Bookdealers of the fantastic and occult in a 1960-62 directory

There was for quite some years a standard reference work in the book trade, A Directory of Dealers in Secondhand and Antiquarian Books in the British Isles. It was published originally by Sheppard Press, London, and although its official title and publisher changed a bit over the years it was usually known as just Sheppard’s. The firm produced similar directories for each of Europe, the USA and India.

The guide to Britain was first published in April 1951 for 1951-52, and subsequent editions came out roughly biennially (later annually), but it seems to have stopped around 2008. It was a guide to Book Dealers, not just Bookshops, so the listings included those who only did business by post. In those cultured days, the booksellers listed the languages in which they could correspond: Francais, Deutsch, Italiano, and, in at least one case, Papua New Guinea Pidgin. I haven’t found Esperanto yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Other entries were for store rooms or private premises only open by appointment, and a few you could only contact care of their bank.

I’ve been browsing in a selection of the editions and enjoying some of the incidental details: the wants lists, the advertisements, the sometimes surprising and cryptic bookseller entries. Some of the latter set me off trying to find out more, or had me mulling over what mysteries might lie behind the brief descriptions.

Here, for example, in the 1960-62 guide, is A.W. Holness of Tonbridge, Kent, whose specialisms are: ‘H. G. Wells; yoga; model theatre’. This sounds like one of those competitions: can you write a short story containing the three following items?

Or what about the cozy-sounding Cottage Bookshop of St Anne’s Villas, London W.11? Their boxed advert offers: ‘Occult/Palmistry/Tarot Cards/Coloured Prints/Dolls & Games/Post Cards/Trivia/Toys’. You at once wonder exactly what dolls and games there were, and what toys. And those prints: did they stay quite still?

And there was clearly something in the waters of the Trent, for in the Nottingham & District section we have Peveril Books, prop James Orton, specialist in supernatural fiction, who in the Wants is seeking the Creeps series, the Not at Night series, William Hope Hodgson, E.F. Benson’s ghost stories, Bleiler’s Checklist of Fantastic Literature and more of that ilk.

Nearby, William Rogers of Derby offers occult and out-of-print fiction. Then there is Stanbury Thompson of Stapleford, Notts, who deals in Crime, Supernatural, Witchcraft, with a picture of the Last Trump for emphasis. “Copies of my own publications always supplied,” he offers. Anyone who has ever read one of his yarns would probably prefer Apocalypse. 

Some readers will recognise with nostalgia some fabled old hands in the fantastic literature field: Fantast (Medway) Ltd of Wisbech, prop. Kenneth Slater: or G. Ken Chapman of Ross Road, London S.E.25, who used to issue excellent lists rolled up in blue scrolls.

Altogether, in their Speciality Section, printed on pink paper, Sheppard lists seven dealers under the heading ‘Fiction – includes Fantasy, Weird, Witchcraft’ who specify one of those or similar, and twenty-one for ‘Religion and Philosophy (2) – Astrology, Occult, Psychic’. There might be a slight sense here of these subjects being Shepparded into separate pens away from the rest of the flock, but it does show at least that they were seen as significant book collecting categories.

The second list includes The Aquarian Book Service; The Atlantis Bookshop of Museum Street, (Flying Saucers as well as Occult), still open; Mary Crabb of Loders, Naunton Park Road, Cheltenham (Occult, Theology, Philosophy, Science); Mrs Hilary of Nelson, Lancashire (Astrology and Occult); Raymond Tranfield of Henley-on-Thames (Occult, Egyptology, Orientalia): and quite a few more.

In an earlier directory, of 1955-56, Mr Tranfield has a boxed advert with further details. He is ‘always anxious to purchase books in good condition relating to’ Alchemy, Demonology, Black Magic, Witchcraft, Ghosts, Oriental Folk-Lore, Hermetic Mystery, &c.’, plus Henley and Early Rowing Books. The Thames-side town must have been a veritable citadel of the esoteric, and perhaps some of this stock still lurks there secreted in dark armoires.

There are, as might be expected, some overlaps, eg Michael O’Daye of Crawford Street, London W.1 whose store-room holds ‘folklore, occult, super-natural fiction’. And there are others scattered throughout the directory who specify themes of a potentially interesting kind, eg ‘metaphysics’. What sort, we wonder . . . In any case, we can certainly see, in the specialisms of these early Sixties bookshops, evidence of the dawning of the New Age, the rise of Modern Paganism, and the return of Magic.

I have to admit it is tempting to write to some of the arcane dealers here, like the narrator in Ron Weighell’s splendid story ‘Drebble, Zander and Zervan’ (A Midwinter Entertainment, Egaeus Press, 2016), who sends off on a whim for a rare book priced in shillings and pence in an old catalogue, with surprising results. There is also the lurking feeling that if you visited one of the more promising premises in the right frame of mind or on the right lunar or sidereal occasion it would somehow still be there. Unchanged.

The directory also offers other possibilities. Just as some railway enthusiasts use vintage Bradshaw’s timetables to work out imaginary journeys in years gone by, so these old Sheppard’s editions could be used to plot fanciful browsing expeditions of fifty or sixty years ago, a pleasant pastime indeed for a rainy day. Or better still, why not combine the pursuits, and work out the optimum routes for visiting as many bookshops as possible by rail? Introducing SHEPSHAW, or, TRAINTOME - a fiendishly complex game for the discerning.

(Mark Valentine)