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Taste & Technique in Book Collecting
Originally published in 1948, this book contains the text of the Sandars Lectures in Bibliography for the previous year. Carter reflects upon the evolution and method of book collecting from the middle of the nineteenth century until the 1940s, and meditates on what it means to be a book collector, the changing definition of that term, and recent developments in collecting styles. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in bibliophilism or the history of book collecting.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1948
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 5, 2020
Sometimes you have to revisit an old classic to learn just how much it has influenced you and how much you have grown since you first studied it. So much of what I take to be true comes from this book.
September 17, 2020
This is a classic of the small literature on book collecting, first published in 1948, then slightly revised a few times, with an epilogue (the author’s presidential address to the Bibliographic Society) added in 1970. It considers the history and (then) current practice of book collecting, with two themes.
The issue of taste has to do with collectors’ preferences, rational and irrational. They like first editions (probably rational), they like the first editions from the author’s home country, even when they are not true firsts (probably not), they like to have all the original endpapers, ads and other extraneous material in their books (??), they like to have the “original” book covers, even when they were not intended to be marketed to the public (wrong), and so on. The author has his own views on all these things, although they are not usually dogmatic.
Technique has to do with how one finds, selects, and describes the books one is collecting. Here the science of bibliography comes in, with its attempts to properly describe old books that are extremely variable, with weird printing anomalies, with different covers put on the same text or the same covers put on different editions, and so on. Identifying the field of your collection can be a surprisingly difficult matter, and then trying to figure out what the significant books are in it and whether they’re worth collecting are all discussed.
Carter, as a former bookseller, has his opinions about the roles of collectors, libraries, booksellers, auction houses, and the other characters in the game. I would say that his view of the booksellers is overly generous, as he feels you should defer to their prices without arguing, use them to represent you at auction (for a fee), and generally treat them as institutions rather than people who are working for you. He freely admits the existence of ignorant and dubious sellers—he is not naive. But I don’t think he gives serious consideration to whether these middle-men could be dispensed with in many situations.
The book is dated in many respects, which is not a bad thing. It reveals a picture of what book collecting at a high level was like for much of the 20th century. However, there is a definitely clubbiness evident in the descriptions, which I take to accurately describe the old-boy network that operated in the field. Of course, every single aspect of the business has been changed by the internet and the disappearance of many physical shops, to the degree that Carter would not recognize the business today. It should also be noted that the buyers and sellers are generically “men,” which is certainly annoying, but it also correctly described the field mid-century, with a very few exceptions. That is not the case today.
Carter is a good writer, with a distinguished tone, not afraid to put in short Greek quotes, on the assumption that we of course will understand them. The epilogue updates the book 20+ years later, although it also descends to the level of reminiscences of the London bookselling characters of his youth. This was probably very meaningful to his audience then, but it can mean little to readers today. However, even this was mildly interesting, again emphasizing what has been lost when your book buying is done by email or over a website like ABEbooks.com (which, like Goodreads, owned by Amazon).
As I have recommended before in books on this topic, those who are interested in this kind of thing will find it interesting. Those who are not, will definitely NOT be able to get through it. I find it interesting in the same way that I find history interesting, in part to consider the differences between our lives today and how people made it through their lives in the past, without the zillion conveniences, social structures, government, and so on that I take for granted now. When there was no internet, how did you find books, find out what its fair price was, get it before anyone else did, and so on? This book will answer that question, along with many others that never occurred to you to ask.
The issue of taste has to do with collectors’ preferences, rational and irrational. They like first editions (probably rational), they like the first editions from the author’s home country, even when they are not true firsts (probably not), they like to have all the original endpapers, ads and other extraneous material in their books (??), they like to have the “original” book covers, even when they were not intended to be marketed to the public (wrong), and so on. The author has his own views on all these things, although they are not usually dogmatic.
Technique has to do with how one finds, selects, and describes the books one is collecting. Here the science of bibliography comes in, with its attempts to properly describe old books that are extremely variable, with weird printing anomalies, with different covers put on the same text or the same covers put on different editions, and so on. Identifying the field of your collection can be a surprisingly difficult matter, and then trying to figure out what the significant books are in it and whether they’re worth collecting are all discussed.
Carter, as a former bookseller, has his opinions about the roles of collectors, libraries, booksellers, auction houses, and the other characters in the game. I would say that his view of the booksellers is overly generous, as he feels you should defer to their prices without arguing, use them to represent you at auction (for a fee), and generally treat them as institutions rather than people who are working for you. He freely admits the existence of ignorant and dubious sellers—he is not naive. But I don’t think he gives serious consideration to whether these middle-men could be dispensed with in many situations.
The book is dated in many respects, which is not a bad thing. It reveals a picture of what book collecting at a high level was like for much of the 20th century. However, there is a definitely clubbiness evident in the descriptions, which I take to accurately describe the old-boy network that operated in the field. Of course, every single aspect of the business has been changed by the internet and the disappearance of many physical shops, to the degree that Carter would not recognize the business today. It should also be noted that the buyers and sellers are generically “men,” which is certainly annoying, but it also correctly described the field mid-century, with a very few exceptions. That is not the case today.
Carter is a good writer, with a distinguished tone, not afraid to put in short Greek quotes, on the assumption that we of course will understand them. The epilogue updates the book 20+ years later, although it also descends to the level of reminiscences of the London bookselling characters of his youth. This was probably very meaningful to his audience then, but it can mean little to readers today. However, even this was mildly interesting, again emphasizing what has been lost when your book buying is done by email or over a website like ABEbooks.com (which, like Goodreads, owned by Amazon).
As I have recommended before in books on this topic, those who are interested in this kind of thing will find it interesting. Those who are not, will definitely NOT be able to get through it. I find it interesting in the same way that I find history interesting, in part to consider the differences between our lives today and how people made it through their lives in the past, without the zillion conveniences, social structures, government, and so on that I take for granted now. When there was no internet, how did you find books, find out what its fair price was, get it before anyone else did, and so on? This book will answer that question, along with many others that never occurred to you to ask.
September 3, 2009
Larry McMurtry recommends this is in his own memoir regarding book dealing as one of the best books on collecting he's read. I'm not sure I would go that far, but appreciate its distinct contribution to the genre. Written by a dealer in a time when most book narratives are dominated by collectors, this book offers a new perspective to the midcentury market for rare books, and rescues the status of the book dealer from those collectors whose wish to malign him by exposing how such ill-favor has more to do with collectors' own miserly efforts to get good bargains than their questioning of dealers' expertise. Carter does good work defining book collectors at the beginning of his account, and moves on from there to discuss the sweeping history of the book trade. He makes some interesting comparisons between British and American collectors (the latter are apparently more interested in showing off their collections than the former, but are also more amenable to cultivating their hobby beyond the rigid bounds of its Continental past). In part two, he talks about the elements that make books valuable, and has some interesting things to say about trends in taste vis a vis the economy. In the end, his account of the rare book trade comes off as more even-handed than many collectors' accounts. He uses anecdotes from his own experience and knowledge, but seems untroubled by the biases that passionate collectors might have for their hobby. In this sense, I agree with McMurtry that Carter's account is well-worth praise.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews