Cleveland, World, 1960. By many accounts, the best biography of a bookseller and one of the best books on the antiquarian book trade ever written. John Fleming was for a generation the dean of American antiquarian booksellers, as A.S.W. Rosenbach had been before him. Fleming began working for Rosenbach as a clerk, and eventually worked his way up to being vice-president of the firm; Rosenbach was both his patron and mentor. This copy is inscribed by Fleming to Rosenbach's longtime assistant: "To Jerome E. Brooks. My first friend in the Book World. John Fleming." Brooks has 14 citings in the index, to which he has added, in pencil, a 15th; however, in this copy, Brooks has an even greater presence, having marked or enthusiastically annotated the text more than 100 times, providing either wordless comment by his emphasis, or emphatically correcting the facts (or the myth) about Rosenbach. Rosenbach's clients had been the most avid, and richest, book collectors of their day, and they built many of what are now the most famous institutional collections of rare books and manuscripts. Fleming continued the tradition after Rosenbach died, and became a mentor to another generation of booksellers. Obviously a well-read copy, but still very good, in a good dust jacket chipped at the crown, with splitting to the folds and evidence of aged tape-strengthening on verso. A unique copy, historically interesting, and in many places an addition to the historical record. [#031752] SOLD