That Sotheran continues suggests many generations of owners and management, some dozen or so, have found ways to survive and prosper in every type of environment, through wars too numerous to mention, through prosperity, recession and depression, through the golden age of libraries and today the rise of electronic media. There is more to come. Survival is a process, not a destination.
But it is also a signal moment and Sotheran’s has published its story as a book, a fitting approach for a bookseller to commemorate and remember its history. Such accounts appear now and again. Booksellers, recognizing their personal mortality and the comparative immortality of good books, regularly recount their stories in print in the hope that like Yorick they will be remembered well. The best ones are exceptional but many are dreary recountings. This is one of the very good ones, an interesting story well written. The writer, Victor Gray -- formerly Director of the Rothschild Archive, Chairman of the National Council on Archives, and President of the Society of Archivists -- is to be commended.
Whatever may come this volume ensures that Sotheran’s story will be found upon the shelves of they who love books, the chase and adventure. It’s a fascinating story and in my view required reading.
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