I was working in a new-book store after college when the book-bug really bit me. Between buying books at work, and lolling around in the stacks of the fine library close by, I fell, and fell
hard. One of the first books I found that gave me the information I most wanted about collecting books is the classic
ABC for Book Collectors by John Carter. I bought the Knopf fifth edition, as that was the last edition that Carter himself edited before he died, although the seventh edition is currently in print from Oak Knoll, and is co-edited by Nicolas Barker, the worthy scholar and bibliophile, so that is also well worth having. I like the understated look of the fifth edition, though. Whatever edition you end up with, here's what happened to me when I first encountered this book: I sat on the bus on the way home from work that day and ate it up like I was starving. And almost fifteen years later, I still refer to it often, and keep it with my most-used reference books right behind my desk. It is an alphabetical list, with complete and often funny definitions, of terms someone who was, say, reading a bookseller's catalogue, would need to know: bibliographic terms, types of bindings, materials, parts of books, standard reference materials known to most antiquarian dealers, and the like. What are crushed morocco bindings? Deckle edges? Galley proofs? Why is provenance important? What are points, and what is a variant? The
TLS called this book "An answer to the book-collector's prayer." It opened up a whole world to me, one I knew I would inhabit for the rest of my life. That's what books do. More on John Carter in the future.
# posted by Sarah Faragher @ 10:46 AM
I was working in a new-book store after college when the book-bug really bit me. Between buying books at work, and lolling around in the stacks of the fine library close by, I fell, and fell hard. One of the first books I found that gave me the information I most wanted about collecting books is the classic ABC for Book Collectors by John Carter. I bought the Knopf fifth edition, as that was the last edition that Carter himself edited before he died, although the seventh edition is currently in print from Oak Knoll, and is co-edited by Nicolas Barker, the worthy scholar and bibliophile, so that is also well worth having. I like the understated look of the fifth edition, though. Whatever edition you end up with, here's what happened to me when I first encountered this book: I sat on the bus on the way home from work that day and ate it up like I was starving. And almost fifteen years later, I still refer to it often, and keep it with my most-used reference books right behind my desk. It is an alphabetical list, with complete and often funny definitions, of terms someone who was, say, reading a bookseller's catalogue, would need to know: bibliographic terms, types of bindings, materials, parts of books, standard reference materials known to most antiquarian dealers, and the like. What are crushed morocco bindings? Deckle edges? Galley proofs? Why is provenance important? What are points, and what is a variant? The TLS called this book "An answer to the book-collector's prayer." It opened up a whole world to me, one I knew I would inhabit for the rest of my life. That's what books do. More on John Carter in the future.