A precursor to the
Book Collector was the
Book Handbook, issued serially in nine parts in 1951.
The Book Collector was launched by the novelist
Ian Fleming in the same year, 1952, that he wrote the first
James Bond novel,
Casino Royale. In 2017, this was discussed at the TLS (
Times Literary Supplement). The first editor was
John Davy Hayward, the friend and muse of
T. S. Eliot.
Nicolas Barker, sometime publisher and first head of conservation at the
British Library edited for fifty years. He gave a presentation on the history of
The Book Collector at the
Caxton Club in 1998. On fifty years of its publication
Thomas Tanselle noted, "for over a half-century now, THE BOOK COLLECTOR has been demonstrating --to experienced book people and to newcomers alike--the reciprocal relationship, the inextricable connection, between bibliophily and scholarship." James Fergusson, founding obituaries editor of
The Independent, 1986–2007, was editor from 2015 until 2018. The editor from 2018 to 2024 was author,
James Fleming. His essay, “The Price of Passion: Indexing
The Book Collector," illuminated the journal's history. In 2025
David Pearson, former Director of Culture, Heritage and Libraries at the City of London Corporation, was appointed editor. Essays about book collecting by
Geoffrey Keynes in the
Book Collector have been published in a compilation volume. ==Highlights==