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| Eric in Red Square (from ABA Newsletter ) |
Eric Korn (1933-2014) seems to have been a much admired man, if all the many recent tributes in the Letters pages of the TLS to the polymath, ex-marine biologist, bookseller and brain-box star of Round Britain Quiz, are any indication. All these encomia remind me of a visit I paid to his home over fourteen years ago.
Having been impressed for years by his performances on Round Britain Quiz on which the current less demanding TV show Only Connect is loosely based, and having some notion of his special areas as a book dealer, I was curious to discover how he had become so well read in so many disparate subjects. Locating him was easy enough. Like so many dealers nowadays, his home was also his shop, and this turned out to be a rather conventional looking Edwardian terraced house in Muswell Hill. I’ve interviewed a few booksellers in my time but not one of them answered the door wearing scruffy jeans and a T shirt. I took to him immediately.
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