Rowan Gibbs studied and taught in the field of Classics at Victoria University of Wellington, having graduated in 1969 with an MA (Hons) in Greek. In 1972 he became a secondhand bookseller, and from 1987 onwards owner of Smith's Bookshop in Wellington. He has published some twenty annotated book sale catalogues, a bibliographical catalogue of The Swiss Family Robinson, articles on New Zealand literature in Kite and Kotare, compiler of the exhibition catalogue The Art of the Book (Wellington, N.Z.: Book Arts Society, 1990) and of bibliographies of Ngaio Marsh (Scunthorpe, England, 1990), Dorothy Quentin (Wellington, 1998), Barry Crump (Wellington, 2001), Dorothy Eden (2007), Harry Emmet (2014).
