The playwright John Drinkwater once described George D. Smith as "The Napoleon of Bookdealers." In pursuit of a large collection or of a single volume Smith could be bombastic, determined, confident, fearless, and, if necessary, utterly ruthless. When Smith entered the auction room to bid on the behalf of a special customer, his battle strategy was simple--annihilate the competition. To go against Smith, as the Chicago book dealer Walter Hill once remarked, was like attacking a brick wall.

Little is known of Smith's early years or his family background. He grew up in New York City and at the age of thirteen in 1883 left school and went to work as a sweeper and stock boy for the Manhattan bookshop of Wiley and Son and later for the publisher and rare-book dealer Dodd, Mead. Surrounded by such knowledgeable bookmen as Robert H. Dodd, James F. Drake, George H. Richmond...