The Rise of Gabriel Wells and the Rare Book Market

Michael Visontay with the true tale of how fragments of a rare Gutenberg Bible were sold off, leaf by leaf, in New York in the 1920s, and how the sale of these books, chapters and verses changed the course of his own family.

Some years ago journalist Michael Visontay was researching his family history when he stumbled upon the story of a man named Gabriel Wells, who had been a New York book dealer at the height of the Roaring 20s. 

As a way to make fast money, Wells came up with a scandalous plan.

He bought a precious, ancient copy of the world's greatest book, the Gutenberg Bible, and began extracting leaves from it to sell off the individual pages. 

Wealthy buyers were willing to pay big money for the 'noble fragments', and Wells died a rich man.

More than a century later, Michael discovered an extraordinary link between the story of Gabriel Wells and his own family history. He then set out to track down the pages of the broken bible himself.

This episode of Conversations discusses rare books, the Holocaust, World War Two, refugees, the Iron Curtain, post-war migration, Hungary, Judaism, divorce, blended families, small business, love stories, family stories, origin stories, Anglicisation of names, Sydney, Kings Cross.