Jurist lived by book — all 21,000

His office at the University of Utah law school was legendary. Every available inch was filled with a book. It was a rain forest of printed matter. Maybe two rain forests. There was one small path leading to his desk and that was basically it. Veer off that and you'd find yourself in the middle of Tolstoy, or the latest edition of "Constitutional Law," or perhaps the complete works of Shakespeare. Every visitor to Judge Ron Boyce's desk wondered the same thing: how on Earth could one man own so many books?

Now, it turns out that was just the tip of Judge Boyce's literary iceberg.

After the unexpected and much lamented death of the notable jurist, legal scholar and human being at the age of 68 in October of 2002, librarians at the University of Utah have been busy chronicling and cataloging Boyce's books, which were donated by Ron's wife, Darlene, in December of 2003.

That's been eight months now — and they're still not close to finishing the job.

"It will take us years to disperse everything," says assistant law school librarian Lee Warthen, "and at that, we'll have to hurry."

Warthen shakes his head in absolute awe and wonder when he walks through the basement storage facility at the law school where the majority of the books have been brought for sorting.

"It is hard to imagine any one individual anywhere having more books than this," he says. "It is almost unbelievable."

The books were hauled to the basement not only from Boyce's law school office but also from his office at the federal courthouse, where he was a magistrate judge, and from his home — the real mother lode.

"We hauled a pickup load a day from his house for a month," says Warthen. "He had books everywhere."

Like one gigantic run-on sentence, the books stretch on and on and on in their temporary basement home. If you laid the bookshelves end-to-end, they would cover a half-mile. The books themselves laid end-to-end would stretch more than four miles. There are more than 21,000 books in all, with no duplicates. It means Ron Boyce, on average, bought a book a day every day of his life since he learned how to read.

As dazzling as the volume is the variety. There are plenty of books on law, of course, Boyce's profession and passion. But there are also plenty on military history and Russian history and poetry and you name it. One section comprises several dozen books on the subject of international organized crime. Another covers the classics.