IT certainly looks like being a happy and prosperous New Year for George Ramsden.

The York bookseller has pulled off a deal worth £1.5 million to sell a 2,600-volume library that once belonged to the American writer Edith Wharton.

Mr Ramsden bought the collection for £45,000 in 1984 and has spent years seeking out the missing volumes.

His hard work has paid off handsomely and the library is now heading back to America.

Perhaps the last word should go to Wharton herself, who had something fitting to say: "The only way not to think about money is to have a great deal of it."

Updated: 10:13 Tuesday, January 03, 2006