Slightly Foxed - But Still Desirable: Ronald Searle's Wicked World of Book CollectingAs any, even vaguely addicted book collector will have swiftly learned, most booksellers' catalogues are written in a parallel language that can fool anyone but the 'cognoscenti' and which makes the mysteries of the Rosetta stone, or Linear B, look like something out of Enid Blython. Without a smattering of inside information, the baffled but hopelessly-bitten book buyer is drifting unarmed and unprepared into a minefield whose perilous complexities will usually only be made plain when an eagerly awaited parcel of dream volumes arrives and mangled contents are revealed in all their deceptive glory.... But all is not lost. Help is at hand! After a lifetime of avidly scanning the frequently poisonously-tinted pages of innumerable book catalogues, Ronald Searle has become expert in the art of decoding those esoteric, poetic and usually approximate, descriptions of literary come-ons. Now, licking his wounds, he publishes his hard-earned findings in this fully illustrated pioneer guide, designed to foil the devious machinations of scheming and wicked booksellers for ever more. No longer will the innocent book collector need to puzzle over the finer meaning of 'old half road', 'good working copy', blind tooled', or 'tail-edged shaved'. The unvarnished truth is here exposed at last, both in the shocking explicit drawings and in the devastatingly frank glossary whose revelations will startle even the most battle-scarred of bibliophiles. The result is one of the funniest, most entertaining books to have emerged from the brilliantly perceptive pen of the master. No book collector, and certainly no bookseller, can afford to be without it - even the wicked ones. |
Common terms and phrases
acceptable ancient attract Author Barked binding Binding held Blank leaf Blind-tooled Book Collecting bookseller's bottom boxes calf catalogue chewed close cloth contemporary copy corners covers Cracked Decorations Dented desirable Disbound Dog-eared dyed calfskin Evidence faults fingered four Foxed throughout Frontispiece Full sheep gold leaf Grant half Hand Happily head Headpiece hold impressed Incredibly boring comments Ingeniously interpret intricate Labels language least leather leaves literary little loose Maggs manuscript Notes marginal Mellow MICHIGAN minor nice bright Set Numerous Old style once original otherwise owner Parikian Paste-downs pasted pleasant present reach removed Restored Roan Running title Russia serf Signature signs skin Slight Slightly Slightly Foxed Smooth Soft soiling speak sprung stained Stitching stop String Surface abrasion Tail-edge shaved thousand thread thumbed Title Torso treasure Trimmed short trying turn UNIVERSITY Unsophisticated Unwashed usual wicked world world of Book wormhole worming worth