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The Times Deceased: The Rare Book Department of The Times Bookshop in the 1960s
First edition. Timothy d'Arch Smith's tales of his bookselling in the sixties. He dwells on fellow booksellers and thier quirks, as well as his customers. Scarce book. 140 pages. cloth, dust jacket. 8vo.
Hardcover
Published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 6, 2019
This review was previously posted on the Side Real Press website in 2012.
This is a delightful book.
During his time at the bookshop Smith changed its focus from a dumping ground of The Times lending library and repository of leather bound sets of authors works to something more edgy and subversive, as he began to acquire, as much for his own interest as anything else, books by Aleister Crowley, the decadents, occultists and pursuers of 'amatory unorthodoxy'.
Thus although ostensibly about the subject of the title, the bookshop acts more as a canvas upon which Smith presents pen portraits of the authors and collectors and eccentrics who have crossed his path. This is in addition to interesting diversions into his own literary forebears (the Frankaus) and the practice of Ritual Magic which he performed in a small Hampstead flat with scarcely enough room to swing a sword.
We read of the large ivory phallus (with detachable foreskin) which Montague Summers kept on his desk, the bookseller George Sims who kept a guest book where visitors could record their likes and dislikes, the 'lapses of delicacy' that occured when Smith visited the poet A. L. Rowse, R. A. Caton and the Fortune Press, Gerald Yorke (the Crowley scholar) and of course books themselves.
Signed 'Draculas', the letters of Baron Corvo, much on the Uranian poets (as one might expect from the author of 'Love In Ernest'), 'Moby Dick', the manuscript of 'Under Milk Wood', 'My Secret Life', Gothic Novels etc.
All this is told in an enthusiastic and cheerful manner a million miles away from the stereotypical view of booksellers as dour and taciturn. It is laugh out loud funny, a very rare thing for me when reading.
The style belies the fact that Smith is one sharp cookie and he makes some very interesting connections in the course of the book which I found myself mentally (attempting to) file away as 'things to look out for' on my own book hunts.
Entertaining and informative. If I maintained by 'books of the year' recommendations this would certainly be one of them. Go and buy it.
*Full disclosure. I know Timothy D'Arch Smith now, but did not at the time of writing this review.*
This is a delightful book.
During his time at the bookshop Smith changed its focus from a dumping ground of The Times lending library and repository of leather bound sets of authors works to something more edgy and subversive, as he began to acquire, as much for his own interest as anything else, books by Aleister Crowley, the decadents, occultists and pursuers of 'amatory unorthodoxy'.
Thus although ostensibly about the subject of the title, the bookshop acts more as a canvas upon which Smith presents pen portraits of the authors and collectors and eccentrics who have crossed his path. This is in addition to interesting diversions into his own literary forebears (the Frankaus) and the practice of Ritual Magic which he performed in a small Hampstead flat with scarcely enough room to swing a sword.
We read of the large ivory phallus (with detachable foreskin) which Montague Summers kept on his desk, the bookseller George Sims who kept a guest book where visitors could record their likes and dislikes, the 'lapses of delicacy' that occured when Smith visited the poet A. L. Rowse, R. A. Caton and the Fortune Press, Gerald Yorke (the Crowley scholar) and of course books themselves.
Signed 'Draculas', the letters of Baron Corvo, much on the Uranian poets (as one might expect from the author of 'Love In Ernest'), 'Moby Dick', the manuscript of 'Under Milk Wood', 'My Secret Life', Gothic Novels etc.
All this is told in an enthusiastic and cheerful manner a million miles away from the stereotypical view of booksellers as dour and taciturn. It is laugh out loud funny, a very rare thing for me when reading.
The style belies the fact that Smith is one sharp cookie and he makes some very interesting connections in the course of the book which I found myself mentally (attempting to) file away as 'things to look out for' on my own book hunts.
Entertaining and informative. If I maintained by 'books of the year' recommendations this would certainly be one of them. Go and buy it.
*Full disclosure. I know Timothy D'Arch Smith now, but did not at the time of writing this review.*
December 14, 2024
[Stone Trough Books] (2003). HB/DJ. 1/1. 140 Pages. Signed, inscribed and dated. Purchased from Richard Dalby’s Library.
Entertaining. Well written. Somewhat esoteric.
A short memoir, focussed upon the author’s extensive and varied ‘literary life’.
Includes interesting references to the likes of Montague Summers, Aleister Crowley, Henry Green, Gerald Yorke, Dennis Wheatley, Dylan Thomas, George Sims and John Gawsworth.
Indexed.
Tiny print.
Entertaining. Well written. Somewhat esoteric.
A short memoir, focussed upon the author’s extensive and varied ‘literary life’.
Includes interesting references to the likes of Montague Summers, Aleister Crowley, Henry Green, Gerald Yorke, Dennis Wheatley, Dylan Thomas, George Sims and John Gawsworth.
Indexed.
Tiny print.
July 29, 2011
Enthralling memoir of a lost age.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews