A Book of Booksellers: Conversations With the Antiquarian Book Trade, 1991-2003

Paperback reprint of the first edition, with corrections. The antiquarian book trade-- the last resort of the English eccentric--is rich in colorful and entertaining characters. Since 1991, Sheila Markham has been interviewing some of its most influential figures. Fifty of these conversations, in which leading dealers speak frankly about their life and work, are published here for the first time in paperback form. The 2004 hardcover, limited to 500 copies, quickly sold out. A significant contribution to the literature of book trade history, A Book of Booksellers will also appeal to the general reader with an interest in rare books and bookselling--perhaps the most humane, sociable, ill-organized, yet absorbing form of commerce to be found anywhere. Sheila Markham has been in the antiquarian book trade for twenty-five years. She is also Librarian of the Travellers Club and Library Scribe at Brooks's Club in London. Her interest in the world of rare books dates from university days when she was Treasurer of the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles. She is currently working on a sequel to the present work and a companion volume on book collectors. 324 pages. paper wrappers. 8vo..