Minding My Own Business: An Autobiography

by Percy H. Muir

Here is a book which will fascinate alike the book collector and the casual reader. Nothing is more interesting than an expert talking shop - and how well Percy Muir talks it! He tells the story of the firm of Elkin Mathews, the antiquarian booksellers, with which he had been associated since 1930. Founded by Charles Elkin Mathews and the legendary John Lane, it survived two world wars, the great slump of the thirties, many changing fashions in book collecting, and even the gloriously unorthodox methods of its partners. They were, as Percy Muir says a `rum lot' - enthusiasts, experts, eccentrics. There was A. W. Evans, ex-curate and ex-journalist; H. V. Marrot; Greville Worthington, who had a passion for ancient gramophone records and vintage cars; and Eddie Gathorne-Hardy who, when he missed a train, invariably bought a car to drive to his destination and sold it at the other end. We read about the occasion when the notorious T. J. Wise found himself more forged against than forging; about Percy Muir's disastrous libel case and his trips to Nazi Germany to buy musical first editions. Percy Muir's account certainly makes bibliomania enthralling to the layman. First published in 1956 and now reprinted with a new foreword by Barbara Kaye Muir . Jacket spine slightly faded. vii, x , 224 pages. cloth, dust jacket.. 8vo..

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Percy Horace Muir began his career as a bookseller in 1920. He joined the London antiquarian booksellers Elkin Mathews in 1930, and would remain with that firm until his death in Norfolk on November 24, 1979.

Muir was an influential figure among booksellers and book collectors around the world. As president of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association in Britain from 1945-1947, Muir chaired the first conference of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) in 1947. He then served as president of the ILAB from 1950 until 1952. At the end of his term in this office, he was elected Life President of Honor.

Muir's publications include several bibliographies and contributions to bibliographical journals such as The Library. He composed numerous letters, essays, and addresses on book collecting, including the immensely popular Book Collecting as a Hobby: Letters to Everyman (1944) and its sequel in 1949. Muir was a founding member of the Editorial Board of Book Collector, and wrote many reviews for this journal. His Minding My Own Business (1956) was both a history of the firm Elkin Mathews and an autobiographical account of Muir's career from the early 1920s to World War II.

Reviews

[Paul Barnes · Rating 2 out of 5]

[Chatto & Windus] (1956). HB/DJ. 1/1. 224 Pages. Purchased from Sprawl48.

A rather dry history of Elkin Mathews (bookseller); largely focused upon matters mercantile; as such, not really to my taste.