursuit of books relating to Portugal. In 1937 he gave his collection to the Newberry Library in Chicago, and at his death he left funds that enabled the library to continue adding to the collection. Today the William B. Greenlee Collection is probably the best in the United States on Portuguese history and literature before 1820, and some scholars consider it the best and most complete of its kind anywhere. No collector has done more to encourage the study of Portuguese history, especially Portuguese colonial history, than Greenlee; these contributions were recognized by the Portuguese government in 1950 when it conferred on him the rank of commander of the Order of Saint Iago, an order...