Percy H. Muir (1894–1979)

Now very largely outdated, though there is still some useful advice in here about reference books, getting to know booksellers, collecting what you like and not what other people tell you to collect, not thinking of books as investments, &c. And some amusing bits: many of the areas Muir suggests as "under-collected" in the 1940s are now decidedly the opposite, for example, and he has a lot to say about the potential rise of "talking books" and other alternative modes of reading which look show more much different today. Written in Muir's typically no-holds-barred style, which makes for very engaging reading, but does come across as a bit preachy. Certainly a book worth looking into for its ideas about book collecting at a time very different to our own. show less

Lockhart tells of the nicknames Scott had for the two Ballantyne printers. John was Rigdumfunnidos and James was Aldiborontiphoscophornio. He does not tell us where Scott found the names or why he gave them to the Ballantynes. And now, well over a hundred years since the great Life was published, there comes from one of the illustrations in Mr. Muir's book a faint, unexpected glimmer of light on this oddest of odd little problems. ...

(Spectator, 2 April 1954, p. 32)