สำนักงานราชบัณทิตยสภา

112  The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Volume IV - 2012 Prince Damrongrajanubhab and Thai Literature What caused him to be involved in Thai literature In 1882, King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) ordered the Vajirayan Library to be built. Prince Damrong was on the executive committee of the Library. The purpose in establishing the Library was to preserve old writers’ works and also to give the opportunity for contemporary writers to display their works. Also for the same reason, the Library issued the Vajirayan Journal to publish old and new writers’ works. Later on, Prince Damrong was appointed Director of the Vajirayan Library, which was later renamed the Capital City Library. Prince Damrong remained Director through the reigns of King Vajiravudh (Rama VI) and King Prajadhipok (Rama VII). In 1925, King Rama VII gave his personal book collections and the cabinets containing King Rama VI’s books to the Vajirayan Library. Prince Damrong rearranged the Library to make it more orderly. During that time, there was not a great quantity of books. Prince Damrong found the way to increase the amount of books, by announcing that the Vajirayan Library would buy old books for a good price and he requested library of fi cials to look for old books. Additionally, he urged members of the royal family and high-ranking government of fi cials to publish old books for distribution on various occasions such as birthday, funeral, etc. Prince Damrong himself would arrange for the publication. He would edit the book, write a commentary as well as the biography of the person. The Vajirayan Library asked for 20 percent of the amount of the published books. In this way Prince Damrong could revise and publish old valuable books in order to preserve some volumes for posterity and also sell the rest as fund raising for the maintenance of the Vajirayan Library (Prince Damrong, 1966: Memoir). When King Rama VII set up the Royal Institute (called at that time Rajapandityasabha) on the 19 th of April, 1926, he appointed Prince Damrong, a great expert in various fi elds of knowledge, to be President of the Royal Institute. In this capacity, Prince Damrong took part in making Thai arts and culture fl ourish right up to the present day. Prince Damrong’s literary works Prince Damrong wrote numerous works. To celebrate the 100 th anniversary of Prince Damrong’s birth, the Fine Arts Department collected all his literary works which were over 600 titles (Krom Silpakorn, 1962). He was named a World’s Eminent