READ THIS: THE MAN WHO LOVED BOOKS TOO MUCH: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession By Allison Hoover Bartlet

The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession

We love books, but not too much, as in this case of too much! Allison Hoover Bartlett paints a story that is beyond the comprehension of most with ethics that is too strange not to be true and we commend her for the outstanding lengths she went to to tell this tale of addiction.

Not that addiction is always a bad thing; here at Whom You Know some of our best work springs out of addiciton: Shoe of the Week (shoe addiction), Peachy's Picks (excellent restaurant and crabcake addiction), and you only need to look at the number of posts under product alert to see how much we love the latest on the market in that world. However, none of these addictions have put us behind bars (!) so supposedly we do not love them too much.

The psychology behind The Man Who Loved Books is complex and is stems from a world of collectors, hence the double category in Advantageous Auctions. Again, collecting is fabulous we think but only when done within the parameters of the law!

According to Interpol, the theft of rare books may be more internationally widespread than the theft of fine art. Until now, the history of these crimes has remained largely hidden, shielded by an insular community of book dealers and collectors who prefer to keep their losses private. THE MAN WHO LOVED BOOKS TOO MUCH: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession (Riverhead Books; Publication Date: September 17, 2009; Price: $24.95) is journalist/writer Allison Hoover Bartlett’s unique and first-person account of this secretive world of rare books. Her journey to understand what drives people within this cloistered and obsessive world of collectors, and the occasional thief, is a fascinating adventure.

Many book dealers will say that “every rare book is a stolen book,” alluding to the fact that people had been collecting and stealing books even before Gutenberg invented the printing press. In her journey, Allison Hoover Bartlett met dozens of interesting dealers, ardent bibliomaniacs, and in some cases, “bibliokleptomaniacs,” all of them drawn to the book trade because of their obsessive love of books.
Bartlett herself was drawn into this mysterious world when a friend found in his brother’s belongings “a nearly 400-year-old book cloaked in a tan linen sack and a good deal of mystery.” A hand-written note attached to the book indicated that it had been withdrawn from a college library and never returned.

Bartlett became immediately entranced and began to investigate the unique book’s origins, a search that led her down the rabbit’s hole of the rare book world. As she came to learn more and more about this cloistered community, she became fascinated by the question of what draws people to books, and why people place so much value on such an everyday object. She learned stories about famous discoveries, infamous hoaxes, intriguing collections, and—most interestingly—story upon story of famous thefts. What, Bartlett asked herself, was so intoxicating about a book that it would drive someone to cross the line and steal it?

Along her journey into this insular world of dealers, collectors, and just plain book lovers, Bartlett discovered rare book dealer Ken Sanders, who had become obsessed with catching his real-life nemesis, John Gilkey, the most successful and elusive book thief in recent years. Bartlett contacted Sanders, a natural-born storyteller, who soon divulged what he knew about the infamous thief and told her that he believed Gilkey stole because of his love for books, not to re-sell them for profit. Bartlett identified with this motivation and became driven to find Gilkey and the roots of his motivation, hoping it would help answer the underlying question of just why we love books so much – so much that a person would risk his freedom to have them.

She found him, in prison, and he was eager to tell his story. Before long, he’d been released on parole and was taking her on a tour of his crime scenes. Soon, she had befriended both Gilkey and Sanders, and was able to piece together their histories to illustrate the elaborate cat-and-mouse chase that resulted, ultimately, in Gilkey’s capture and the discovery of his loot. Through her research along the way, Bartlett met a host of other dealers and collectors, each with their own story to share. And the more she found out, the more she began to realize the irrepressible importance of books, whether the well-loved copy of Charlotte’s Web that Bartlett has shared with both her children, or the one of only fourteen original copies of Tamerlane and Other Poems, the first published work by Edgar Allan Poe, which surfaced at a New Hampshire antiques barn not so long ago, bought for $15 and later sold at auction for $198,000.

Amid all the debates about the value and popularity of e-books right now, THE MAN WHO LOVED BOOKS TOO MUCH proves why for some people, you can’t put a price on the love of a physical book. As A.S.W. Rosenbach, a 20th Century book dealer once said, “I have known men to hazard their fortunes, go long journeys halfway about the world, forget friendships, even lie, cheat, and steal, all for the gain of a book.”

Riverhead Books

Publication Date: September 17, 2009
Price: $24.95

ISBN: 978-1-59448-891-7