Barry Humphries Appointed Patron of Honor by the ILAB
Barry Humphries, AO, CBE, the Australian comedian, satirist, artist, and author has been appointed a Patron of Honor by the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB). The appointment recognises his major contribution to the antiquarian book trade.
Mr Humphries graciously accepted the honorary position following a joint invitation from the Presidents of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association (ABA) in the United Kingdom and the Australian and New Zealand Association of Antiquarian Booksellers (ANZAAB): Laurence Worms and Sally Burdon. He joins a select body which includes Sir David Attenborough and Umberto Eco.
Mr Humphries is perhaps best known for his stage and television alter ego Dame Edna Everage. He is also a film producer and scriptwriter, a star of London's West End musical theatre, an award-winning writer, an accomplished landscape painter and a prominent book collector. Mr Humphries has spent much of his life immersed in music, literature and the arts. A self-proclaimed 'bibliomaniac', his house in London supposedly contains some 25,000 books, many of them first editions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The ILAB is a global network for the rare book trade and represents 1860 of the world’s finest antiquarian booksellers in 32 countries.
![Origen of Alexandria (c. 185–253) Homilia in Genesim, Homiliae in Exodum, in Latin, translation by Rufinus, decorated manuscript on parchment [Austria, Lambach Abbey? c. 1150–1175]. Estimate: $150,000-$200,000.](/sites/default/files/styles/category_card/public/media-images/2026-06/origen.jpeg?itok=0V_4_Lt2)
