DAVID MASON BOOKS

For all the latest Pope's Bookbinder information (photos, reviews, etc...) check out our Pope's Bookbinder page.

H ello and welcome to our new locations on the web and the street! We have a new location in Toronto Ontario Canada at 366 Adelaide Street West, Ste LL04/LL05 M5V 1R9 (see map). The store is open Monday through Friday 10am to 5pm (and by appointment on Saturdays). Our new website is open 24 hours a day. We can accept orders over the phone or via email.
Our phone number is 416 598-1015, fax number is 416 598-3994, email

Updated with new chapter "Hemingway Heist"

The Pope's Bookbinder NOW AVAILABLE in TRADE PAPERBACK!

Copies are now available in our store for $24.95 (Canadian).
Call (416 598-1015) or email to order your copy.
All books purchased through us will be signed by David Mason.

The Pope's Bookbinder. A Memoir.
By David Mason.
Biblioasis, 2016. 464 pages. Index. $24.95(CAD).
A memoir of Mason's forty-five years in the booktrade. After some years in Europe doing odd jobs, including a period doing bookbinding in Spain, and reading incessantly, Mason returned to Canada, apprenticed in the book trade with Joseph Patrick Books and has been selling used and rare books ever since. His memories include the books dealers, collectors, and libraries he has dealt with over that period.

The added chapter on the Hemingway / Fitzgerald / Callaghan robbery explains what happened and why the author chose not to put it in the original edition.

“For anyone who loves books too well – who lusts after them, lives in them, mainlines them – David Mason's memoir will be a fix from heaven. Heartful, cantankerous, droll, his tales of honour and obsession in the trade gratify the very book-love they portray. An irresistible read.” – Dennis Lee

“Entertaining, moving, informative, intelligently hopeful: I know of few other books like this one to warm the cockles of a booklover's heart.” – Alberto Manguel

Available now. Email us at: Order Pope's Bookbinder
Copies bought here will be signed by the author.

NEW !!! - Our LATEST CATALOGUE Now ONLINE - The Americas. A Miscellany

Recent Catalogue - Fifty Books on Africa

LATEST ELIST NOW ONLINE - eList #47

Our LATEST CATALOGUE Now ONLINE - Canadian PULPs - Catalogue 91

MEDICAL AND PSYCHIATRIC JOURNAL OFFPRINTED NOW IN OUR DATABASE.

Journal offprints have been added to our online database. Click here to view.

"The Big Lie. On Terror, Antisemitism, and Identity " by David Solway. Published in March 2007. $20.00 + post Terms to the Trade A stunning meditation on the complex nature of Islam, the meaning of Judaism, the demonolgy of antisemitism, the never-ending story of Middle Eastern conflict, and the troubled trajectory of Western civilization. This books, originally from 2007, is even more relevant today. The author's brilliantly researched attacks on the perils of twisted Muslim fundamentalism, based on his comprehensive readings in Muslim, Christian, and Jewish sources, is very prescient now that we are in the midst of the vicious, uncivilized, and genocidal activities of ISIL in much of the world. Solway's take, now almost ten years old, is even more important to an understanding of our current war with ISIL than it was when published.

FEATURED ITEMS

Major Alexander Gillespie in Buenos Aires

GILLESPIE, Major Alexander. Gleanings And Remarks: Collected During Months Residence At Buenos Ayres, And Within the Upper Country; With A Prefatory Account of the Expedition From England, Until The Surrender of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, Under the Joint Command of Sir D. Baird,... and Sire Home Popham,...
Leeds: Printed by D.B. Whirst For the Author, 1818. First edition. From the library of Colonel Adamson, K.T.S., who participated in the events described in this work; with his signature on the titlepage. Tall 8vo., contemporary calf spine, marble boards, ii, 242pp. With a map of South America and a Chart of Rio de la Plata. Approximately 50pp has brown stains (mostly marginal/foxing) and there is occasional browning and foxing, the map and chart both have some foxing, the outer front hinge is slightly cracked and tender, the binding has wear and rubbing but this is still an acceptable copy.

Alexander Gillespie served as a Major in the Royal Marines, and Colonel (then Lieutenant) Peter Adamson took part in the invasions of the River Plate during the Napoleonic Wars. The British made several unsuccessful attempts to seize control of the Spanish colonies around the Plate Basin in South America in 1806 and 1807. During the first invasion in 1806, the British occupied Buenos Aires but were expelled in 1807, and the second involved occupation of Montevideo while a second force attempted to retake Buenos Aires; in both instances the British forces were repelled. The defeat of the British in 1807 under General Whitelocke was deemed such a disaster that it resulted in Whitelocke's court-martial. Both Gillespie and Adamson were captured, the later escaped while Gillespie was eventually released but did not return to the United Kingdom for 10 years. Gillespie wrote the above account of his time in Buenos Aires. Peter Adamson (1779-1865), a Scot, was appointed an Ensign in 1800, a Lieutenant in 1801, and a Captain in 1808, and while on loan to the Portuguese Army rose to the rank of Brevet-Major General. He served at the Cape and in South America and was one of the few who effected their escape from the interior of South America after the failed British invasion. In June of 1807 he wrote "Having effected my escape from the interior of South America, I take the liberty of informing you, that... I left the following gentleman along with my friend, your brother viz. Captains Mackenzie and Gillespie... I think I may venture to say, that we shall have the power of liberating our brother officers in very few weeks, as Buenos Ayres must fall immediately..." Adamson's role in the British invasion, occupation and subsequent expulsion from Buenos Aires is covered in Gillespie's account as he is mentioned on numerous pages. In 1817 Adamson had made a journey to Canada and purchased property and he returned in 1820, settling in Canada (Erindale now part of Mississauga) for the remainder of his life. He served as a member of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada until the Union in 1841.


$2,250.00

Our Latest Publication

The TRUE and GENUIN ELEGY OF Matthew Gun Bookseller
NP: Aliquando Press, 2014. 1 of 125 copies. Size is 15" x 10 1/2". A reprinting of an early Eighteenth century broadside on the pitiful lot of the bookseller then. This is copied from the original held by the British Library. We have been unable to trace any other copy and we felt it was worthy of a Twenty-first century revival. Now that the book trade is perhaps more threatened than at any earlier time, Matthew Gun’s lament resonates strongly. It has been printed by Will Rueter at his Aliquando Press in Garamond, the display fonts are ATF Baskerville and xiv Century Roman. It’s is printed on Hahnemuble white mould made paper. Rueter is one of the foremost designers and private printers in Canada and we are very pleased he agreed to take on the project. This printing is indicative of the quality of Rueter’s work and now that we have exhausted our list of friends we offer copies for sale.



Special terms to booksellers.
50.00