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Nicolas Barker Nicolas Barker was born in Cambridge, the son of the famous classical scholar, historian and political scientist, Sir Ernest Barker. He grew up in a house filled with books and cannot now remember when he first became fascinated with their physical form as well as contents. He started buying old books in the market-place at Cambridge aged 10 and got his first printing press four years later, publishing half a dozen small books over the next few years. His last and most substantial production was On a Calm Shore, Frances Cornford's last book of poems, printed with coloured illustrations. Barker then worked for other publishers, including Rupert Hart-Davis, Macmillan, and Oxford University Press. He became involved with The Book Collector, the journal for book-collectors, booksellers and librarians founded by Ian Fleming and edited by John Hayward, and in 1965, after their deaths within six months of each other, he succeeded both.
In 1976 Nicolas Barker was invited to become the first head of conservation at the newly founded British Library, and worked there in various other capacities, among them compiling Treasures of the British Library, until he retired in 1992. Since then, he has been libraries adviser to the National Trust, chairman of the London Library and the Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Library, and consultant to many other libraries. He has also been furnishing the shelves of the old King's Library at The British Museum with appropriate books from the Library of the House of Commons. He has written or edited many books, most recently a complete catalogue of books printed by the Aldine Press. He is preparing a large travelling exhibition of the Treasures of Chatsworth. | |||||||||||||||
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