NIGEL BEALE NOTA BENE BOOKS

John Metcalf is best known as a writer/editor who has worked with many of Canada’s foremost short story writers including Michael Winter, Terry Griggs, Steven Heighton, and Caroline Adderson. Born in Carlisle, England, and educated at the University of Bristol, he emigrated to Canada in 1962. In addition to writing his own novels, short stories and essays, he for years edited the work of others at the Porcupine’s Quill. He is currently Senior Editor with Canadian Notes and Queries magazine. Metcalf is also a serious book collector.

Riffing off John Carter's Taste & Technique in Book Collecting, we talk here about, among other things: what defines the book collector, Richard Yates, and Eleven Kinds of  Loneliness being one of the most 'stupendous books of short stories ever published in the United States,' dealers stock-piling the first editions of up and coming authors, Alice Munro's Dance of the Happy Shades and how little a signed First of it costs, connoisseurship and Sir Kenneth Clark, collecting what you love, and what the incipient Canadian book collector should buy.

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Arthur Galwin has collected clocks for more than 30 years. In so doing he has amassed an impressive reference library of books on the topic. Not driven to collect First Editions, Arthur's primary motivation has been to cover the waterfront, to pull together as comprehensive a collection of books on clocks as can be found anywhere in the world.

During our conversation Arthur refers to the person who restored John Harrison's extraordinary marine timekeepers. That person is Lt Cdr Rupert T. Gould. His story can be found in Time Restored: The Harrison timekeepers and R.T. Gould, the man who knew (almost) everything, by Jonathan Betts. Arthure also refers to a number of 'classic' book on clocks. The include: Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers, and The Watch and Clockmakers Handbook: Dictionary and Guide, both by F.J. Britten, English Domestic Clocks by Cescinsky and Webster, and French Clocks the World Over, by Tardy.

As for us non-technical types interested in this fascinating field Arthur recommends Revolution in Time: Clocks and the Making of the Modern World by David Landes.

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Copyright © 2007 by Nigel Beale

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