Expert will discuss rare books at Friends of the Madden Library meeting

John Crichton, owner of the best-known rare-book shop in San Francisco and past president of The Book Club of California, will speak on his lifelong involvement with rare books at the May 12 program of the Friends of the Madden Library.

The event begins at 6 p.m. with a reception, followed by the program at 6:30 p.m. in the Alice Peters Auditorium.

Crichton was born and raised in Nashville, Tenn. He attended the University of Kansas, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1975. His first employment in the book business came with Peter Howard at Serendipity Books in Berkeley in 1979. Three years later, he bought the Brick Row Book Shop in San Francisco.

Chrichton has been very involved with the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA), of which is he is the current president. He also has served on the boards of the San Francisco Center for the Book and the Associates of the Stanford University Libraries. He has been a representative to the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies.

Chrichton’s work in tracking down a forger as chair of the ABAA Security Committee was included in Nancy and Lawrence Goldstone’s “Warmly Inscribed: The New England Forger and Other Book Tales,” published in 2001.

Admission is $2 general and $1 for students. Reservations are required by May 10 and can be made by calling 278.5790.