Benjamin Weinreb (1912–1999) was a British

bookseller Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, bookpeople, bookmen, or bookwomen. The founding of librari ...

and expert on the history of London who in 1968 sold his entire stock to the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

.Obituary: Ben Weinreb.
Nicholas Barker, ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 7 April 1999. Retrieved 16 September 2014. He developed a specialism in books about architecture about which his catalogues became important references in themselves.

Early life

Weinreb was born in Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire. He attended the

Whitgift School ("He who perseveres, conquers") , established = , closed = , type = Independent school , religious_affiliation = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head Master , head = Christopher Ramsey , c ...

in Croydon but left at age 18 without any qualifications. He was dealing in books from a young age and soon after he left school, he bought an inscribed book by

Max Beerbohm Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm (24 August 1872 – 20 May 1956) was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist under the signature Max. He first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist. He was the drama critic for the '' Saturday ...

for sixpence, (half of a shilling), from a barrow in

Charing Cross Road Charing Cross Road is a street in central London running immediately north of St Martin-in-the-Fields to St Giles Circus (the intersection with Oxford Street) and then becomes Tottenham Court Road. It leads from the north in the direction of ...

and sold it on to a dealer for five

shillings The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence or ...

, ten times as much. He was taken on by Foyle's bookshop to fill shelves but was sacked for lateness. He tried his hand at writing about theatre with part-time bookselling but did not start his first proper book dealing business, ''"Dipsas"'', until 1945.Books of changes Ben Weinreb.
Anthony Rota, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 12 April 1999. Retrieved 16 September 2014.

Bookseller

Weinreb had offices in

New Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and as o ...

, then Bloomsbury Mansions (opposite the British Museum) followed by 39

Great Russell Street Great Russell Street is a street in Bloomsbury, London, best known for being the location of the British Museum. It runs between Tottenham Court Road (part of the A400 route) in the west, and Southampton Row (part of the A4200 route) in the east ...

. His catalogues set new standards for detail and prices and he worked with specialists in other fields, for maps and religious books, when he needed to. He was always prepared to buy large lots whether he had the cash flow to justify the purchase or not and his readiness to do deals sometimes frustrated his partners.

Writing

Weinreb was the compiler of the first edition of ''

The London Encyclopaedia ''The London Encyclopaedia'', first published in 1983, is a 1100-page historical reference work on the United Kingdom's capital city, London. The encyclopaedia covers the Greater London area. Development The first edition of the encyclopaedia wa ...

'', published in 1983.

Family

Weinreb was married to the textile designer Kay Lazarus, and later Joan Kingdom Row who predeceased him. He had three children: Lindy with Kay, and Matthew and Deborah with Joan.

References

External links

The Ben Weinreb Collection of Architectural Drawings
1912 births 1999 deaths British booksellers People from Halifax, West Yorkshire Historians of London 20th-century British businesspeople {{England-bio-stub