I was a fresh face, and the books were interesting. It was easy enough to spot, of the 179 items, which had come from my personal collection (all of the above) and which were additions and fillers (most of the rest, many of the items priced between £10 and £50). It included books inscribed by Conrad, Eliot, Forster, Joyce, Lawrence, Stevens, and Waugh, as well as the corrected proofs of Ash Wednesday and the typescript of Virginia Woolf's Freshwater. By the time I decided that dealing was more fun than collecting (much less lecturing), I had built the basis for a pretty substantial first offering: RA Gekoski, Modern First Editions, Catalogue One. I had the further advantage, following the death of my mother in 1975, of having some capital to fund my purchases. I had to learn this the hard way, though I was lucky enough to have a full-time salary for a couple of years before I went off on my own. It is difficult to make a living out of the trade. Most deal to supplement their income, because they have another job, independent means or a pension, or a partner bringing in further money. The vast majority of dealers are part-time, and operate from home on a very modest basis. To become a member of the trade, you just buy and sell a few books, then put your hand on a rock and announce "I am a Dealer." Yet if you look at the major rare books internet site () dealers are described – all of them! – as "professional", which seems to me either reprehensibly ignorant, or fraudulent.
#Rare book collector driver
Training as a hairdresser, taxi driver or plumber is more rigorous. It is not a profession: there are no entry requirements, no courses to complete, no qualifying examination, no code of practice.
#Rare book collector how to
You could not, at the time, take a course on how to be a rare book dealer. Which is like trying to understand the principle of locomotion by watching trains go by. But I knew nothing about how the business works, save what I could observe by hanging round Blackwell's or Maggs Brothers. Values, issue points and methods of book description, that sort of stuff. I had been a (hobbyist) collector for some 20 years, buying books and letters by 20th century writers, and had learned a certain amount about rare books. I issued my first catalogue of literary first editions for sale in 1982, while a full-time member of the University of Warwick English department. "A way of making a living out of your hobby."
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