Thomas M. Moran

Biography

Thomas Moran (1882-1963) was a Stockton, Calif. bakery truck driver and bibliophile. He came to Stockton in 1904, working first as a streetcar motorman, and, from 1909 until his retirement in 1951, for the Gravem-Inglis Bakery. Moran began collecting books in 1929. When he died, he left behind a library of some 15,000 volumes. Among other treasures, this library included a first edition copy of Henry Fielding's Tom Jones, as well as first edition copies of the works of Thornton Wilder, Erskine Caldwell and Conrad Richter.

From the guide to the Thomas M. Moran Collection, 1909-1955, (University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections)