In the rural Australia of the fifties where John Baxter grew up, reading books was disregarded with suspicion, owning and collecting them with utter incomprehension. Despite this, by the age of eleven Baxter had 'collected' his first book - The Poems of Rupert Brooke. He'd read the volume often, but now he had to own it. This was the beginning of what would become a major collection and a lifelong obsession. His book-hunting would take him all over the world, but his first real find was in London in 1978, when he spotted a rare copy of a Graham Greene children's book while browsing on a stall in Swiss Cottage. It was going for 5 pence. This would also, fortuitously, be the day when he first encountered one of the legends of the book-selling world: Martin Stone. At various times pothead, international fugitive from justice, and professional rock musician, he would become John's mentor and friend. In this brilliantly readable and funny book, John Baxter brings us into contact with such literary greats as Graham Greene, Kingsley Amis, J.G. Ballard and Ray Bradbury. But he also shows us how he penetrated the secret fraternity of 'runners' or book scouts - sleuths who use bluff and guile to hunt down their quarry - and joined them in scouring junk shops, markets, auction rooms and private homes for rarities. In the comic tradition of Clive James's Unreliable Memoirs, A Pound of Paper describes how a boy from the bush came to be living in a Paris penthouse with a library worth millions. It also explores the exploding market in first editions. What treasures are lying unnoticed in your garage? Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

As he stooped over a basket full of stuffed animals at a London flea market, Baxter (Robert de Niro; George Lucas) made a discovery that would change his life forever. It was there, in 1978, that he unearthed a children's book by Graham Greene, called The Little Horse Bus, selling for five pence. He snatched it up, then impulsively purchased another Greene novel and one of Greene's African journals as well. Just like that, a book collector was born. Baxter chronicles his growing obsession with books in a way that's utterly infectious, with sharp wit and self-deprecating humor. He flits across Australia, England, the United States and France in pursuit of the perfect collection, always spurred on by the knowledge that book collectors find treasures in the most unlikely places. In his words, "acquiring [books] meant midnight assignations in seedy corners of London, white-knuckle bidding at auctions, speculative drives across England to cities you'd never seen, and nervous knocking on the doors of strangers that, in all probability, would leave you, a minute later, humiliated and empty-handed on the doorstep a hundred miles from home." He takes gleeful pleasure in underpaying those who are ignorant about the worth of their rare books, but he also holds certain texts sacred (like the uncorrected proofs of two James Bond novels given to him by Kingsley Amis). Baxter's memoir will be of great interest to serious book collectors because so much of the book conveys the insider's perspective, but his narrative is truly amusing and rollicking enough to entice book lovers of all kinds. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

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Part 1
1 Collecting Graham	p. 3
2 Left-handed Guns	p. 17
3 The Rules of the Game	p. 41
4 Surly Bonds	p. 58
5 Star Begotten	p. 72
6 The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Reader	p. 83
7 Haunted Screens	p. 102
Postscript to Part One	p. 133
Part 2
8 The Old Country	p. 141
9 A Regional Collection	p. 163
10 With the Rich and Mighty ...	p. 191
11 The End of the Affair	p. 219
12 Bookshop Dreams	p. 245
13 Without Whom ...	p. 269
14 There and Back Again	p. 293
15 Guaranteed Anatomically Correct	p. 315
16 Shakespeare and Company, and Company	p. 343
Acknowledgements	p. 364
Appendix I Lists: Cyril Connolly's The Modern Movement	p. 369
Haycraft/Queen Cornerstones, 1748-1948	p. 373
Queen's Quorum	p. 379
The Booker Prize	p. 384
Anthony Burgess's Ninety-nine Novels	p. 385
Appendix II 'If Your House was on Fire ...' An Informal Poll	p. 389
Appendix III eBay Gems	p. 412

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