Product Description

By the 1960s a copy of Graham Greene's Brighton Rock without its dust jacket was worth about #500. But with its dust jacket more like #2,000 - if you could find one. The last copy with a perfect jacket to come on the market changed hands at #50,000. Brighton Rock was a high-point, but first editions of other early Greene books weren't much less valuable. And then there were signed copies, foreign printings, limited editions, numbered and signed...John Baxter caught the collecting bug in the winter of 1978 when he found a rare copy of Greene's children's book The Little Horse Bus while browsing in a second-hand market in Swiss Cottage. It was going for 5p. It would also, fortuitously, be the day that he first encountered one of the legends of the bookselling world: Martin Stone. At various times cokehead, pothead, alchoholic, international fugitive from justice and professional rock musician (said to knock Eric Clapton into a cocked hat), he would become John's mentor and friend, and a central figure in this book. In this brilliantly readable, stylish and funny book John Baxter introduces us to his world, the world of the fanatical book collector: not only the kind who buys from catalogues or at auction and takes away the booty in bubble wrap to store in metal filing cabinets - but also the sleuth, the one who uses bluff and guile to hunt down his quarry. Along the way we meet a cast of eccentric characters like Driff Field who only collects books about suicide or by writers who have killed themselves; we meet the completists, the condition freaks, the rich and famous - from Barry Humphries and Harvey Weinstein to Sarah Michelle Gellar. This is a book with real word-of-mouth potential that literary editors will go weak at the knees for; booksellers will bask in and the literati will adore.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #134246 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
I feel totally at home with the mad, crazy world of obsessive collectors -- in this case, mainly first-edition books with their jackets. After all, I'm surrounded by some 4,000 titles (though not that many firsts), and I also collect pottery and porcelain. The author is both a novelist and broadcaster, as well as a film critic, and started his collecting life with an early Graham Greene children's book which cost 5p. This leads him on to tell us about the intricacies of collecting Greene and then on to other authors. Early on, he also met one of the legends of the bookselling world, Martin Stone, a central figure in this delightful, informative book, which is a must for my overcrowded shelves. It is as addictive to read as collecting is to some of us - pure joy in hard covers.

From the Back Cover
In this brilliantly readable, stylish and funny book John Baxter introduces us to his world, the world of the fanatical collector: not only the kind who buys from catalogues or at auction and takes away the booty in bubble wrap to store in metal filing cabinets - but also the sleuth, the one who uses bluff and guile to hunt down his quarry. Along the way we meet a cast of eccentric characters like Driff Field who only collects books about suicide or by writers who have killed themselves; we meet the completists, the condition freaks, the rich and famous - from Barry Humphries and Harvey Weinstein to Sarah Michelle Gellar.

About the Author
John Baxter is a novelist and broadcaster, as well as being a highly acclaimed film critic and film biographer. His subjects have included Fellini, Spielberg and Kubrick. He is currently completing a biography of Robert De Niro for HarperCollins.

Customer Reviews

Superb description of the madness of book collecting!
As a collector of rare books, the obsessive drive and constant searching are a part of daily life. No wonder others rarely understand the thrill of finding 'Lucky Jim' or a rare Le Carre tucked away at the Scouts jumble sale! But be thankfull that Mr Baxter does because even if your interest in books is slight, this is a 'must read' title.
His descriptions of what it is to be a collector, and of a begrudging willingnes to part with hard earned cash (in some cases, substantial amounts of it) are a joy to read. Never before have I read anything that describes with such passion and clarity quite what makes book collectors tick.
I have presented my wife with a copy in the hope that it might explain a few things!

Disappointing
This was something of an anticlimax. Baxter's accounts of tracking down books and authors are good, sometimes very good, but his writing too often degenerates into shapeless lists of minor authors, book titles and film titles: "...Iris Owens ('Harriett Daimler') and Austryn Wainhouse ('Pieralessandro Casavini') both had later careers under their own names, as did Terry Southern, co-author of Candy, and Chester Himes, the African-American writer of Pinktoes. Canadian poet John Glassco already had a minor reputation when he agreed to complete Aubrey Beardsley's Under the Hill for Olympia..." And so on. I suppose this is inevitable in a book by a film critic and book collector, but it becomes tedious after a while.

A treasure
I had this book from John Baxter given to me at Christmas. The unusual and pretty cover first attracted me, but when I first started reading it, I could not put it down. In my opinion it is a little treasure. Not only for people whom like reading books, but for collectors too.

I also enjoyed the letters at the end of the book and like the writers, I will find it difficult to choose which book to take with me, if there was a fire and I could only take one. After reading "A Pound of Paper" how could there be any other choice!

I would read it again and again.