John Percival's Ballet Books

[Johnpw]

The Oxfam Bookshop at 12 Bloomsbury Street, WC1B 3QA currently has a number of second-hand ballet books for sale (window display and two shelves). There are indications (eg name in flyleaf) that many may have come from the collection of John Percival. In the locked cabinet, there is (as at today) a card indicating the presence of John Percival's own 1st edition copy of his Nureyev biography signed by Nureyev, at £100. I pointed out to the assistant that there's now just a space - someone must have snapped it up!

 

For just over £20, I picked up Ivor Guest's The Dancer's Heritage; Serge Lifar's History of Russian Ballet; two photo books about the Bolshoi published in 1975 and 1984 (the latter with text by Grigorovich) and a cheap and cheerful version of Percival's "The World of Diaghilev".

 

My memory isn't what it was but there are biographies of Ulanova, De Valois, Rambert, Pavlova and a wide range of other books, most, I imagine, out of print. The assistant told me there were "loads more downstairs". It may be possible to search some of the "finer" books at the shop through the shop's page on the Oxfam website (eg books by Cyril Beaumont, I'm not sure about that, though).

 

The shop is literally round the corner from the British Museum.

 

I thought this might be of interest to anyone living or working in the vicinity or visiting.

 

[if it's a wrong post or in the wrong place, perhaps a moderator could move it. Thanks]

[alison]

Thank you, Johnpw, and welcome to the forum.  That must be some collection - I hope it won't all be dispersed piecemeal.