The personal life of George Grote: Compiled from family documents, private memoranda, and original letters to and from various friends
by GROTE, Harriet
- Used
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
GROTE, Mrs Harriet. The personal life of George Grote: compiled from family documents, private memoranda, and original letters to and from various friends. London, John Murray 1873
Octavo, publishers green cloth, brown morocco label, pp.xv, 336, engraved portrait frontispiece, facsimile leaf, a fine copy.
First edition. Life of George Grote [1794-1871] was a classical scholar, politician and banker and historian of Greece. In 1817 he came under the influence of David Ricardo, and through him of James Mill and Jeremy Bentham. He and his wife Harriet frequently entertained many of the Benthamite group in their home. Other than a period of estrangement from Harriet Grote, John Stuart Mill was a life-long friend of and correspondent with the couple.
ref:048
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- Hamish Riley-Smith Rare Books (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 0048
- Title
- The personal life of George Grote
- Author
- GROTE, Harriet
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Publisher
- John Murray
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1873
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Keywords
- George Harriet Grote
Terms of Sale
Hamish Riley-Smith Rare Books
About the Seller
Hamish Riley-Smith Rare Books
About Hamish Riley-Smith Rare Books
Rare book specialist Hamish Riley-Smith, who died on August 10, did not originally intend to become a dealer.
He went to Trinity College Dublin, where he read economics and met our mother Brigitta (Gita) von Wagner. He planned to work in the family brewing business, John Smith's, and spent seven years learning the craft at Whitbread's. But after all the family interest in John Smith's was sold in 1972, he looked for a new career.
In 1974 he started Hamish Riley-Smith Rare Books. He had no formal training in the book business, other than an acute awareness of business and a degree in economics. He started, in his own words, as a runner, taking one book to another dealer and making a small margin.
Hamish quickly realised this was not for him and started to focus on Arabic and economic books and the social sciences. Through knowledge and research he built up a strong and friendly working relationship with the Japanese, travelling to Japan often. He also traded in Arabia, the US and Europe.
Sacks of catalogues
We can remember how sacks of catalogues would leave the house and go off to museums and institutions across the world, and answers would come back via telex. This was a world before the internet, mobile phones and faxes and computers were only just coming in.
Among his proudest sales were the 14th century Qur'an manuscript of Mameluk Sultan Al Malik Al Nasir Muhammad (pictured here); The Papers of Sir Roy Harrod; The library of Sir John Hicks; The Betjeman Library; typescript/manuscript of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractus Logico Philosophicus; The Felibriges Library of Musée Theodore Aubanel, Avignon; as well as collections of Isaac Newton; John Locke; Thomas Hobbes; Shakespeare; William Petty; Robert Owen and Adam Smith.
He was resolute in his independence and had many friends and colleagues in the book business, but he never did a book fair ("I am not a book fairy") and refused to join any trade associations.
He will be remembered by the family as a loving husband, father and grandfather, and a great source of fun and interest; for Hamish, above all, family came first. His business will continue to be run by his wife Gita and two sons, Damian, director of Paragraph Publishing, and Crispian, director of Crispian Riley-Smith Fine Arts Ltd.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Facsimile
- An exact copy of an original work. In books, it refers to a copy or reproduction, as accurate as possible, of an original...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Morocco
- Morocco is a style of leather book binding that is usually made with goatskin, as it is durable and easy to dye. (see also...