William Beckford, the author of Vathek, was born at Fonthill, Wiltshire on the 29th of September 1759. He was the only legitimate child of Alderman William Beckford, who was twice Lord Mayor of London, and who died in 1770, leaving his son property worth upwards of one hundred thousand pounds a year. Beckford amassed at his residence at Fonthill a magnificent collection of books, pictures, furniture and curiosities of all kinds, but his extravagance and the depreciation of his West India property compelled him in 1823 to sell Fonthill and the greater part of its contents. He, however, retained a portion of his library and the best of his pictures, and removed them to Lansdown Tower, Bath, which he built on leaving Fonthill, and where he continued to add to his collections. Beckford married in 1783 Margaret, daughter of Charles, fourth Earl of Aboyne, by whom he had two daughters—Margaret and Susan Euphemia—the elder of whom married Colonel Orde, and the younger the Marquis of Douglas, who afterwards became Duke of Hamilton. The elder daughter having offended her father by her marriage with Colonel Orde, he left all his property to the Duchess of Hamilton. After Beckford's death on May the 2nd, 1844, the Duke of Hamilton wished to sell the library to Mr. Henry Bohn, who was willing to give thirty thousand pounds for it, but the Duchess objected to part with her father's books, and they were removed to Hamilton Palace, but kept separate from the noble library which already existed there. In the years 1882, 1883 and 1884 both these splendid collections were sold. The sale, or rather sales, of the Beckford books, for the collection was divided into four portions, took place at the auction rooms of Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge, and lasted altogether forty days; the first sale commencing on the 30th of June 1882 and lasting twelve days, and the last on the 27th of November 1883, and continuing for four days. The total number of lots in the four sales was nine thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven, and the amount realised seventy-three thousand five hundred and fifty-one pounds, eighteen shillings.

Beckford's library was rich in fine early printed books, rare voyages and travels, and choice French, Spanish and Italian works, but it was chiefly remarkable for its superb collection of beautiful and historical bindings. It contained a large number of volumes from the libraries of Grolier, Maioli, Lauwrin, Canevari, De Thou, Peiresc, and other distinguished collectors, and also examples of bindings bearing the arms and devices of Francis I. of France, Henry II. and Diana of Poitiers, Charles IX., Henry III., Henry IV., Louis XIII., Anne of Austria, etc.; many of the volumes being bound by Nicolas and Clovis Eve, Le Gascon, Padeloup, Derome, Monnier and other famous French binders. Very high prices were obtained for many of these splendid books—Lactantii Opera, printed in the Monastery of Subiaco by Sweynheym and Pannartz in 1465, sold for two hundred and eighty-five pounds; Biblia Latina, printed on vellum by N. Jenson at Venice in 1476, three hundred and thirty pounds; Livre de Bien Vivre, on vellum, finely illuminated, Paris, A. Verard, 1492, three hundred and thirty pounds; Philostrati Vita Apollonii Tyanei, printed by Aldus at Venice in 1502, Grolier's copy, bound in red morocco, three hundred pounds; Lucanus, printed by Aldus in 1515, Grolier's copy, bound in marbled calf, two hundred and ninety pounds; Tirante il Bianco, Vinegia, 1538, red morocco, from the library of Demetrio Canevari, one hundred and eleven pounds; Entree de Henry II. en Paris 6 Juing 1549, etc., with the arms and cypher of de Thou on the binding, four hundred and seventy pounds; Psalmorum Paraphrasis Poetica, by G. Buchanan, beautifully bound in olive morocco, with the arms and cypher of De Thou, three hundred and ten pounds; Livre de la Conqueste de la Toison d'Or par le Prince Jason, par J. Gohory, Paris, 1563, in a beautiful binding by Nicolas Eve, with the arms of the Duke of Guise painted on the covers, four hundred and five pounds; Poliphile Hypnerotomachie, Paris, 1561, bound in blue morocco by Nicolas Eve for Louise de Lorraine, two hundred and twenty pounds; Portraits des Rois, Hommes et Dames Illustres, etc., a series of the engraved works of Sir Anthony Vandyck, including his own etchings, in three large folio volumes, two thousand eight hundred and fifty pounds; Decor Puellarum, printed by N. Jenson at Venice in 1471, in a splendid binding by Monnier—blue morocco, with flowers in various leathers, and with silk linings, five hundred and thirty pounds; and Longi Pastoralia, printed on vellum by P. Didot at Paris for Junot, Duke of Abrantes, with drawings by Prud'hon and F. GÉrard, nine hundred pounds.

Beckford wrote other works besides Vathek, several of which he left in manuscript, and a large number of his books contained notes in his handwriting.