Times Literary Supplement, September 10 2004, p. 14:

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A successful exemplar of Anglo-American relations is the bookdealer Rick Gekoski, whose enjoyable BBC Radio 4 series on the trade, Rare Books, Rare People, has now been turned into a book, Tolkien's Gown.  Twelve broadcast episodes are augmented by eight specially written chapters.  The opening tale relates Gekoski's business dealings with Graham Greene in 1988, over the latter's copy of Lolita.  The novelist was eager to sell, and the pair met at the Ritz.  The inscription read, "For Graham Greene from Vladimir Nabokov, November 8, 1959".  When Greene showed it to Gekoski, the dealer exclaimed: "It's fabulous, almost perfect".

       Greene raised his eyebrows.  What was wrong with it.  "in a perfect world it would be     
       inscribed in the year of publication [1955] ...."  He nodded.  He was known to be fond
       of bibliographical niceties.

Gekoski offered £4,000, to which Greene responded, "In the light of what you say, I will take less".  Gekoski left the Ritz with Lolita and next morning sold it to Bernie Taupin, Elton John's lyricist, for £9,000.  The transaction left him feeling melancholy.  "I wasn't certain I had undersold the book", he remarks, "but I was certain I had under-owned it."
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J.C.