Library

Without a doubt, one of the most inviting nooks within the overall estate is the Lodge Library and adjoining reading room. This double story Art Deco architectural masterpiece is replete with built-in oak bookshelves, a custom wrought iron-rail spiral staircase, and a silver-and-gold-leaf domed ceiling depicting a mural of Johannes Kepler’s “Laws of Planetary Motion.”

Here wisdom may blossom in the quiet rapture of a book or a powerful telescope looking deep into the reaches of the expanding Cosmos. Or perhaps, it may simply provide a moment where time stills, as many know there is no greater recipe for tranquility than settling in with a good book in a comfortable time worn chair.

The library is stocked with a vast collection of both popular reading materials and a rare book collection, costing more than $2.5 million dollars to bring to fruition. It has housed one of the greatest collections of historic archives and manuscripts covering worldwide exploration, a theme of previous owner Steve Fossett.

Fossett was a record-setting adventurer and explorer who at one time held hundreds of World records in numerous disciplines. He was friends with Richard Branson, whose Virgin Group sponsored a number of Fossett’s sailing and aviation attempts. He was the first person to complete a solo circumnavigation of the Earth in a hot air balloon. He also swam the English Channel and climbed some of the highest mountains on Earth. Fossett was a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the Explorers Club.

Quite the curator, his library shelves featured significant works in the fields of aeronautics, Arctic and Antarctic exploration, circumnavigation and mountaineering. There were important manuscripts and archives of some of the most notable figures in the field of exploration, including Captain James Cook, Charles Darwin, Sir Francis Drake, Alexander von Humboldt, Lewis and Clark, William Schouten and Ernest Shackleton. Highlights include a copy of Barthelemi Faujas de Saint-Fond’s Description des Experiences de la Machine Aerostatique de MM. de Montgolfier, which describes the first manned flight, and a copy of Aurora Australis, the first book printed in Antarctica by Shackleton and his team and a first collected edition of Sir Francis Drake’s voyages and a copy of the first edition of Leo Africanus’ A Geographical Historie of Africa. In summary, an extraordinary reading room filled with extraordinary books by an extraordinary man.

Any new stewards of the Library have huge shoes to fill with respect to replacing Steve Fossett’s rare collection of books and manuscripts, but since he passed these shelves have been with a mixture of rare and notable books, current popular reads, and antique boardgames. Notable recent acquisitions for the library include Sebastio’ Salgados’ world renowned opus, GENESIS. Come right in and enjoy this work and other new literary jewels in one of the most comfortable and exquisite private libraries around.