Lit Legend Calder Sold

In another life Bookboy was a literature buyer at a bookshop. A few years ago, maybe we're talking 2002, I had an appointment with what I thought was the sales rep for literary fiction press John Calder - publisher of Becket, Celine and about a million other heavyweights of . But, no when the time came around, I saw an old man with a cane, huffing and puffing up the stairs (we were on the third floor). No rep, in fact, but the man himself. Jesus, I thought, as I shook his rather sweaty, trembling hand - this guy is part of 20th literary history. Not only publisher of most of these folk but friends as well.


Calder was both somehow both curmudgeonly and charming. He smelled of books that had been sitting around in a second hand shop for forty years. We concluded the sub and Calder got up abruptly and left. How rude, I thought. Not even a goodbye. I got on with my stuff and about 20 minutes later I hear some huffing and puffing on the stairs again. It was Calder, bringing up a box of the books his crane crooked in his arm. The books, incidentally were all scuffed, looking like they had been kicking around in the back of a boot for a while.

But, anyway, looks like Mr Calder won't be schlepping his books around too much any longer. He is 80, after all. The fine folks at Alma Books and Oneworld have bought out his list and shop in London about a month or so after he announced he needed to sell. Good for them. Alma do some great stuff (Tom McCarthy's Remainder in particular). It must be particularly graftifying for Alma for having beaten off indy giants Faber.