Thursday, March 25, 2010

There's hope for us all

Otto Penzler, seller and collector of mysteries, is selling the part of his collection devoted to British spy novels, including a first edition of Casino Royale with a guide price of $20,000 to $30,000.

"Because my bookshop was in Manhattan, most authors sooner or later found themselves visiting, where I distinguished myself as an enormous irritant by asking them to inscribe my books," he said. Initially built to hold 9,000 volumes "just in case", Penzler built his shelves two rows deep "and they rapidly filled". The collection, which also includes "an equally extensive" range of American espionage fiction, now numbers around 60,000 volumes.

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