Has anyone yet mentioned Herbert West, the bookseller from Hanover New
Hampshire whom I met in London in the mid-sixties when he was buying for US
institutions? A warm and friendly soul (to me at least, a neophyte bookshop clerk) he
gave me a copy of "An Impecunious Amateur Looks Back..." 1966 and I went on to
read "Mind on the Wing" and "Sunny Intervals" -- I think there may be some
other titles too.
Here's an idea -- what we are creating here is a kind of bibliography of
booksellers' and collectors' memoirs (Dibdin is the first of several who could
count as both -- look at The Lincoln Nosegay) and it would be most interesting to
bring together the expertise and experience of all those interested to create
a kind of Wikipedia bio-bibliography where each of us could choose to write
and/or add comments to the description of each book -- not only on the contents
but also personal reminiscences of the writers we have known and references
to other accounts of them and their works. It would be a Sheila Markham "Book
of Booksellers" in reverse (and when will that excellent book be reissued I
wonder?).
I have no idea how difficult this would be to create and manage but if
someone has the technical know-how and the ability to set it up it would be a
fascinating offshoot of the combined knowledge, wisdom, and experience of this list
-- and different countries could create their own versions. What a
contribution to the history of book collecting and selling that might be. Perhaps we
could get the Grolier Club to host it in some way.
Best wishes to all,
John Windle
John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller,
49 Geary Street, suite 233,
San Francisco. CA 94108. USA
Tel: (415) 986-5826 Fax: (415) 986-5827
Cell: (415) 244-8256
To view our stock go to: www.johnwindle.com
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Alexandra Chappell, Assistant windleassistant@sbcglobal.net
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