Personal
book collection and bibliography
I am interested
in the history and nature of writing, printing, publishing, binding
and bibliography in general, in particular in England and Scotland.
I have from time to time given lectures on the effects of writing and
printing.
Over the
years my wife Sarah Harrison and I have built up a considerable collection
of books, many of which have fed into my work. About half of these are
in my own private collection and can be accessed through a specially
written bibliographic program.
I shall
develop a section on the collecting, indexing and arranging of my books:
these are a few preliminary ideas from elsewhere.
Sarah has
been cataloguing my library and this is now finished. It makes it possible
to develop my library with more efficiency.
Book
selling and binding: Bracton Books
Over
the years I have been involved in helping to advise Sarah in what is
now one of the largest second-hand anthropology second collection for
sale in Europe, Bracton
Books.
Our
first idea was to specialize in law books so the company was named after
Sir Henry de Bracton, the great medieval English lawyer, and was registered
as a business in February 1981. I have been an academic academic adviser
to the business (which is affiliated to the Royal Anthropological Institute)
and specializes in in history, anthropology, law and the social sciences.
The
computer bibliographic program (devised by Michael Bryant and Sarah
Harrison) 'BRACSORT' is also the one which which contains an index to
my personal books.
For
a number of years (c.1981-1998), a bookbinder (Clive Bovill) also worked
on the premises and Sarah Harrison still does a little binding. She
also has a large collection of books on binding, paper conservation
etc.