The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession

Chapter 1

1 John Carter, ABC for Book Collectors, 5th ed. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973), p. 118.

2 Nicholas Basbanes, Among the Gently Mad (New York: Henry Holt, 2002), p. 81.

3 Quoted ibid., p. 72.

4 M. S. Batts, “The 18th-Century Concept of the Rare Book,” The Book Collector, 24 (Autumn 1975), p. 383.

5 Ibid.

6 Readers interested in delving more deeply into this subject might enroll in one of several rare book schools in the world. The oldest and most famous is at the University of Virginia, which offers courses for adults on topics concerning old and rare books, manuscripts, and special collections. (Others are in England, New Zealand, and California.)

7 Collecting has traditionally been a men’s game, but changes are afoot, according to dealer Priscilla Juvelis of Kennebunkport, Maine. As she observed in an interview with the author: “There was always this group of profoundly wealthy people, some of whom happened to be women, who collected books because that’s what people with inherited money did. . . . What has changed dramatically in the twenty-seven years I’ve been in business is that when I started in 1980 there were no women who were heads of libraries’ special collections, with very few exceptions. And there weren’t women rare book librarians. . . . Now there are women heads of special collections. There are women faculty members who insist on teaching Harriet Beecher Stowe as something other than a curiosity. . . . There are a number of women collectors out there who want to collect women authors, writings on women’s rights, and the women collectors I have sold these materials to have money of their own, disposable incomes. . . . The atmosphere changed dramatically.”

8 Since Updike’s death in early 2009, the interest in and thus the value of his books have risen, as is almost always the case when a famous author dies.

9 Ken Sanders. Interview with the author.

10 Basbanes, A Gentle Madness, p. xix.

11 Ibid., p. 59.

12 Ibid., p. 62.

13 Ibid., p. 25.

14 Frognall Dibdin, The Bibliomania or Book Madness (Richmond, VA: Tiger of the Stripe, 2004), p. 15. Dibdin further noted that back in his day, the early nineteenth century, collectors were mad for (in order) “I. Large Paper Copies; II. Uncut Copies; III. Illustrated Copies; IV. Unique Copies; V. Copies printed upon Vellum; VI. First Editions; VII. True Editions; VIII. A general desire for the Black Letter” (heavy, ornate black type, the earliest of which were from the Gutenberg presses). Dibdin himself “craved uncut copies. To any sensible person, a book with uncut bolts is an abomination because it cannot be read, and yet there are many book collectors who will pay a premium for a book which is thus virgo intacta.”

15 Rita Reif, “Auctions,” New York Times, April 1, 1988.

16 John Windle. Interview with the author.

17 The suspect, Daniel Spiegelman, claimed he had supplied weapons to the men responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing, which meant that if extradited to the United States he could have faced the death penalty. The Netherlands’ extradition treaty clearly specifies that if the offense is punishable by death in the country requesting extradition, it may be refused. After no definitive connection to the Oklahoma City bombers was established, Spiegelman was extradited to the United States, where he faced trial and was sentenced to sixty months in prison, three years of supervised release, and three hundred hours of community service. See Travis McDade, The Book Thief: The True Crimes of Daniel Spiegelman (New York: Praeger, 2006), pp. 58-60.

18 Basbanes, A Gentle Madness, p. 29.

19 California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation inmate locator (telephone service).

20 “Brutal Trade of Rare Books,” The Age, February 19, 2003.