Hi everyone,
At 19:31 03/08/2004 +0200, Jean-Yves Artero wrote:
> > When he came to London (from Siberia, via China), he found work with a
> > group of Russian emigres selling books: from there, possibly only a chance
> > encounter or comment would be necessary to set him on his way as an
> > antiquarian bookseller - though the issue of from where he got his initial
> > stock is another matter.
>
>Sure, I think that at the beginning he had a British associate, who
>although left rapidly this peculiar stage.
To me, this is the only part of WMV's life that remains shrouded in
mystery. Thanks to the excellent work of list-members (thank you all!), I
think we now have a reasonably good idea of WMV's life before London, as
well as a good idea of his career as an antiquarian book dealer. But (to my
eyes, at least) the bridging section between the two remains slightly elusive.
BT! W, is there any specific evidence (from WMV's first few lists) of who
such a British associate might be? Whatever anyone might claim, I don't
think it's ever been easy starting up a business from (next to) nothing.
Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....Hem, my point is that yes this part of WMV S life is important, whatever the MS story is, hoax or discovery...
On the contrary, I am not sure that our knowledge of Wilfrid before and after is quite sufficient at the moment.
Anyway, here are to answer Nick especially a couple of "new"(?) facts:
The first one is not that new in fact I am afraid, and is more perhaps a detailed confirmation of what someone else in the mist ( sorry in the list: :-) ) - wasn't it Dana?-, already stated:
I read this on the "first list of books" ( "offered by VMW" ), second edition, May 1902:
"Telegraphic address: Sessa, London. Code: Unicode".
The second and last one for today is that on the "second list of books" ("offered" etc), 1900, VMW as an introduction to the list states:
"Shortly after the issue of our first list, my friend Myster ( sorry: Mister ) Edgell ( RPT Edgell ), with whom I had worked for some time, was obliged, for family reasons, to leave London. Our partnership was, therefore, dissolved, much to my regret".
Jean