It is time to give up the image. Book Collecting is no longer a pursuit confined mostly to rich middle-aged white men.
The picture above is of Sophie Dahl and appears in her piece for Men’s Vogue titled book lust. On Sept. 11, 2001 when evacuating her NY apartment Dahl says “I took a small bag and filled it with my grandmother’s jewelry, childhood letters from my parents, a toothbrush, and a pair of jeans. But the lumpy bulk of it was incurred by my books.” This solidifies Dahl’s place with the most ardent and true collectors.
“Miss Dahl is, after all, a marketing dream: eyes like waterfalls, breasts like the white cliffs of Dover – and literary genes, too. Grandfather wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. At last! An author fit to grace the cover of Vogue.” is how Rachel Cook put it when she reviewed Dahl’s literary effort The Man with the Dancing Eyes for the Guardian in 2003.
As technology has transformed the book trade it has also opened the floodgates for collectors. P. Scott Brown at Fine Books and Collections calls these days the “golden age of book collecting.” In a recent interview with Brown, A.J. Kohn, the former marketing director for Alibris, said “the Internet is introducing collecting to a new audience or simply making it easier for edge collectors to really join the mainstream. So, over time there will be more collectors and the supply and demand curve will change…I see a bright future for collecting, with a much wider audience with new niches to fill and passions to explore.”
There is hope in the Dark Ages.
While at Men’s Vogue don’t miss Dahl’s 5 minute video visit to Bauman Rare Books in NYC.
Thanks to Habitually Chic for the Sophie Dahl lead