Meet 'Book Cop' at Gold Rush fair
Saunders snared one of most successful tome thieves
By Dixie Redfearn
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12:01 a.m. PT May 19, 2007
You wouldn't imagine thievery would be an issue in the rarefied world of antique books, but that's not the case.
One of the most notorious book thieves on record - John Charles Gilkey - was pursued for more than three years by book collector Ken Saunders.
Saunders, owner of Ken Saunders Rare Books in Salt Lake City, is the honored bookseller at today's Gold Rush Book Fair at the Nevada County Fairgrounds.
Because of his sleuthing efforts, Saunders calls himself "The Book Cop."
And the stakes are high in the book world. A book such as William Wordsworth's "The Prelude" can fetch about $65,000. The 1482 edition of Euclid's "Elements" could cost $175,000.
One of Gilkey's earliest known thefts occurred in the Bay Area on March 14, 2001. In disguise, he went to the Brick Row Bookshop on Geary Street in San Francisco and paid $2,500 for a first edition of Thomas Hardy's "The Mayor of Casterbridge." A month later the store owner found out the book was purchased with a stolen credit card, and he contacted Saunders in Utah.
Saunders had heard stories of other book thefts, always with the same M.O. A man would call and inquire about a book, and later a father, son or nephew would come in to make the purchase. None of the books cost more than $10,000, although the stolen works were accumulating into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Also odd was the fact that the books didn't appear for sale anywhere, either. But the thefts were mounting; many in the Northern California area. Saunders, as security chair of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, wanted to put a stop to whomever was stealing these rare books.
By 2002, thefts were occurring in Washington state, but the M.O. had changed. The books were ordered over the phone, and the recipient's address usually was a hotel. Saunders began wondering if the thief were a fellow collector.
In 2003, Gilkey made a mistake that would cost him his freedom. He twice called a book dealer who recognized his voice as that of a man who had tried to buy a book over the phone with a stolen credit card. Saunders called police, and a sting operation resulted in Gilkey's arrest.
Gilkey served half of a three-year sentence at Duel Vocational Institution and was released in July 2005. He later was re-arrested for violating parole for attempting to sell stolen items on eBay.
Saunders will probably be glad to regale book collectors with his stories of tracking Gilkey, along with his own impressive collection of rare books.
The Gold Rush Book Fair will be held at the fairgrounds from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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To contact Readership Editor Dixie Redfearn, e-mail dixier@ theunion.com or call 477-4238.
More information
The Gold Rush Book Fair will be held at the Nevada County Fairgrounds from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today.
