I've been in the rare book trade for over 25 years, co-founding The Manhattan Rare Book Company in 1999. One of our first acquisitions was a 1685 Shakespeare Fourth Folio, bought sight unseen, bidding by phone at four in the morning at a Sotheby's sale in London. Our first printed catalogue, in 2001, featured that Folio alongside a first edition of The Great Gatsby in the first-state dust jacket.
These days my focus has shifted toward archives and manuscript material. Some offerings are made in association with MRB; others I offer separately. I'm still buying more than I should, but less than I'd like.
Collecting and trading books and manuscripts is exciting. If you get lucky, you might find yourself looking at something no collector, author, or curator has ever set eyes on before. You feel like Indiana Jones. Handling and cataloging material like this is time-consuming but, thankfully, the thrill doesn't fade. In fact, it invariably intensifies.
I'm drawn to books, letters, manuscripts, and documents that capture hinge moments: a new idea taking shape, a private reckoning or revelation, a hidden fault line suddenly exposed, an artistic pivot, a decision whose consequences could not yet be known. And I'm drawn to newly surfaced documents and archives that force us to reconsider what we thought we knew.
Not all the material I handle is uplifting. Hinge moments can open the way to extraordinary human achievement or usher in dark new chapters of history. And sometimes the darkest circumstances produce extraordinary acts of courage, resistance, and humanity. Documents and books bear witness to all of it, making even the most unfathomable chapters of history immediate and human. This material needs to be recognized, understood, and preserved. What is the alternative?
Whatever the subject, the people behind these documents almost never fully understood what they were part of. If you're lucky, once in awhile you come across material no collector, author, or scholar has ever seen before. That's humbling and exciting. Sometimes you feel like Indiana Jones. Find the right material, bring curiosity and empathy to it, and ink on paper comes to life. –