In January of 1815, Thomas Jefferson, who was deeply indebted, sold his personal library of 6,487 books to Congress for the sum of $23,950 and used the proceeds of the sale to satisfy his creditors. Jefferson's books would become the basis for the Library of Congress. The original Library of Congress, established in 1800, had been burned by invading British troops in 1814. An avid book collector, Jefferson had spent a lifetime acquiring books on almost every topic including science, philosophy, literature, and many books in foreign languages. His collection of books was considered to be one of the finest in the country and was, in fact, larger than the previous Library of Congress which had been destroyed. It was so large, in fact, that, prior to the sale, he even devised a classification system which divided his library into three main categories: History, Philosophy, and Fine Arts.