ANTIQUARIAN AND RARE BOOKS IN LONDON AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Abstract

“Booksellers are generous liberal-minded men.” According to Boswell, Dr. Johnson made this remark in 1756, though anyone remotely acquainted with Johnson will also know that he was equally capable of thinking—and saying—something quite the opposite; it would be imprudent to overlook the possibility of irony here. The London book trade in the eighteenth century was a busy one, and its history is the subject of some of the best research being done on London’s culture. There was also a prospering trade in second-hand or “previously owned” books, and a large number of books from previous centuries are often found in . . .