Collecting Britain in Pictures
"I stopped, the other morning, at Cunningham Books in Portland, Maine, wanting to meet the proprietor Nancy Grayson, whom someone had told me was a person "not to be missed". I’m glad I caught her.
After commenting on the calm orderliness of the shop – in which every book on every shelf was jacketed in a protective mylar cover, and lovely big windows let in the light – I asked Ms Grayson a question I find myself putting to most booksellers I meet these days. Amid concern in the trade about a decline in book collecting, what was still holding her enthusiasm, I wondered?
Around the corner she took me to face a neat little shelf full of slim, elegant books from the Britain in Pictures series, published by Collins in the 1940s. There were about 25 on the shelf; after identifying about half as first printings, I took an armful over to the cash register, thanking Nancy for planting in me in half an hour the wretched obsession she’s been cursed with for the past 20 years: possession…read the rest here.
And here, incidentally, is a listing of all of the books in the Britian in Pictures series.
