Rick Gekoski joined us In Conversation with Simon Brett at 2pm on our Open Day on August 2, 2023.
Rick Gekoski is an American author and rare book dealer. He is the author of Guarded by Dragons – encounters with rare books and rare people. He has been traversing the rocky terrain of the rare book trade for over fifty years. He has lunched with Graham Greene and played ping-pong with Salman Rushdie. A brilliant stroke of luck saw Sylvia Plath’s personal copy of The Great Gatsby fall into Gekoski’s lap, only for him to discover the perils of upsetting a poet laureate when Ted Hughes demanded its return. Hunting for literary treasure is not without its battles and Gekoski boldly broke the cardinal rule – never to engage in a lawsuit with someone richer than yourself, while also guarding his bookshop from the most unlikely of thieves. Rick is engaging, funny and shrewd. He divides his time between England and New Zealand. He was a Booker Prize judge in 2005 and then chair of Man Booker International Prize (2011). In 2014 he was elected Lifetime Honorary Vice President of English PEN.
See the report on his conversation with Simon Brett on our Journal/Talks page.
