The tale of a book collector turned forger crafting fake first editions

Thomas James Wise was well-respected among the rare book fanatics of 1930s London as a consummate collector. But when he began to uncover a surprising amount of valuable first editions in mint condition, things began to look a bit fishy. Speaking to Ellie Cawthorne, academic and author Joseph Hone transports listeners back to the eccentric world of 1930s book collecting, to explore the audacious crimes of an ingenious forger.

(Ad) Joseph Hone is the author of The Book Forger: The true story of a literary crime that fooled the world (Chatto & Windus, 2024). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Forger-story-literary-fooled/dp/1784744670/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=&tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty.

The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.

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