The Private Papers of a Bankrupt Bookseller

Private PapersHidden away, high on a shelf, in a secondhand bookshop in Bath, was a plain green volume. I can spot a 1930s hardback at a hundred metres, and thought it was worth pulling it down, to see what it was… well, truth be told, when I saw the title The Private Papers of a Bankrupt Bookseller (1931), I was hardly likely to leave it where I found it.

It claims to be anonymous, but is actually by William Darling – as somebody has inscribed in the front of my copy. I thought perhaps it was signed by the author, but the pencil note underneath (‘let’s hope I don’t have to write one!’) makes me think that perhaps the Bath bookshop owner put it in there himself.

The book is a collection of very short essays and observations, often no more than a couple of pages long, and give the life of a bookseller. It’s not easy to see how much of it is fiction (it’s certainly not the non-fiction account the narrator asserts), but I’m going to assume that Darling had at least some familiarity with running a bookshop. Sometimes it is about the customers who come in. Sometimes about ordering stock. Often he is diverted into talking about books in general, whether madness in books, books with pictures, blue books, etc. Here, as an example, is part of an enjoyable explanation about the life cycle of unfashionable books:

The first stage is when it arrives – after much of Sunday Times and Observer heralding. It is almost hot from the printers and, if it is a great success, I may sell my three or maybe six. I am encouraged. I believe the book is going to be the big book of the year. I buy another six, and the comes the frost. I am left with them. Strenuously practising salesmanship, I sell – on credit – one – maybe two – more, but the four remain. What can I do with them?

Their jackets – they have always wonderful jackets – coats of many colours – get rubbed and torn and they languish. They become tired and weary. I lose taste of them. I ignore them.

Some Monday I put them into the window. I expatiate to any who will listen on their claims to attention. They are worth buying, if only as representing a phase, I plead. It avails nothing.

I take them out of the window. I try a little longer with them on the counters and then – they are in the old shelves at the back shop incurably, definitely bad stock.

And so it goes on! The narrator/author/character is a genial man, though he has a few stern words to say about the draper working next door, and the draper’s customers. This (inevitably fictitious) draper is also the writer of the preface. This lends some amusement to a volume that remains amusing, even when we learn at the outset that the supposed bookseller has died, penniless, before his papers were discovered.

Alongside the lighthearted tone, the author has created an entertaining and likeable character. Is he the mouthpiece for the authors opinions? One has to assume so, when he recommends books (and this is one of the chief joys of the collection – the number of recommendations from a 1930s perspective, though perhaps not always entirely up my street) though perhaps not at other times.

I love what an unexpected find this was, and how unusual. Who would publish this sort of book today? Those of us who love the 1930s are always after different perspectives on it, and something like this very clearly ticks all sorts of boxes for me and my tastes.

So why hasn’t it escalated into my all-time favourites? Hard to say. Perhaps I would have preferred it to be clearly fictional, or to be actually non-fictional. Maybe the joke wasn’t carried quite far enough, or the mix of satire and sincerity didn’t quite work perfectly. But, if not an all-time favourite, it’s definitely on the second or third tier – extremely enjoyable to read, and a gem for my ever-growing books-about-books shelf.

16 thoughts on “The Private Papers of a Bankrupt Bookseller

  • March 11, 2016 at 8:33 am
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    How I love these unexpected little gems! And amusing to see how topical they still are…

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  • March 11, 2016 at 11:24 am
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    Well spotted!! Sounds like a fun read. What were the recommendations, can you share a few?

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  • March 11, 2016 at 12:36 pm
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    I love books about books, and bookstores, as well. Your discerning eye made me laugh! I’m always on the lookout first for the green Virago spines, but older hardbacks catch my eye as well.

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  • March 12, 2016 at 4:01 pm
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    It looks to be in really good condition as well. I agree with you, this is not a book to be left behind once discovered and it sounds wonderful.
    You and Rachel were on the paths with me this morning. I’m behind in the podcasts but loved listening to the two of you talk about ebooks and tree books. Is there any danger of your home imploding into the basement down to your, and Kirsty’s, book collecting?

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  • March 13, 2016 at 7:07 am
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    I couldn’t have left it either.

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  • March 13, 2016 at 5:12 pm
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    Which bookshop did you get it from Simon, I’m often in Bath , so recommendations of good shops that may have passed me by are always welcome. I too am one of the band of readers who has a shelf of books about books, booksellers, libraries &recommended reads by other authors.
    Lucky you with such a nice find.

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  • March 13, 2016 at 9:38 pm
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    A fun find, indeed. Such witty tales of financial woes in bookselling must have been popular at that time, because the book you found enjoyed a second edition in 1932. Sales were strong enough to grant Mr. Darling another success with a sequel: “The Bankrupt Bookseller Speaks Again,” published in 1937. A combined volume of the two novels with a preface by Mr. Darling was issued in 1947.

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  • March 13, 2016 at 9:47 pm
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    “I can spot a 1930s hardback at a hundred meters …”
    Simon, you made my day.

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  • March 24, 2016 at 4:37 pm
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    I don’t think I would go out of my way to find this, but if I stumble across it I won’t say no.

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  • March 25, 2016 at 1:55 am
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    As a former book clerk this intrigues me. I am sure there is still enough in common for a fun comparison of customers and book selling in general of the 1930s vs those of the 1980s and 1990s. However, we clerks were a pretty odd and entertaining bunch, as well, as I witnessed working in bookstores in four states of the US! I would enjoy those comparisons, too :)

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  • April 21, 2018 at 2:25 pm
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    Found a beautiful copy (Jonathan Cape, Traveller’s Library, 1936, pages still crisp) of the ‘Private Papers’ on a charity sale yesterday, sat down in a café and read. Doing some researsch afterwards, I stumbled over your blog. Thank you for creating such a beautiful place in the middle of that rubbish dump, the internet often is.

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  • August 3, 2020 at 8:34 am
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    “This (inevitably fictitious) draper” – according to Shaun Bythell in “The Diary of a Bookseller” , William Darling was a draper himself.

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  • November 5, 2020 at 5:14 pm
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    I recently came across this book on my own book shelves. I used to be a book seller and I loved it. I am now an HR Manager which is very dull. I am re-reading it now for comfort.

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