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SECOND IMPRESSION, RURAL LIFE WITH A RARE BOOKMAN
Kaye, Barbara (Mrs. Percy Muir)
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First edition. In The Company We Kept Barbara Kaye told the story of how the old established antiquarian book firm of Elkin Mathews survived the war years after evacuation to rural Essex in 1939. Now she carries on the story from 1945 to 1955, when Elkin Mathews expanded and her bibliophile husband, Percy Muir, became increasingly involved in the national and international politics of the antiquarian book trade. It was during this time that the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) was formed and the description of Percy Muir's part in this process provides a fascinating account of an historic event. Percy Muir became president of the ILAB in 1950 and on his retirement from office he was unanimously elected Life President of Honor. The Muirs' commitment to the ILAB meant they were often traveling to Europe to attend the annual conferences, which they combined with book-buying trips and sometimes even family holidays. The towns and cities they visited were just under reconstruction and the author describes the devastation and destruction caused by the war. At home the village where the Muirs lived was also changing, and the author gives a clear picture of daily life in a typical English village during the post-war decade. There are also several interesting accounts of the local and national political scenes. In 1951, the Muirs visited the United States for a lecture tour. The account of their four-week whirlwind tour is filled with bibliophilic adventures - from meeting Dr. Rosenbach and Fredson Bowers to dinner at the Four Oaks Farm Library and a visit to the Library of Congress. The book ends with a factual description of Percy Muir's long-fought campaign against book auction rings, culminating in the final show-down in 1956. Well-written by an accomplished novelist, this book provides a lively and entertaining account of the antiquarian book world and English village life in the post-war years.
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More On This Subject - -
> BOOK SELLING, TWENTIETH CENTURY
> UNITED KINGDOM
> BOOK COLLECTING, TWENTIETH CENTURY
> MUIR, BARBARA
> MUIR, PERCY H.
Books of related interests - -
> Kaye, Barbara, THE COMPANY WE KEPT.
> Birrell, Augustine, IN THE NAME OF THE BODLEIAN AND OTHER ESSAYS
> Kaye, Barbara, THE COMPANY WE KEPT.
> Rostenberg, Leona and Madeleine B. Stern, OLD BOOKS IN THE OLD WORLD, REMINISCENCES OF BOOK BUYING ABROAD.
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FUNCTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS IN BOOKBINDING.
by Wakeman, Geoffrey and Graham Pollard
Limited to 180 numbered copies of which this is one of the 125 cloth bound copies. Printed by hand by Paul Wakeman, the son of Geoffrey Wakeman, at the Plough Press. Three separate essays which provide a fascinating study of English trade binding from the sixteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. In "Illustrations of English Trade Bindings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," Geoffrey Wakeman describes what an ordinary book of the period looked like. Pollard's essay "Changes in the Style of Bookbinding, 1550-1830" originally appeared in "The Library" in 1956. The third article is again by Wakeman and is entitled "Bookbinding Styles in the Loughborough and Ashby-de-la-Zouch Parish Libraries." This article is based on illustrated slide lectures Wakeman gave while teaching at Loughborough and was meant to demonstrate to students the changes in binding style over the period covered in Pollard's article. These slides are reproduced as plates which are contained in a pocket in the back of the book. Presentation from the printer, Paul Wakeman, on the limitation page.
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