During his lifetime, William Gillette amassed a collection of 1,182 books. His interests covered fiction and many genres of nonfiction. Most of the books were his. Others belonged to either his father, Francis, or Yukitaka Osaki. Roughly half of his collection is on display in the Castle with many of the remaining books secured in various archive collections. Keen-eyed visitors to the Castle may notice a series of books on the bottom shelf in the library. These were official documents from Francis Gillette’s time in the U.S. Senate (1854-1855). The books are land-survey reports of the transcontinental railroad. We know what a railfan William Gillette was, so it is not hard to imagine why he may have wanted to hang on to those.