Graham Pollard Memorial Lecture

In 1903 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle resurrected Sherlock Holmes, who made his reappearance disguised as a book collector. Two decades later, Dorothy L. Sayers introduced readers to her sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey, on his way to a book auction, establishing him as a collector of rare books and manuscripts. In addition to the book trade’s appearances in crime fiction, crimes against and by British booksellers were documented in newspapers, court records, diaries and letters. Together these sources offer insights into booksellers’ operations during a “Golden Age” for both crime fiction and the British book trade. This talk will focus on the most common accusations made in connection with the book trade by examining cases of theft, fraud and obscenity. It will explore what these allegations reveal both about the value of books and the responsibilities of the book trade as part of British culture and society.