You’ve been an avid collector for some time. at what point did you realize that you were a collector, and not just an accumulator or reader? I have been an avid reader all my life. I became a collector in the late 1980s on my last tour before retiring from the U. S. Air Force. In England, I started collecting dictionaries and quotation books, and then I was accumulating almost everything else except science fiction. Slowly but surely, as my book collecting interests developed

Tell us a little about yourself. Bookselling is my second career. As a ’74 graduate of the US Coast Guard Academy, I spent the first 23 years of my professional life as a “Coastie.” In the mid-80s, I discovered collecting first editions, Charles Dickens specifically. Knowing that someday I would be pursuing something other than Search & Rescue as a career, I looked at antiquarian bookselling as a possible pursuit. I established the business in 1989, home-based, and found I en

Thanks for granting this interview Philip, on top of the considerable time you spent on the Mosher fine bindings article that also appears in this issue. Tell us a little about your life BB (before bookselling). There was little in the way of books in my childhood unless you count Reader’s Digest condensed books and a couple cheap encyclopedias and some bibles. Assigned books from the library and a few paperbacks of my own choosing, especially those written by Taylor Caldwell

First of all Robert, thanks for taking time out from your very busy schedule, and congratulations on the recent addition to your family. By way of introduction, tell us a bit about Christina and yourself. Christina and I are both graphic designers. She has a BFA in Visual Communications from Virginia Commonwealth University and I have a BFA from the University of South Carolina and an MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, both in graphic design. We spent te

Matthew Eck is the 2007 runner-up for the Barnes and Noble Discover Award for his first novel, The Farther Shore (ISBN 1571310576), released through Milkweed Editions publishing group. The Farther Shore is a gripping, haunting short novel about the effects of war set in the troubled nation of Somalia. The novel was universally well received, with comparisons to other accomplished novelists such as Hemingway and Tim O’Brien—very distinguished company indeed. In The Farther Sho

Hi Bruce. Thanks for discussing the ins, outs, ups and downs of organizing book fairs. Before we get into it, can you tell us a little about your early background? I was working in the high tech industry in NYC in the late 70s when we moved to Berkshire County, MA where there was no high tech industry yet. I was looking for a career, saw a store for rent in South Egremont for $75 a month, and decided I should be able to sell something to cover the rent. Both my wife Sue and I

-Hi Judith. What is your life story before getting into bookselling, in one paragraph (and no cheating with a fifty page paragraph)? Hi, Shawn, and thanks for giving me this opportunity to blab about myself. I grew up on a farm in rural Indiana. Dad taught high school science, while Mom was in charge of the homefront.Both Mom and Dad took care of me and my big sister Jane, and all of us together took care of a passel of chickens, cats, and dogs, plus Rackety the raccoon and

-Let’s clear something up right away Donald. How did you come up with the name Noah’s Ark Book Attic? The name Noah’s Ark Book Attic grew out of my background in my family’s antique business known as Noah’s Ark (“a little of everything” was the slogan). -You have been in the business for over fifty years. How did you get started selling books? When I started with book selling in the late summer of 1944, my father had a corner of his antique store devoted to books. He was acqu

What is AuctionExplorerBooks, in a nutshell? AuctionExplorerBooks is an on-line auction site dedicated to the sale of rare and out-of-print books. Only booksellers who are members of the major trade associations may become sellers. This is to give buyers confidence in the accuracy of the descriptions when bidding. Fees are low: $1 per lot to list and 5% commission on successful sales. There is no buyer’s premium. Sales are held monthly running for a week at a time. Viewing an

-Tell us a little about yourself. Bookselling is my second career. As a ’74 graduate of the US Coast Guard Academy, I spent the first 23 years of my professional life as a “Coastie.” In the mid-80s, I discovered collecting first editions, Charles Dickens specifically. Knowing that someday I would be pursuing something other than Search & Rescue as a career, I looked at antiquarian bookselling as a possible pursuit. I established the business in 1989, home-based, and found I e

-Tell us a little about yourself: My passion for paper started in the school playground, swapping comics, cigarette cards and later, ‘naughty’ postcards. In the mid 1960s, swathes of houses in my neighbourhood were being bulldozed to accommodate the motorcar, and these abandoned homes gave up all kinds of printed treasures. Along with the discarded books there were magazines, old documents, photographs, cigarette cards—in fact ephemera of every kind. As a teenager I found boo

My name is Joe Perlman and I am the proud owner of Mostly Useful Fictions. The name describes my specialty, which I like to think of as “Useful Fiction” (i.e., twentieth century world literature). I sell what I love, mostly serious fiction, including lots of literature in translation. My journey to becoming a book dealer has been long and meandering. It best described by some lines in a poem called The Waking, by Theodore Roethke: “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I