“They are as close to perfect objects as exist in the world,” smiles AN Devers, describing her favourite subject – books. Five years ago, she was working as an arts journalist in New York City when occasionally buying a signed first edition by a favourite writer turned into a more serious habit. Devers started going to rare book fairs and quickly noticed a price discrepancy in modern first editions by men, and those written by women.
“I knew that the rare book world was considered rather old-fashioned, but I hadn’t realised there were so few women book collectors or dealers compared to the number of men who sell and collect,” she says.
Not long after, Devers was struck by the idea for The Second Shelf: a rare book business focused on books…
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The Simple Things (Digital) - 1 Issue, October 2018