death_place death_date birth_place nationality birth_date known_for article_title name occupation
ridgefield , connecticut 01 november 1988 vienna , austria austrian-born 12 october 1907 success as a rare book dealer hans p. kraus
 hans p. kraus rare book dealer
hans p. kraus

hans peter kraus -lrb- october 12 , 1907 -- november 1 , 1988 -rrb- , also known as h. p. kraus or hpk , was an austrian-born book dealer described as `` without doubt the most successful and dominant rare book dealer in the world in the second half of the 20th century '' and in a league with other rare book dealers such as bernard quaritch , guillaume de bure and a.s.w. rosenbach .
kraus specialized in medieval illuminated manuscripts , incunables -lrb- books printed before 1501 -rrb- , and rare books of the 16th and 17th centuries , but would purchase and sell almost any book that came his way that was rare , valuable and important .
he prided himself in being `` the only bookseller in history ... to have owned a gutenberg bible and the psalters of 1457 and 1459 simultaneously , '' stressing that ``` own ' here is the correct word , as they were bought not for a client 's account but for stock . ''
