Cramer’s energies were not to be confined to the business of publishing, of selling books and stationery, and doing bookbinding. Like John C. Gilkison, he determined to possess a circulating library[276]; perhaps the nucleus was to be the books received from Gilkison’s library. He called it the “Pittsburgh Circulating Library” and it prospered, and six months after its establishment, the circulation had nearly doubled.[277] A catalogue was promised for an early date[278] and was no doubt issued. The list of the original books in the library appears to have been lost. From notices of the reception of later books[279] some opinion may be formed of the general character of the reading-matter in the library. The books were mainly romances, and they may have lacked the merit of later-day novels, but there is something about them that touches the heart. Also they recall from the shadows visions of readers long since dead. The books were realistic; they presented the life of a distant past in vivid colors; there is the lingering scent of lavender and bergamot. Delightfully described in their voluminous pages were languishing eyes, tender accents, quaint dances, dreamy music, and startling and sometimes unreal adventures. Ladies were the principal readers; they loved long tales, and the authors supplied them. Novels in three and four volumes were common, and some were divided into as many as six volumes. The three most popular writers were the English novelists, Mrs. Ann Ward Radcliffe and William Godwin, and the Philadelphian, Charles Brockden Brown, who was one of America’s earliest novelists. Mrs. Radcliffe was the best writer of the three. Her novels fascinated her readers. Cramer’s library supplied _Romance of the Forest_, one of her best books. William Godwin was represented by _St. Leon_, a tale of the sixteenth century, in which much that is supernatural and terrible is introduced. Two books were by Charles Brockden Brown, one being a graphic story of Philadelphia life during the yellow-fever epidemic of 1793, called, _Arthur Mervin, or Memoirs of the Year 1793_, the other was, _Edgar Huntly, or Memoirs of a Sleep-walker_. _Montalbert_ was by that most prolific of English writers, Mrs. Charlotte Turner Smith, who in her day was criticized and praised with equal vehemence. _Mordaunt_ was perhaps the best novel of Dr. John Moore, who besides being a physician and novelist, wrote books descriptive of manners and customs in England, France, and Italy.