J wrote:
I recently visited the New York Society Library, which was having a
sale of unwanted and donated materials. I found one hardcover book I’d
wanted for a while, and browsed a cart of magazines, selecting two
back issues of THE BOOK COLLECTOR. I see that this quarterly journal,
founded by thriller writer Ian Fleming, is still published, though it
would cost $115 a year to subscribe in the U.S. The two issues I
bought, one from the 1980s, and one from 1967, were 50 cents each!

The Winter 1967 editorial bemoans the fact that the British Museum
does not expect the separate Library building to be completed before
1984. (At that time, the scheme was to level several blocks of
Bloomsbury so that the new building could be sited across from the
Museum.) In fact, construction of the new building—next to St Pancras
railway station--did not begin until 1982, and it was not open to the
public until 1997.

I chose the two issues I bought for a single article each, but there
were lots of other things to look at inside, and I'm sorry I didn't
buy more. I was, of course, fascinated to see the ads for book dealers
who are now long gone. Most of these I’d never heard of, but they were
the high-end guys, while I shopped Fourth Avenue. Advertising in 1967
we

- John F. Fleming (apparently so well known that he only listed “New
York” as his address in a full-page ad)
- Seven Gables Bookshop (46th Street off Fifth Avenue)
- Scribner’s (on Fifth, now a Sephora shop--I remember this as a
general bookstore)
- Lucien Goldschmidt (d. 1992)
- Lahtrop C. Harper, inc. (40th Street, off Fifth, so directly across
from the Main Library)
- Henry Schuman Ltd
- Ximenes Rare Books
- Philip C. Duschnes
- Walter Schatzki (on 57th Street!)
- Orsay Books (in Rego Park)
- House of El Dieff (Lew David Feldman)
- H.P. Kraus (the firm apparently continued into this century)

An interesting side point: Most of these ads did not yet use zip codes.

This is all interesting to a booklover (well, THIS one, anyway).
A belated thanks.