This was Neil Pearson the actor, not acting. He's had a secret passion for years, that some new about, but at Hay, he really came out. He's a serious book collector, with some 2,500 books in his collection. He's also written a book which will come out in autumn 2007, but more on that later. He was accompanied by Rick Gekoski, who is a book collector and dealer and the two appeared to be very good friends.
A dry topic perhaps, but Pearson set the tone of fun with his opening words "Sorry you couldn't get into Martin Amis". The event was relaxed, educational, professional and highly enjoyable, with more than a touch of history. Pearson set the scene saying that festivals like Hay are more concerned with the insides of books and not the outsides, the books themselves. He declared that books can be beautiful objects in their own right. (A thought I know a few readers of this blog will share.) Some books, said Pearson, have their own stories to tell. All this was to be explored along with the books Gekoski and Pearson had written, prices and condition, (which he called "The Antiques Roadshow bit"), and two star exhibits from their own collections.
Pearson introduced Gekoski thus, "Rick is a rare book dealer, but despite of that, I like him". He has a firm based in London which concentrates on modern first editions at the "extreme top end of the market with prices to match".
Pearson explained that his passion started in 1984 when he needed a "big reading project" whilst doing some theatre work, so he picked a book, part of a series, read it and started buying the rest of series, moving on to hardbacks. One day, he went through Cecil Court on his way to work and saw "a pretty hardback in good condition". He asked about the price. He was told the price and then said the words he says many of us say when hearing a price, "How much?" He bought the book and then needed the other eleven in the series. By now, he considers himself "well schooled", with a collection of 2,500 books that are first editions. Gekoski then quipped that having been to Pearson's home a few times, he'd been "under the impression that Neil didn't have a dining table" until he noticed piles of books on four legs.
Pearson acknowledged that people can understand the passion to collect books (generally those who share it), or they can be completely turned off by it. Personally, he can't understand why people collect such things as stamps and train numbers. He likes to think of himself as a feeder to the museum of what has made our literary world develop, a sort of private curator "while we decide what's worth keeping". He specialises in one area: 1930s Paris. Elaborating on the period, Pearson noted that many think of that time between the wars as the jazz age, where in 1929 with the Wall Street crash, many returned home. But, there was a second wave of writers leading to, what Pearson described as a "fecund, fertile literary breeding ground up to the second world war".
Gekoski then told the audience about Pearson's forthcoming book "Obelisk". Gekoski admires Pearson for his ability to take three seemingly boring strands and to make a lively success of them. We were told that the book starts with the biography of Jack Kahane, the founder of Obelisk Press; has a full bibliography of what they published; and finishes with a précis of each book and its author (which was noted as a difficult task, as a few were anonymous and some pornographic). To illustrate Pearson's achievement in creating something of energy and fun, Gekoski then read an excerpt from one of the book summaries, which if I remember correctly was a book called "Starborne". The audience laughed. The book is apparently about the development of a boy as seen through the series of his "yearnings" as he grows up. You had to hear it. Actually, you have to read it. After this event, I will certainly be buying this book when it comes out. The final comment on this topic from Gekoski was this: "No one reads a bibliography and says 'terrific read'. I laughed a lot. I recommend Neil's book."
Pearson then went on to explain the background of Obelisk Press. Publishers in 1920s Paris had plenty of hits, but most were one-hit wonders. When Jack Kahane went into business, he could not afford to fail as he didn't have the money. In 1929, with his own novel writing career going nowhere, he became a publisher, wanting to emulate those who had gone before. The key to this was a legal loophole in France. You could not publish what was considered porn/smut in French, this was French only. Thus, you could publish such works there, in English. Pearson said that Kahane is now known as a "smut pedlar", adding "if you read it now, it's saucy". Obelisk published Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer" in 1934. By publishing what can be considered "pulp, palp, vaguely titillating", Kahane's turnover was sure to grow quickly, so he published books that had been banned in the US and the UK, using the previous bad publicity as good publicity. He even bought the plates from previous publishers, to publish his English language French editions.
Pearson added that Kahane's son Maurice (Girodias - he took his mother's name during the war to evade detection as a Jew) repeated this business model in the 1950s, publishing the first edition of "Lolita", for example (The Olympia Press).
Pearson, on a roll, noted that Kahane also published "Death of a Hero" in 1930, saying "He had a literary strike rate that far exceeded his predecessors, yet no one knows who he is". When Pearson started to investigate and research the man and the press, he found there was nothing, so he decided to write the book himself. Over the last four years, Pearson has "combined the day job" with travel to hunt down the books and write his book on Kahane.
Where Pearson had difficulties with the bibliography because of novels written anonymously, he had it easier because the authors were dead. Apparently, writing a bibliography for a living author provides other types of difficulty. Gekoski once compiled the bibliography for William Golding and this demanded much care and sensitivity. On one occasion when they met up, Golding exclaimed "But what's it for?" Gekoski explained that if a reader wants to know if the novel is published in Bulgarian, "they'll know where to get it". Golding retorted "Why don't they just read the damn books?" Gekoski could only smooth the path by lubricating the meeting further with "Can I refill your glass?" Golding considered bibliographies of living authors to be invasive and once said to Gekoski "It makes me feel posthumous". Gekoski added "One year later, he was".
Then we moved on to price and condition and the star exhibits, starting with Gekoski's copy of D H Lawrence's "The Rainbow". There are only 15 in the world with a dust wrapper. Gekoski has the full package and more.
As an aside, Pearson noted that F Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" (Scribners) sold at Sotheby's a couple of years ago, with the price now nudging towards the £1,000 mark (no dust wrapper). By the 1920s publishers were using eye catching dust jackets to boost sales. However, it took readers a few years to get used to them; they used to chuck the dust jacket after buying, for quite some time, all the way to the 1960s according to Pearson. A copy of that F Scott Fitzgerald with the dust jacket is worth about £100k.
Moving back to D H Lawrence's "The Rainbow", his star book, Gekoski noted that the book was banned and burned because of "pro-German proclivities". But his copy appeared to have D H Lawrence's own book plate and carried the stamp of Curtis Brown, his agent. It's also signed on the title page by Lawrence, who didn't normally sign his novels. 764 of this edition were published and Lawrence once remarked in his letters that it was the only book he cared about.
The story of this copy of the book was added to, by Gekoski. In 1913, two years before "The Rainbow", his UK publishers asked Lawrence to design a book jacket. Curiously, said Gekoski, two years later, Lawrence did a dust jacket for "Sons and Lovers", which has throwback to "The Rainbow". Gekoski bought the drawing. He then went on to buy a letter from Lawrence to his typist (Viola). Gekoski described this as having put together a "terrific little package" of plate, letter, book etc. Where he started out with something worth £20k, he now has £50k in his hands. He also said that he has constructed something that was no longer fetishistic, "but has meaning".
Pearson then introduced his star exhibit saying that he might blow the reputation of George Orwell (a big fan of Miller's "Tropic of Cancer") out of the water. Orwell got a first edition of "Tropic of Cancer", liked it and said so, often and loudly, said Pearson. On his way to the Spanish Civil War at the end of 1935, Orwell started to correspond with Miller and they finally met up. But it did not go well. Miller almost at once, tore into Orwell for the idiocy of going to war. Orwell thought Miller "complacent to the point of cowardice and almost pro-fascist, parasitically living a freedom in Paris, without doing anything to support it", said Pearson.
Miller had a friend, Michael Fraenkel, whose novel "Bastard Death" he wanted Orwell to review. After the war, Miller had persuaded Orwell to review it. Neil Pearson has Orwell's copy of that novel. The inscription makes it obvious it was Orwell's copy. Pearson also has a letter to Fraenkel in which Orwell indicates that he hadn't "understood" it and would read it again for his review. The review was eventually published and Orwell slated the book. Pearson then extricated Fraenkel's novel from its mass of bubble pack protection. Spines don't lie and Pearson showed us the evidence. The pages had only been opened to far, "round about half way through", said Pearson, holding the book in his hands to evidence the natural parting.
After all that, we had bullet point tips for book collecting:
- the market may bottom out, so buy what you love and enjoy, then you'll never be disappointed with your collection
- protect your collection, keeping the books away from sunlight which shades the covers
- cold is better than warm, which can affect the spines
- avoid damp
- read the paperbacks and leave the 1st/1st hardbacks alone
- in addition to bubblepack, you can also have boxes made to protect your books, as Gekoski has.
If these guys continue to present in the lead up to Pearson's publication date and after, then I thoroughly recommend that you go. This was hugely entertaining, humerous, vibrant and educational. Before I left that day, I also bought a paperback copy of Gekoski's "Tolkein's Gown...".
These guys are right. We have a literary heritage that needs to be explored and protected, and it's so great that some with the money to assist in that goal, pursue it with vigour, passion and integrity.
By way of a last word... Pearson the man, as opposed to the actor in character, is charming. He, Gekoski and entourage went into the tent twice before the event, presumably to check out the equipment as they were using a laptop for their presentation. As Pearson walked to the tent entrance he worked the line of queuing attendees, thanking all for coming and smiling graciously at everyone.
He was up against Martin Amis in the programme, but this event was very well attended and I suspect, many booked it for him, not because they missed out on Amis. I also suspect something else. They say the way to man's heart is through his stomach, but now we know what really turns on Neil Pearson, I suspect that the 1930s Parisian published book market may take off big time in the near future. Jack Kahane's Obelisk Press publications will rise again thanks to Pearson.
Pearson's book, "Obelisk" is out in October according to amazon.com, even though September was mentioned at the event. It's published by Liverpool University Press.
This really was an event to hold dear and Pearson's work is not to be missed!
Fantastic post! I am very tempted to go to see Gekoski at the Bath Literary Festival in March - it sounds as though he is a great public speaker.
Posted by: Jackie (Farm Lane Books) | 14 January 2010 at 16:17
Great post. Thanks for the fascinating presentation and the way your own enthusiasm comes shining through. I'll also be looking out for the Pearson book when it surfaces.
Posted by: John Baker | 10 June 2007 at 11:14
What a wonderful post, CrimeFic. As you know I am a huge admirer of Mr Pearson but I only really know of him for his performance in the TV series "Between the Lines" and a few small roles in movies, I had no idea of the book collector and author sides of his persona.
Fascinating. Have you sent a link to your post to Michael Allen (Grumpy Old Bookman) - I feel sure he'd be interested in it.
Posted by: Maxine | 09 June 2007 at 22:20