Literary treasure hunters

Graduate Certificate in Writing, Editing and Publishing student Sebastian Kirkpatrick shares his first-hand experience working as an intern for the UQ Alumni Book Fair and describes how volunteers like him are breathing new life into rare books.

“We’re a pretty resilient bunch around here,” UQ Alumni Book Fair floor manager Gary Lambrides says.

Gary is a master of the understatement. Despite days of relentless rain wreaking havoc across much of Brisbane during Autumn, Gary and his fellow volunteers were still hard at work preparing for the upcoming fair, beginning on 30 April.

The Book Fair volunteers work out of a small and unassuming building at UQ’s Long Pocket campus. Here, the tens of thousands of books donated each year pass through the caring hands of the volunteers. Every book is sorted, categorised, priced and prepared for sale.

Walking into one of the sorting rooms feels like entering the home of a well-read hoarder, or the personal library of an eccentric collector. Books litter every surface; books on shelves, books on tables and books in boxes sealed in preparation for the fair. All sorted by volunteers who have developed specialist knowledge about the many categories – from cookery, textbooks, children’s literature, art, magazines, history and everything in between.

I'm one of 30 volunteers who work year-round, preparing for the book fair. Many of my fellow volunteers are retired and have varied career backgrounds, including pharmacists, doctors, engineers, teachers and academics. They all share a love of books, and it’s fascinating to hear about some of the treasures they find.

“Do you know what these are?” asks Gary, holding up three books set in green binding with gold lettering on the spine, reading Materia Medica.

“No,” I reply. “Not at all.”

“Come – there’s someone I want you to meet,” he says.

Gary introduces me to Robert Bourke, and the pair sit opposite me with the three green books set neatly in the middle of the table.

Robert, like Gary, worked as a pharmacist for many years.

What we have in front of us was a 1983 reprint of a series of books first published in 1922. I learnt that Materia Medica is an official reference list of all the plants that have medicinal applications, or that contained compounds that can be used to treat anything from cancer to brain disease. This set was, however, much more than that.

Through Gary and Robert’s knowledge of the subject, these books morphed from inaccessible textbooks into pieces of living history.

“Put very simply,” explains Robert, answering my questions with the patience that comes only from deep understanding, “this is what they originally used before you could go into a supermarket or a pharmacy and get everything in tablet form.”

“Plants are the original source of many medications,” Robert says.

“Aspirin first came from the bark of a willow tree; foxglove – a plant found in English gardens – was used to treat heart problems; the opium poppy, of course, gave us morphine.”

I ask Robert what kind of person he thought would bid for these books in this year’s rare book auction. Would a pharmacist in 2021 feel the need to have these titles?

“Perhaps,” Robert says. “But I think they would more likely appeal to someone with an interest in history –  they’re a historical piece now.”