John Waynflete Carter (10 May 1905 – 18 March 1975) was an English writer, diplomat, bibliographer, book-collector, antiquarian

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 libra ...

and vice-president of the

Bibliographical Society of London Founded in 1892, The Bibliographical Society is the senior learned society dealing with the study of the book and its history in the United Kingdom. Largely owing to the efforts of Walter Arthur Copinger, who was supported by Richard Copley ...

. He was the great-grandson of Canon T. T. Carter.

Biography

After attending

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...

, he studied classics at

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

, where he gained a double first. His 1934 exposé, ''An Enquiry into the Nature of Certain Nineteenth Century Pamphlets'', co-written with Graham Pollard, exposed the

forgeries Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud anyone (other than themself). Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbid ...

of books and pamphlets by

Harry Buxton Forman Henry Buxton Forman (11 July 1842 – 15 June 1917) was a Victorian-era bibliographer and antiquarian bookseller whose literary reputation is based on his bibliographies of Percy Shelley and John Keats. In 1934 he was revealed to have been in ...

, an editor of Keats and Shelley, and Thomas J. Wise, one of the world's most prominent book collectors. Forman and Wise's crimes are generally regarded as one of the most notorious literary scandals of the twentieth century. Carter also wrote seminal books on aspects of book-collecting, and served on the board of directors of the influential journal The ''Book Collector'', published by

Queen Anne Press The Queen Anne Press (logo stylized QAP) is a small publisher (originally a private press). History It was created in 1951 by Lord Kemsley, proprietor of ''The Sunday Times'', to publish the works of contemporary authors. In 1952, as a wedding ...

, a company managed by

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

creator Ian Fleming.Lycett, Andrew. ''Ian Fleming''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1995 Carter also edited the prose of the poet

A. E. Housman Alfred Edward Housman (; 26 March 1859 – 30 April 1936) was an English classical scholar and poet. After an initially poor performance while at university, he took employment as a clerk in London and established his academic reputation by pub ...

. He was the husband of the writer and curator

Ernestine Carter Ernestine Marie Carter OBE (née Fantl; 10 October 1906 – 1 August 1983) was an American-born British museum curator, journalist, and fashion writer. She became hugely influential in her roles as women's editor, and later associate editor of ' ...

and the brother of the printer Will Carter (1912–2001) of the Rampant Lions Press, at which some of his smaller-scale works were published. He was also a humorist and writer of clerihews, some of which were printed by Will Carter in 1938.

Selected works

*
ABC for book collectors
'. 8th ed. edited by Nicolas Barker. New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll Press; London: British Library, 2004. (British Library) (Oak Knoll); a classic, first published in 1952. *''Taste and technique in book-collecting, with an epilogue''. Pinner, Middlesex: Private Libraries Association, 1970 (The Sandars Lectures in Bibliography, 1947). *''Binding variants in English publishing: 1820-1900''. London: Constable; New York: Ray Long & Richard R. Smith, 1932. *''More binding variants''. London: Constable, 1938. *''Publisher's cloth ... 1820-1900''. New York: Bowker; London: Constable, 1935. Reprinted 1970. *

References

Bibliography

*Dickinson, Donald C., ''John Carter: the taste & technique of a bookman''. Oak Knoll Press, New Castle, Del., 2004. {{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, John 1905 births 1975 deaths People educated at Eton College Alumni of King's College, Cambridge English bibliographers English book and manuscript collectors English booksellers 20th-century English male writers 20th-century English businesspeople