Andrew Lycett
Gertrude Stein’s Bra
Tolkien's Gown & Other Stories of Great Authors and Rare Books
By Rick Gekoski
Constable 240pp £12.99
WHEN DOES A bookseller become a dealer? Both need to be able, at a glance, to spot an underpriced book amidst a shelf of dross. Rick Gekoslu provides the good example of visiting Graham Greene's Paris flat and noticing a copy of his littleknown work A& Two Years. This was one of two volumes of poetry published in minuscule editions by the Rosaio Press - named her the Anacapri villa where Greene lived with hls mistress Catherine Walston. It was so obscure that Greene's bibliographer missed it. No copies were sent out; Greene kept numbers one and two - his own and Lady Walston's.
What marks the dealer out from the mere seller is knowing where to offload such items. His most valuable possession is a contacts book crammed with the names of rich clients looking for tasty editions, particularly those with twee inscriptions, general appeal, and dinner-party credibility.
This cannot always be as easy
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
In 1524, hundreds of thousands of peasants across Germany took up arms against their social superiors.
Peter Marshall investigates the causes and consequences of the German Peasants’ War, the largest uprising in Europe before the French Revolution.
Peter Marshall - Down with the Ox Tax!
Peter Marshall: Down with the Ox Tax! - Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War by Lyndal Roper
literaryreview.co.uk
The Soviet double agent Oleg Gordievsky, who died yesterday, reviewed many books on Russia & spying for our pages. As he lived under threat of assassination, books had to be sent to him under ever-changing pseudonyms. Here are a selection of his pieces:
Literary Review - For People Who Devour Books
Book reviews by Oleg Gordievsky
literaryreview.co.uk
The Soviet Union might seem the last place that the art duo Gilbert & George would achieve success. Yet as the communist regime collapsed, that’s precisely what happened.
@StephenSmithWDS wonders how two East End gadflies infiltrated the Eastern Bloc.
Stephen Smith - From Russia with Lucre
Stephen Smith: From Russia with Lucre - Gilbert & George and the Communists by James Birch
literaryreview.co.uk