John Dorfman is Director of Books & Manuscripts at Bonhams Skinner. His passion for the printed word dates back to early childhood, when he usually spent his whole allowance on books and then enjoyed meticulously arranging the volumes on his shelves. Years later he worked in a huge secondhand bookstore in New York and, a bit later still, for two Boston dealers of rare books, where he learned the rudiments of the trade.

A New York City native, John came to Bonhams Skinner from Art & Antiques magazine, where he was Editor-in-Chief for 14 years. As a journalist, he covered the rare books and manuscripts market, writing on subjects from incunabula to photobooks. He also wrote on a wide range of art and collectable subjects spanning centuries.

John majored in Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, with a concentration in medieval Islamic literature, following it up with a Master's degree in the same subject from Harvard. Soon afterward, he started his journalistic career as a fact-checker at The New Yorker.