Role of a Literary Archives Dealer: John Wronoski audio interview with Nigel Beale.
John Wronoski is a rare book dealer who specializes in literature, and primary works in the history of ideas in English, German, French, Spanish, and Russian. His shop, Lame Duck Books, contains the most significant selection of 19th and 20th century Spanish language literature in the world, and important originals of 17th and 18th century English poetry. In addition to performing the traditional role of bookseller, John has served as agent in the institutional placement of archives for some of the 20th Century’s most important authors, among them three Nobel laureates.
It is in this capacity, as literary archives dealer, that we talk here about, among other things: the importance of recognizing value in the rare book trade, paper production in the lives of writers, evident spiritual input in the process of creation, the evaluation, cataloguing, packaging and marketing of manuscripts, the comparative value of long-hand versus typed documents, the compatibility of pen and paper with the flow of thought, the value of hand written/type-written correspondence versus email, rich book dealers getting richer, Frederic Tuten’s Tin Tin in the World, loosing $1 million manuscripts and adoption agencies.
(Please note the interview was conducted before the British Library purchased the Pinter archive)
Copyright © 2007 by Nigel Beale
From one great to another: "A very good overview from one of the great dealers of our time," says Steven Temple, Proprietor, Steven Temple Books, Toronto.
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February 12th, 2008 at 3:29 PM
[...] Lame Duck Books is a wonderful rare book dealer right near my own store. They have one of the best Spanish language literature selections of the 19th and 20th century I’ve ever seen. Nigel Beale has posted a lovely interview with proprietor John Wronoski. Nigel also has put up pictures of all the bookstores he’s visted. And look, there we are! [...]