The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett

Author:Charlie Lovett [Lovett, Charlie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2013-04-11T14:00:00+00:00

London, 1875

In a sumptuously appointed office above his retail premises just around the corner from St. Paul’s, Benjamin Mayhew sat at a wide desk composing correspondence. He had expected a visit from Phillip Gardner, his most profitable client, but one o’clock had come and gone and there had been no sign of the collector. Perhaps, thought Benjamin, his train had been delayed.

Benjamin had worked in the book business for over twenty years now, and had built a wealthy clientele who made him a very good living. He well remembered his first encounter with his favorite client, William Henry Smith—the businessman who now served as secretary to the treasury under Benjamin Disraeli. Smith had indeed been intrigued by the book on Ireland’s Shakespeare forgeries and had, over the years, been a steady customer. Though he was by no means a collector, Smith was an intelligent and ambitious man with a level of intellectual curiosity that made good books an essential part of his life. He had become more than a client to Benjamin; he had become a friend and a man for whom the bookseller bore the utmost respect. Benjamin had provided several volumes of source material for Smith’s 1857 book, Bacon and Shakespeare, an expansion of the ideas set forth in the pamphlet that Benjamin had read all those years ago on the train to Oxford. Benjamin had a copy of this book, presented to him by the author, on an honored shelf in his office. The two men had enjoyed a good laugh together when, at Smith’s club, the author had read aloud the second chapter of the book, titled “A Brief History of Shakespeare.”

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