At a bookstore, I am drawn first to the ‘Books on books’ section. It is a broad church, comprising volumes on reading, collecting, rare editions, bibliomania.
Alberto Manguel’s A History of Reading rubs shoulders with Rick Gekoski’s Nabokov’s Butterfly , John Carter’s ABC For Book Collectors, and essays by Michael Dirda, Tim Parks, Italo Calvino, Anne Fadiman. There is fiction too: A.S. Byatt, Jasper Fforde, Carlos Zafon, Umberto Eco …
The Book Hunters of Katpadi by Pradeep Sebastian, India’s most refined bibliophile, fits smoothly into that special shelf. Just like The Groaning Shelf , a collection of his columns, did.
“The pleasures of bibliophily for me,” Sebastian once wrote, “lie in fully embracing the book as material object; its bibliographical aspects — binding, edition, condition, rarity, and typography matter to me as much as their literary content.” It is a pleasure he communicates effortlessly.
Emerson once said a man is known by the books he reads. Equally, I think, a man is known by the books he writes. One informs the other, which is why The Book Hunters is a delightful romp through a whole literary subgenre.
From his columns, we know that Sebastian is obsessed with Salinger, collects first editions, has visited more bookstores physically and virtually than most, and understands the esoteric world of antiquarian books. He is an authority on books on books.
By channeling all that knowledge and passion into his first novel, Sebastian has given us a double treat: the fictional story of a manuscript (which may or may not have been authored by the explorer Sir Richard Burton) coveted by collectors, as well as the factual stories of the book world. There is action, suspense, adventure.
The antiquarian world can be fun too as Neela and Kayal, the women who run the fictional bookstore set in Chennai, suggest.
Sebastian also puts into the mouths and actions of his characters enough material on the antiquarian trade, methods of authentication, printing, auctions, and stories of intrigue and thievery to keep the reader interested both in the business of books and in the mystery itself.
Not all collectors are as crazy as Nallathampi Whitehead and Arcot Templar, the major bidders for the Burton manuscript. Some are crazier! In A Gentle Madness , Nicholas Basbanes tells us about the Spanish monk Don Vincente, who, in the 1830s committed eight murders in order to grab copies of rare books owned by his victims!
Perhaps India’s first bibliomystery will inspire the creation of India’s first proper antiquarian — as opposed to the secondhand — bookstore! Quoting a Manhattan rare books dealer earlier this year, Sebastian had written, “the guiding aesthetic principles of rare books-dealing in the West hadn’t taken hold in India.”
Sebastian has shown, with empathy and humour how it can be done. Perhaps he ought to do it himself! Build it and they will come.
He won’t be the first author to run a bookstore. Larry McMurtry, Ann Patchett, Judy Blume, Jonathan Lethem are part of this exclusive club. But that’s another story.
(Suresh Menon is Contributing Editor, The Hindu)
