Wir geben den Text – eine Rund-E-Mail Steiners im Vorfeld der New York Antiquariatsmesse vom 2. bis 4. April – hier mit freundlicher Genehmigung des Verfassers vollständig wieder:
Returned from an interesting Abu Dhabi Antiquarian Book Fair with at least 25,000 wealthy visitors from the Emirates, all very friendly, interested and wandering around, but somewhat difficult as buyers. Too many explications (and expectations) with the word "reservation" and "I will come back tomorrow."
On the final day Sheikh Abudallah bin Zayed was so kind as to support our efforts by buying most of the Falconery books for the National Library for a substantial amount. That made a few dealers happy or very happy, but left others with few or no sales to report. I expect most of the dealers will return next year along with some hotshot colleagues from London, New York and Paris.
The service at the fair was very professional, and one event unforgetable: the impressive party at the private beach and swimming pool of the Emirates Palace Hotel with fantastic food and drinks(!).
A few minor points: before setting up, our trunks with books were left several hours in the burning desert sun at a kind of African market. My books liked the heat after the cold and wet winter, but some dealers got overheated and starting screaming at a poor guy who tried to set everything in order in the sweltering heat. The opening times were not so civilized as expected: travelling between the hotel and fair took an hour each way and in the weekend the organization decided that 9am to 10pm would be best for us!
The weather was great, the people very friendly and the food was good, but there were too many defective taxi meters, leading to some hard dealings in the morning and evening.
