Nabokov's Butterfly: And Other Stories of Great Authors and Rare Books

by Rick Gekoski

Book Overview

A first edition of Ulysses sold for 460,000 in auction at Christie's in 2002. The price might have upset the union chief, convicted gangster, and major-league James Joyce book collector Dennis Silverman, who had sold his copy, signed and inscribed by the author, for a mere 135,000 ten years earlier. Great books attract all kinds and come to fascinating destinies of their own, as Nabokov's Butterfly amply demonstrates. Here, noted author and rare book...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786716541
• ISBN13: 9780786716548
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Entertaining read!

This book was not only entertaining but also educational. The writer is charming as he relates his book dealing experiences with some of the most famous writers of the 20th century.

Totally interesting and so well written

This book is a compilation of stories by a book collector about such classics as: Lolita, The Catcher in the Rye, and On the Road. Even if you're not a book collector you'll be amazed at the amount of money people are willing to spend on manuscripts and signed first editions. It's very interesting! The best part about this book is that Mr. Gekoski writes a short biography about each book. I guess it would be a bookography wouldn't it? Anyway, if you're a writer or aspire to be one, you'll find that even the giants of literature didn't have such an easy job getting what we now consider classics published. This is a fantastic read and I can't say enough about how interesting it is. Double points for it being written so well! Good job, Mr. Gekoski, please write more!

Bibliophile's Delight

Nabokov's Butterfly is a short but delightful book about some of Rick Gekoski's most memorable moments as a rare book dealer and collector. I particularly enjoyed the segments where Gekoski describes his personal friendships and contacts with some of the authors. I was amazed at some of the prices he has received for some books, and interested to see how authors go in and out of fashion, so that someone no one bothered to collect twenty years ago can suddenly become highly collectable and extremely expensive. (And enormously profitable to those far sighted enough to collect them ahead of time!) This book is about both the love of book collecting and the art of selling them. While personally I doubt I could ever bear to sell some of the volumes Gekoski deals with if I were lucky enough to have them in my possession, I enjoyed this glimpse into what has obviously been a fascinating career.

Not your typical "bookseller-with-stories" book!

Rick Gekoski's book is much better than similar titles in the "let me tell you about the great books I've found" genre. Unlike David Meyer's Memoirs of a Book Snake or John Baxter's A Pound of Paper, which lean toward autobiography, Gekoski focuses primarily on the twenty books at hand. Each chapter details the publishing history of a classic (Ulysses, The Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, The Hobbit, etc.), including the politics, frustrations, and joys involved in bringing a text to life. Gekoski does provide the occasional book hunter's tale, but keeps his eye on the book at hand and restrains from self-promotion. I did not keep the books mentioned above, but will happily place this book on my shelf next to two of my favorites: Robert Wilson's Modern Book Collecting and Nicholas Basbanes's Among the Gently Mad. A fun and educational read!