Alexander Chancellor

Alexander Chancellor: Pursued around the world by a thousand books

Photo credit: YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images 
issue 14 September 2013

It is exactly 40 years since my elder brother John gave up a successful career as a publisher to set up in business on his own as an antiquarian bookseller. He lived at the time in a fine 18th-century house on Kew Green next to the botanical gardens, and perhaps for no reason other than its location he decided to specialise in botanical books. The business, conducted from his home, went quite well; but various events led him in due course to move to New York, where Kew Books, as the business was and still is called, established itself grandly in Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side.

This proved less successful. The overheads were enormous and the competition formidable, so John moved to Puerto Rico where Kew Books was re-established in the capital, San Juan. The Puerto Ricans are not renowned for their interest in old books, so John developed a sideline in old maps of the Caribbean.

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