Patrick writes:

BOOKS FROM THE REMAINING STOCK OF JOHN DRURY RARE BOOKS

DAVID EDMUNDS (1939-2022)

Many will already know that David tragically died in a car accident in February last year. He was onhis way to view a few items in an auction in Colchester which is what he loved to do, and which hadbeen his passion and working life for almost 60 years.

David grew up in a huge rambling rectory in a tiny village in northwest Essex where his father wasthe Anglican parson. There were the remains of a Roman villa in fields nearby and David and hisbrother spent many happy hours digging and finding hundreds of ancient coins and other artefacts.This evidently sparked a love of antiquities and in particular collecting coins and medals. He laterread modern history at Jesus College, Cambridge, and his knowledge of English history was immense.His coin and medal collection grew, and with it, inevitably, his research into the collection of therequired books on the subject. Thereby began acquisition of numismatic books, which before longgrew into a full-time business.

David called the business John Drury Rare Books, rather than David Edmunds Rare Books (!), and, in any case, Drury was a family name. The first 30 or so catalogues weremostly on numismatics, but from then on, the subject range widened into economics, banking, law, philosophy, education, andsocial history. In those days there were no computers, and I would come home after a day's work in Colchester and type up (ona typewriter) catalogues from David's handwritten notes. And he never really mastered a keyboard - his cataloguing to the endwas entirely by hand. He only used the computer - ODNB, Wikipedia, LHD, BL, etc. It wasn't long before itbecame essential for me to become properly involved and become tech-savvy. And so our roles were defined - he did thebuying, cataloguing, and packing, while I did the database work, accounts, invoicing, photography, etc.

In 1979 we bought a derelict cottage on the south bank of the Stour Estuary, with no utilities at all, not even a road to get to thecottage, but it had a wonderful view. For 20 years we had no mains electricity, but had a huge, noisy, generator. In those daysthere was quite a lot of business done with the Japanese trade, and communication was generally by Fax. We had to explain tothe Japanese that they would have to wait for 15 minutes or so before sending a fax, so that we could turn on the generator!How times have changed. We now just grumble about our slow broadband speed.

The other aspect of antiquarian bookselling is attending auctions and book fairs. I remember the excitement of 'doing' our firstOlympia and New York. These events were marvellous for catching up with the friends we made in the trade, and which I willmiss greatly.

To read the auction catalogue, see:
FINE BOOKS, MANUSCRIPTSAND WORKS ON PAPERincluding books from the remaining stock ofJohn Drury Rare Books(https://www.forumauctions.co.uk/media/auction_pdfs/16788142161121.pdf)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
DAVID R. DRURY EDMUNDS (1939-2022)(https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n09a08.html)