Rick Gekoski - described by Tatler as “think Bill Bryson, only on books” - is a rare book dealer, writer, and broadcaster. An American who came to England in 1966 (and now a dual citizen, feeling "equally ill at ease in both cultures") he took a B. Phil and D.Phil. in English at Oxford. From 1971-1987 he was a member of the English Department of the University of Warwick, and sometime Chairman of the Faculty of Arts.

He has published a critical book on Joseph Conrad, The Bibliography of William Golding, Staying Up (a book on Premiership Football), a collection of essays entitled Tolkien's Gown and Other Stories of Great Authors and Rare Books (based on his BBC Radio 4 Series Rare Books, Rare People), Outside of a Dog: A Bibliomemoir, and Lost, Stolen, or Shredded: Stories of Missing Works of Art. (Lost, Stolen, or Shredded was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September-October 2009), and Darke, a novel. His books have been translated into eight languages. For four years he wrote an online column (about reading, writing and the rare book trade) in The Guardian entitled Finger on the Page.

He has founded two private presses, The Sixth Chamber Press and The Bridgewater Press, which issue finely printed editions of leading contemporary novelists and poets. In 2005 he was one of the judges for the Man Booker Prize, and was then Chair of the judges for the Man Booker International Prize 2011, which was awarded to Philip Roth. He taught Creative Non-Fiction for the Arvon Foundation, and sat on their Development Board.

He is a former Trustee and Member of the Board of English PEN, and was elected an Honorary Vice-President of that body in 2014, for his work organizing and curating an auction of annotated first editions by famous writers, held at Sotheby's in May 2013. Entitled First Editions, Second Thoughts, the auction raised over £439,200 to further the work of English Pen. Highlights included annotated first editions by Julian Barnes, Quentin Blake, Kazuo Ishiguro, JK Rowling, Colm Toibin, and Jeanette Winterson, amongst many others. https://www.englishpen.org/events/highlights-from-the-first-editions-second-thoughts-auction/

He lives in Salisbury, is married to Belinda Kitchin and has two children, Anna who is a forensic psychologist, and Aaron ('Bertie') who is a wildlife photographer and online TV presenter (www.aarongekoski.com).

Literary Agent: Peter Straus, of Rogers, Coleridge and White. More details

Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Gekoski