“The Old-Book Peddler” by Stefan Zweig

The Old-Book Peddler by Stefan Zweig is a hand-printed, hard bound edition of this important work from a widely regarded writer of the early 20th century. The Clinker Press printing features a translation by Theodore W. Koch.The edition is limited to 140 and only a few copies are available. It is a wonderful story of Zweig’s encounter with a book-seller in Vienna during the Great War.

As noted by Anthony Daniels, “Literary fashion is as fickle and inexplicable as any other kind of fashion. In France, Stefan Zweig is regarded as one of the great writers of the 20th century….By contrast, he is neglected in all English-speaking countries.”

From Daniels’ piece on Zweig from the Telegraph:

The subject of the collapse of civilisation brought about by the First World War is another central theme in Zweig’s fiction. It is brilliantly encapsulated in the short story Buchmendel about a Galician Jewish book-peddler – a walking encyclopedia of bibliographical information – who is so engrossed in his subject that he doesn’t even notice that the war has broken out. When he sends letters to London and Paris enquiring as to why the latest copies of some bibliographical journals have not reached him, the Austrian authorities conclude that he must be a spy writing in code – and arrest him.