George Sims
George Frederick Robert Sims, born on August 3, 1923, in Hammersmith, London, was a notable English author and antiquarian bookseller. He began his career as a journalist with Reuters but quickly transitioned to military service during World War II, working with the Intelligence Corps at Bletchley Park. After the war, he started a mail-order bookselling business from his family home, specializing in first editions and manuscripts by recent British writers. Sims became well-known for his printed catalogs, which contributed to reviving interest in lesser-known authors.
He published his first novel, "The Terrible Door," in 1964, often drawing inspiration from his travels and the rare book trade. Throughout his career, he wrote several novels, essays, and short stories, with notable works including "Sleep No More" and "The Rare Books Game." Sims was active in literary circles, being a member of the Crime Writers' Association and the Detection Club. He passed away on November 11, 1999, leaving behind a significant literary legacy that continues to be appreciated by bibliophiles and collectors today.
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George Sims
Writer
- Born: August 3, 1923
- Birthplace: Hammersmith, London, England
- Died: November 11, 1999
Biography
George Frederick Robert Sims was born August 3, 1923, in Hammersmith, London, England. He was the son—his sister Jessica had been born six years earlier—of a shoe importer and wholesaler, and the grandson of a London bobby. Sims attended the John Lyons School in Harrow, where in his last year he met Beryl Simcock. They married in 1943 and had three children: Christopher, Linda, and Tim. Sims briefly worked as a journalist with Reuters before being called up for military service. He served with the Intelligence Corps out of Bletchley Park during World War II, as liaison with special units operating behind enemy lines.
After his discharge, Sims worked at a bookshop in Harrow, then began his own mail-order bookselling business, G. F. Sims, from a room in his father’s house. He specialized in first editions, letters, and manuscripts by recent (within a century) and contemporary British writers. In 1947, he issued the first of 107 printed catalogs (the last appeared in 1987) regarding the collection and conservation of such literary printed matter. Sims’s friend, Alan Anderson, owner of Tragara Press in Edinburgh, Scotland, printed many of the catalogues, as well as some of Sims’s works, including efforts such as Sixteen Poems Written 1942-1945 (1995), and The Immanent Goddess (1947).
In 1952, the Sims family moved to Peacocks, an early seventeenth century cottage near Hurst, in Reading, where he resided for the remainder of his life. Sims kept a largely private, almost reclusive existence, beyond maintaining contact with a large circle of fellow booksellers and writers. He also established Peacocks Press to accommodate special projects. One such project was the limited edition publication of the letters of English novelist and eccentric Frederick Rolfe (1860-1913), who called himself Baron Corvo. Sims, through his catalogs and his press, was instrumental in reviving interest in a number of obscure writers worthy of note, including Llewellyn Powys, Eric Gill, Aphonse James, Albert Symonds, and others.
Sims published his first novel, The Terrible Door, a mystery, in 1964. Like most of his dozen longer fictional works, the book revolved around the rare book trade, as told from the perspective of a knowledgeable insider. Sims traveled widely in the course of his antiquarian business, and often used the last exotic location he visited—such as Majorca, Grenada, or California—as the setting for his next novel. His best- known works included Sleep No More (1966), The Last Best Friend (1967), Who Is Cato? (1981), and The Despain Papers (1992).
George Sims also wrote short prose of both fictional and nonfictional nature. His short stories appeared in a number of anthologies, and his essays—many earlier published in The Book Collector, The Antiquarian Book Monthly Review, and London Magazine—were collected into several volumes to serve not only as a history of the book trade in England but also as Sims’s memoirs. These volumes included Three Booksellers and Their Catalogues (1956), The Rare Books Game (1985), and A Life in Catalogues (1994).
A member of the Crime Writers’ Association and the Detection Club, Sims counted among the admirers of his fiction H. R. F. Keating, Maurice Richardson, and Evelyn Waugh. George Frederick Robert Sims died November 11, 1999, leaving as his literary legacy a fifty-year body of work invaluable to book collectors and bibliophiles of the past, present, and future.