Product Description

Based on the popular BBC Radio 4 series Rare Books, Rare People, "Tolkien's Gown" and Other Stories of Great Authors and Rare Books is a veritable feast of the tales behind some of the most iconic titles to have graced British publishing, and fascinating anecdotes about the authors who wrote them. It starts with the story of how Graham Green arranged a meeting in his hotel room to sell a signed copy of "Lolita" for £4,000 to the author of this book, Rick Gekoski, over a glass or ten of vodka. He resold the book for £9,000 in his hungover state the next day to Elton John's lyricist Bernie Taupin and in later years, it went on to fetch $264,000 at auction in Christies. With all the other behind-the-scenes stories, this becomes a gem of a book, tales about Tolkien, Potter, Orwell, Larkin, Hemingway and more, representing a treasure trove of trivia for book fans.

Product Details

• Published on: 2004-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

`What is the value of a book?'
There are twenty essays (chapters) in this book. Each one focuses on a twentieth century writer and one of his or her key works through a mixture of biography, literary history and Dr Gekoski's personal encounters with either the author or a rare edition of their books. The book is loosely based on a BBC Radio 4 series (Rare Books, Rare People).
I found these stories fascinating. Some of the encounters with authors include: Graham Greene, William Golding, J. D. Salinger, Ted Hughes, Salman Rushdie, Julian Barnes and Harold Pinter. These encounters are not always entirely friendly: J.D. Salinger threatens a law suit and William Golding parodies him in `The Paper Men'.

The authors included are: Vladimir Nabokov; J.R.R Tolkien; William Golding; Oscar Wilde; Jack Kerouac; James Joyce; D.H. Lawrence; J.D. Salinger; T.E. Lawrence; Sylvia Plath; John Kennedy Toole; Evelyn Waugh; Beatrix Potter; Ernest Hemingway; Graham Greene; George Orwell; Salman Rushdie; T.S. Eliot; J.K Rowling and Philip Larkin.

This book is easy to read and very entertaining. Snippets about the authors, glimpses into the workings of the rare book market all make for interesting reading. This book is a delightful collection of essays which serve as a reminder that books have their own stories of creation, as well as both intrinsic and extrinsic value.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith