In A Nomad Ship Library

Epics were composed to be recited and heard. Drama was written to be performed, seen and heard. Thus, Hamlet means whatever a theater company can make it mean. The text is merely their working document. However, libraries rightly contain translations of Homer and copies of Shakespeare.

The library of the Nomad ship, Peregrine, is a long, double-tiered room lined with shelves holding micro-books from civilized planets, not just from Earth, "...an incredible jackdaw's nest of anything and everything." (The Peregrine, Chapter XI, p. 92)

references
philosophies
poetry
fiction
belles-lettres
the history of the Nomads

The history "...began with the memoirs of Thorkild Erling, first captain of the Nomads." (p. 93)

Thus, it begins with the short story, "Gypsy," which is narrated by Thorkild.

"...reading Thorkild's words, Trevelyan caught something of the glamour which had been in those first years." (ibid.)

Having read "Gypsy," we remember that glamour. However, we learn more:

"There was a note of disappointment in Thorkild's later writings; his new society was evolving into something other than what he had imagined." (ibid.)

Thorkild and his crew had wanted endless wandering so I am not sure how he was disappointed.