George Ramsden collected the 2,600-volume personal library of Edith Wharton over a period of 20 years but agreed to sell it the author's estate in Lenox, Massachusetts, for £1.5m last January.
The rare book dealer, of Settrington – who was named honorary curator of the collection – spent a week arranging the books on the shelves of her former home before meeting Laura Bush, the First Lady of the United States of America, at a special ceremony.
Wharton, who was born in 1862 and died in 1937, is one of the most famous American writers of the 20th Century with 48 novels to her name, including The Age of Innocence and Ethan Frome.
Mr Ramsden first began the collection in 1984 when he acquired 2,000 books from a London dealer. He spent the intervening years adding a further 600 before agreeing to sell them to the estate.
The library contains volumes written in several languages and on a variety of subjects, including literature, history, philosophy, religion, and science.
It also includes the American first edition of Alice in Wonderland that Wharton knew by heart, and personally inscribed works by friends such as Henry James, Theodore Roosevelt, and Henry Adams. Many of the books have Wharton's marginal notes and markings.
An anonymous benefactor donated $2.6 million to the Wharton Estate so it could buy the books from Mr Ramsden.

Mr Ramsden is pictured with America's First Lady, Laura Bush