[On summarizing the import of the Martin sale:] In the end, there were tremendous record prices, there was a big enough sale, diverse enough, and there were some real buying opportunities in the mass of the sale.

Excerpts and paraphrases from an interview about the H. Bradley Martin sales with Glenn Horowitz of Glenn Horowitz Booksellers, Inc., New York, New York, conducted 7/30/03:

[On what he remembers about the Martin sale:] There are a couple of things that come to mind as interesting or significant about the Bradley Martin sale. The first thing is that in some way, it was the last gasp of a very buoyant decade in the 1980s in the bookworld. After the Martin sale, recession certainly set in and affected the book trade, as it did nearly all other trades as well.

[On what the Martin sale consisted of:] There was this fantastic abundance of books in many different fields that came into the market at the same time with the Martin sale. What was interesting was that you could make the argument that it wasn’t necessarily an aesthetic landmark – yes there were 9 sales, consisting of wonderfully interesting material – but no one facet of the parts stood out as especially compelling or exceptional. Some parts had some slim pickings even.

[On the environment of the Martin sale:] People were really very, very enthusiastic. It was truly one of the half dozen really memorable auction experiences I had. People thought that they were participating in something historic. Remember, many of these books hadn’t seen the light of day in decades, in many cases.