Bibliophobia. Remarks on the Present Languid and Depressed State of Literature and the Book Trade. In a Letter addressed to the Author of the "Bibliomania." By Mercurius Rusticus. With notes by Cato Parvus.
London: [William Davy for] Henry Bohn 4, York Street, 1832.
Price: $400.00
About the item
First edition, ordinary paper copy. 102 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Stitched. Minor toning and soiling, small loss at top margin of title page; lacking erratum slip and publisher’s slip at p. 90. Very good copy as originally issued. Cloth backed card folder. Jackson 82; Windle and Pippin A60; Neuburg 19.
Item #311296
"Where were ye, ye pains-taking, fiddle-faddling, indefatigable collectors of Franks-ye threaders of autographic scraps-ye 'Albumites' . . ."
So writes Dibdin,writing as both "Cato Parvus" and "Mercurio Rusticus," the pseudonyms used in "Bibliomania," in his diatribe about the state of the book market, or more, accurately, at the collectors who failed to show for the sale of the original manuscripts of the Waverley Novels. The sale, at Evans', 19 August 1831, whether due to the fear of the Reform, the economy, or the cholera epidemic, was a failure, with the original manuscript of "The Monastery" fetching only £18.18s. Dibdin saw this as but a symptom of the depression and "fear" in the book market and book collecting and describes this "disease" and his efforts to overcome it. Dibdin optimistically wrote of the recovery of the market and fields.
