Who is Valery Kulakov?
(aka Aaron Goldstein, Valery Kuharez, Valery Cool)
The owner of the company has been dealing
in rare books for more than 50 years, and his experience extends to both
sides of the Atlantic Ocean. He graduated from the Leningrad school of
librarianship and for a time worked as a librarian at the Russian
National library in Leningrad (formerly M.E Saltykov-Shchedrin State
Public Library).
During the 1970"s and 80"s, having emigrated to the USA, he was
instrumental in negotiating the sale of a number of major private art
libraries, collections, and papers of prominent Russian artists,
literati, and journalists - Alexander N Benois, Serge Soudeikine and
Nikita Baliev, to mention just a few.
Over the years he has contributed to the purchase and sale of many
cornerstones in the Russian, Soviet and Slavic book culture. His clients
include major collectors of Russian and Slavic books residing outside
Russia proper, major academic institutions, and prominent American and
European dealers in rare books and manuscripts.
Within the span of the last 25 years, he is one of the few contemporary
dealers in rare books to have handled a total of six volumes in
exclusive bindings with decorations wrought in silver and precious
stones, executed in Peter Carl Faberge"s workshop in St Petersburg at the
beginning of the last century.
He has also sold more than 2,500 individual volumes from the Russian
Imperial Libraries and the entire duplicates" section of more than 4,000
items/publications from the Archives of
the Russian Social Democratic Party (Bolshevik branch), originally
located in Geneva, and purchased and brought to the USA by the famous
American bookdealer H.P. Kraus after World War II.
These days the owner is assisted in his work by a small team of
consultants, all leading experts on Russian and East European book
culture and the history of printing, who all reside outside Russia.