For some reason I was curious if there were any famous historical figures who worked as librarians earlier in their careers, and I stumbled onto this. Man, what a sexy, sexy list! I mean, if you're into balding male intellectuals, politicians, poets and, well, dictators.

1. Casanova: Everyone knows he was a novel lover (nudge-nudge, wink-wink), but who knew he liked organizing 'em too? According to the net, he worked as a librarian in Count Joseph Karl von Waldstein's castle for a good 13 years at the end of his career.
2. Chairman Mao: A voracious reader in his youth, Mao once held a position as an assistant librarian at the University of Peking. According to rumors, he was passed over for a promotion, which supposedly spurred him to look for a new career. Not mao.jpgsure the truthiness of that, but I'm pretty certain that if he'd been promoted, the number of overdue books would have dropped dramatically.
3. Ben Franklin: The guy was a natural archivist. After all, anyone that's happy to spend their free time cataloging synonyms for the word drunk (like "pigeon-eyed", "stewed" and "been to France"), is bound to like collecting books too. Ben Franklin.jpg
4. Gottfried Von Leibniz: In addition to his work with calculus, physics, law, philosophy, topology, etc. he's also important for his contributions to library science. And while that's impressive and all, I really just included him because I love this picture.

200px-Gottfried_Wilhelm_von_Leibniz.jpg

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j_edgar_hoover.jpg5. J. Edgar Hoover: The notorious FBI head's first gig was as Library of Congress messenger and cataloger. Suspiciously, there's no mention anywhere of how many of those notes got opened and read along the way.

Berliozpaint.gif6. Berlioz: The composer of the famed Symphonie Fantastique also spent 30 years in the library of the Paris Conservatory. Again, I really included him because I like his hair.
borges.jpeg7. Jorge Luis Borges: According to Wikipedia, Borges worked as an assistant at the Buenos Aires Municipal Library, and was expressly told not to catalog more than 100 books a day (a task he could finish within an hour). He then spent the rest of his days engrossed in reading. When Juan Peron rose to power, Borges was essentially fired, and "'promoted' to the position of poultry inspector."

And of course, there's: Goethe, Longfellow, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Philip Larkin and the Brothers Grimm. Know any good ones that I should add? (Or any on here that I should take off?) Send 'em in!