Rare Book Monthly

Articles - May - 2022 Issue

Fifty Years a Bookseller: or, The Wolf at Your Door

Rare books of all kinds can be found online, at libraries and at fairs somewhere, some place every minute of every day around the world.  What were once called rare books has evolved into collectible paper and now subsumes every manifestation of paper and ink, into a single field and today databases aggregate most of the offers into an answer proffered in a fraction of a second.  Presto everyone with an iPhone is an expert.

 

So what happens then when someone who has spent his life, over the past 50+ years working in the trade and now, ambling into his dotage, remembering the many interesting people, their approaches and styles, their preferences and peculiarities, and recalls them in clear and canny detail.  What did he learn, now leaving us to wonder, was life in the world of old books better then or better now?  Taken together, this is what Clarence Wolf has done by telling us a series of stories relating his experiences.  Chapter by chapter his account brings to life his life lived in the company with and in the pursuit of great books. To those lucky few who embrace the challenge to be competent in the field it’s required reading.  Rare paper requires intelligence, commitment, luck and perspective.  Clarence’s vignettes have created a stage full of memories against which we who love to collect, can understand ourselves and the changing world through which our passion carries us on to the next opportunities.

 

And this book is needed.  It used to be that book collectors needed only two sources of help, a great dealer and a psychiatrist.  If you’re collecting you may not have known this although your wife, husband or partner have long suspected.  The psychiatrist is to help you recover once you take a hard hit.  A great dealer can help you to avoid the many pitfalls.

 

And how has he done this?  He tells us his story and gracefully lets us imagine ourselves in the world he describes.

 

He was born of a family with a history of exceptional bookmen and it seems to have been almost inevitable, he would join the line.  Not many of us have that history but to the energetic and intelligent with the gift to imagine possibilities, we can sense in his stories how collectors and dealers have navigated through the ever changing possibilities he encountered over his career.

 

To bring that world alive, after explaining his own history he introduces and remembers many of the extraordinary personalities he encountered and in many cases worked with, seven chapters remembering the styles and approaches of those who in time emerged as the snowcapped mountains on his youthful plains.  And ah yes, he is of Philadelphia, the Nazareth, if not the gethsemane, of American book collecting.  It’s always been a good idea to plant in strong soil.

 

In time, his perspective broadened as he reached out to distant metropolises; Washington, D.C. Baltimore, New York, and Boston, subsuming wholes states and regions in single bounds, turning a map of America into a plan to visiting the trade, shows and collectors.  In that way, over the decades what was once a local business, MacManus would become a mecca for serious collectors.

 

Among the memorable and remembered, Mabel Zahn, the Queen of Sessler’s and doyen of books; Gordon Block, exceptional collector and distant relative; Mrs. Julia Rush Biddle Henry, heir; Frederic Farrar, collector of newspapers and pamphlets; Frank Siebert, the brilliant and irascible collector of Americana who bought from Henry Stevens, Ernest Wessen, Lathrop Harper, Wright Howes, Charles Heartman, Peter Decker, George MacManus and Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach.

 

As his book gets into the 7th inning, he then remembers friends whose help and support both made a difference and whose knowledge and personalities gave texture and substance to his life:

 

Jack Freas, a friend and a dealer; Ricky Jay, prestidigitator; David Holmes, friend, cohort and fellow adventurer in the world of collectible books; and Bill Reese, who instilled order and logic in the field of Americana.

 

Over the past two hundred years it’s been a commonplace that book dealers would regale their literary friends with their stories.  And such accounts are all worth reading, if not only to confirm that not all book dealers can tell a compelling story.  In Clarence’s account, the highest standard is reached and when you have your copy you’ll reread it many times.

 

To order a copy:

 

Copies are available at $25.00 + shipping and can be ordered from G.S. MacManus, 12 Water Street Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania 19010.  Their telephone number is (610) 520-7273.

 

Their website: 

https://www.macmanus-rarebooks.com/

 

Rare Book Monthly

  • Fonsie Mealy’s
    Rare Books & Collectors’ Sale
    April 30th & May 1st
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Taylor (Geo.) & Skinner (A.) Maps of the Roads of Ireland, Surveyed 1777. Lond. & Dublin 1778. €500 to €750.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Messingham (Thos.) Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum seu Vitae et Acta Sanctorum Hibernia, Paris 1624. €350 to €500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus). The Haw Lantern, L. (Faber & Faber) 1987, First Edn., Signed and dated. €225 to €350.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Valencey (Lt. Col. Chas.) Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, Vols. I-IV, 4 vols. Dublin 1786. €400 to €600.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Powerscourt (Viscount). A Description and History of Powerscourt, Lond. 1903. €350 to €500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Moryson (Fynes). An Itinerary ... Containing His Ten Yeeres Travel Through the Twelve Dominions of Germany, Bohermerland, Sweitzerland…, Lond. (John Beale) 1617. €700 to €1,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: After Buffon, Birds of Europe, c. 1820. Approx. 120 fine hd. cold. plts., mor. backed boards. €125 to €250.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Dunlevy (Andrew). An Teagasg Criosduidhe De Reir Ceasda agus Freagartha... The Catechism or Christian Doctrine by Way of Question and Answer, Paris (James Guerin) 1742. €400 to €700.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: The Georgian Society Records of Eighteen-Century Domestic Architecture in Dublin, 5 vols. Complete, Dublin 1909-1913. €500 to €750.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Scale (Bernard). An Hibernian Atlas or General Description of the Kingdom of Ireland, L. (Robert Sayer & John Bennet) 1776. €625 to €850.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: [Johnson (Rev. Samuel)]. Julian the Apostate Being a Short Account of his Life, together with a Comparison of Popery and Paganism,L. (Langley Curtis) 1682. €300 to €400.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Nichlson (Wm.) Illustrator. An Almanac of Twelve Sports, Lond. 1898. €300 to €400.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus) trans. The Light of the Leaves, 2 vols., Mexico (Imprenta de los Tropicos/Bunholt) 1999. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Fleming (Ian). Moonraker, L. (Jonathan Cape) 1955. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus) & Egan (Felim) artist. Squarings, Twelve Poems, D. (Hieroglyph Editions Ltd.) 1991. €1,750 to €2,250.
  • Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: ANDERSEN'S EXTREMELY RARE FIRST APPEARANCE IN PRINT. "Scene af: Røverne i Vissenberg i Fyen." in Harpen, 1822.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: FIRST ISSUE OF THE FIRST THREE FAIRY TALE PAMPHLETS, WITH ALL INDICES AND TITLE PAGES. Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. 1835-1837.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: THE FIRST FAIRY TALES WITH A SIGNED CARTE DE VISITE OF ANDERSEN AS FRONTIS. Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. 1835-1837.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: KARL LAGERFELD. Original pastel and ink drawing in gold, red and black for Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes (1992), "La cassette de l'Empereur."
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: PRESENTATION COPY OF THE SIXTH PAMPHLET FOR PETER KOCH. Eventyr, Fortalte For Børn, Second Series, Third Pamphlet. 1841. Publisher's wrappers, complete with all pre- and post-matter.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN RARE AUTOGRAPH QUOTATION SIGNED IN ENGLISH from "The Ugly Duckling," c.1860s.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: HEINRICH LEFLER, ORIGINAL WATERCOLOR FOR ANDERSEN'S SNOW QUEEN, "Die Schneekönigin," 1910.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: FIRST EDITION OF ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES IN ENGLISH. Wonderful Stories for Children. London, 1846.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: ANDERSEN ON MEETING CHARLES DICKENS. Autograph Letter Signed ("H.C. Andersen") in English to William Jerdan, July 20, 1847.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: PRESENTATION COPY FOR EDGAR COLLIN. Nye Eventyr og Historier. Anden Raekke. 1861.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: DOLL HOUSE FURNITURE BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSON, DECORATED WITH FANTASTICAL CUT-OUTS, for the children of Jonna Stampe (née Drewsen), his godchildren.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: PRESENTATION COPY FOR GEORG BRANDES. Dryaden. Et Eventyr fra Udstillingstiden i Paris 1867. 1868.
  • ABAA Spring VBF
    May 1-3
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    May 1-3
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    May 1-3
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    ABAA Spring VBF
    May 1-3
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    ABAA Spring VBF
    May 1-3
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    ABAA Spring VBF
    May 1-3
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    ABAA Spring VBF
    May 1-3
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    May 1-3
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  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR

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