Finding rare books are supposed to be hard and heroic

Novelist,  and former American academic, living in UK, Rick Gekoski in search of rare book trade for the last fifty years as a bookseller seeking scarce, world of first editions,  revealing anecdotes  and a hint of steel. By chance in 1971, he stumbled across  a tranche of DH Lawrence  first editions in Brooklyn on a sabbatical from University of Warwick.

The World of rare books is often overlooked in industry discourse, where six figure publishing deals  and bestseller leagues tend to dominate- a privileged closed circle, a form of treasure hunt.

Rick Gekoski points out “There are only two things a rare book dealer must know what price is a book buyable and at what higher price one might sell it.  You learn that best by working in a bookshop, a good one, serving an apprenticeship before starting your own”. 

Gekoski writes with verve and style, with fascinating discovery of drafts of the 1917 Balfour Declaration , written by leading British Zionist intellectual, Sir Leon Simon,  following a clearance sale in 2003 of thousands of books and papers from his late daughter’s house in Willesden, north west London.

 Gekoski and his associates was successful in a winning bid at Sotheby’s New York for $775, 000.

The rare book dealing world in historically heavily male-dominated with the presence of women in Gekoski’s account often as rare as the books.

The second record sale in terms of value and of precedent, of an original manuscript that no one had seen before – JK Rowling’s of the handwritten The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which sold for nearly £1.95m at a charity auction in 2007, bought by none other than Jeff Bezos, Amazon mogul.

Gekoski’s description of Graham Greene in old age – “little escaped the penetration of those Wedgewood-blue eyes” is memory sharp.

In Guarded by Dragons, Gekoski invites reads into the enchanted world as he reflects on the gems he has unearthed throughout his career and takes us back to where his love of collecting began – perusing  DH Lawrence  first editions in a Birmingham carpark.

Hunting for literary treasure is not without its battles and Gekoski boldly breaks the cardinal rule never to engage in a lawsuit with someone much richer than yourself, while also guarding his bookshop from the most unlikely of thieves. The result is an unparalleled insight into an almost mythical world where priceless first editions of Ulysses and vanish and billionaires will spend as much gold as it takes to own the original manuscripts. Guarded by Dragons is a fascinating  discussion on value and worth finding rare books are supposed to be hard and heroic and reminisces about the good launches  and rural bookshop  visits of old that could yield unforeseen treasures. “Rare books do not have a value but a range of possible values.” as Gekoski proves genial companion in the thrill of  the chase.

Guarded by Dragons: Encounters With Rare Books and Rare People by Rick Gekoski, Constable & Robinson £ 18.99 , 258 pages.