Frederick T. Bason

29 August 1907 – 3 July 1973

Frederick T. Bason was an English bookseller, writer and broadcaster most famously known for his collection of diaries that were published in four volumes in the early 1950s. Bason was born in Walworth, London, and at an early age he started keeping his diaries and found his vocation in buying and selling rare, second-hand books. It was through his experience (in finding that publications had a much greater re-sale value with the author's signature) that a lifelong obsession with autographs began. His essays were a regular feature of every edition of *The Saturday Book* between 1945 and 1972,