As usual, I bought a few books to prepare myself for the journey. The first one was a rather dry, brief traveler’s history of Peru. If I had read this before I planned the trip, I might have changed the destination since it made the country seem rather boring. I then skimmed through two guide books: Footprints, a rather snobbish British one, and the ubiquitous Lonely Planet. If I had bought them before I planned the trip, I might have been scared off, since both were replete with warnings about the difficulties of traveling in so poor and crime-ridden a country as Peru. As the old saying goes, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. This lack of information necessitated numerous calls to the travel agency I booked the trip through, but none of its staff had been on this particular tour. They advised bringing a down jacket and ski hat for the evenings in the Andes (July is their winter) and towels since some hotels charge extra. Fortunately, I spoke to my corporate travel agent, who had been to Peru in June of 2006. She told me that in all her photos she is wearing shorts, and maybe a sweatshirt, and assured me there was no need to bring a winter jacket. She also said that she found the country had an ample supply of linens, so out went the warm clothes and the towels. I was able to breathe a sigh of relief, since I now had room in my suitcase for some extra reading materials. The Museum taught us how little is actually known about the early Peruvian civilizations. None had a written language so much of the information about the rise and fall of the various tribes, including the Incas, is largely speculative. We did learn that they kept census records by weaving knots into fabric. The next day we flew to Cuzco, the center of the old Incan empire. By now, I realized that the guide books were misleading. This was not Dickensian London, so I did not have to keep my eyes out for pickpockets around every corner. Museums the guides rated as not to be missed were, in general, rather ho hum, while other sites that were merely mentioned turned out to be much more interesting. We did encounter some unexpected difficulties, not mentioned in the guide books, because the country was experiencing major strikes and protest demonstrations. The unrest began when the government announced that it would require all teachers in the country to be re-certified with a new certification exam. All of the teachers went on strike and were joined by several other unions. We heard two different arguments. Some people said the education standards are low and in dire need of improvement. Others said the examinations would be political and serve as an excuse to eliminate teachers with views to the left of the present, conservative government. I don’t feel qualified to take sides, but given the level of unrest, I would not be surprised if motivation for the legislation is more political than educational. We were lucky to arrive in Cuzco when we did, because the next day the demonstrators actually succeeded in closing the airport for a few days by starting brush fires nearby. While the protestors were busy disrupting air traffic, we managed to spend several days touring the Incan ruins in and around Cuzco and the surrounding area which is known as the Sacred Valley. Within the city, the Spanish managed to destroy the Incan temples and build their churches on top of the old foundations, but there are still some large archeological sites out in the countryside, such as Saqsaywaman which overlooks the city. Some guides say it was a fortress, others say there were no fortresses at that time in South America, but they all agree on its nickname, and it call it “the Sexy Woman,” though the word is from the Quechua language and actually means “Satisfied Falcon.” There are one or two bookstores in Cuzco which I had hoped to visit, but the local tour company was very disorganized which meant we got a late start every morning and did not return to the city until after the bookshops had closed. The gift shops, in contrast, remained open until the last tourist in town was tucked safely into bed. Fortunately, I brought extra reading material so I was in no danger of running out of books. Several of the hotels we stayed in had small libraries where you could take a book you wanted to read and replace it with one you had finished. Naturally, I carefully examined all of these rather motley collections. The English language selections were rather scanty, and there was never anything worth swapping for. I did learn that most travelers, no matter where they come from, prefer the same light reading (i.e., John Grisham and Danielle Steele) as Americans do. These books are widely translated, and dog-eared paperbacks in many languages were readily available in every hotel. The most useful book I brought to read turned out to be Che Guevara’s The Motorcycle Diaries. For those unfamiliar with this wonderful work, Mr. Guevara and a friend took some time off from medical school to travel around South America on a motorcycle in the early 1950s. Their travels took them through Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, etc. and his experiences helped radicalize his political thinking. Many of his observations are as true today as fifty years ago when he wrote them. For instance, as a medical doctor he was appalled at the sanitary conditions in Peru, such as the custom of not flushing toilet paper but placing it in a basket next to the commode, a practice that continues in some areas to this day. He also found the Spanish churches in Peru gaudy and cheap looking, compared to the simple symmetrical beauty of the Incan architecture. He wrote: “Gold doesn’t have the dignity of silver which becomes more charming as it ages, and so the cathedral seems to be decorated like an old woman with too much make-up.” According to the Incas, gold was the sweat of the sun, while silver was the tears of the moon. I highly recommend the book to anyone traveling to South America. Machu Picchu is one of the most spectacular archeological sites that I have ever seen, and for me it was the highlight of the trip. It ranks up there in my personal pantheon with the Acropolis in Athens. It is built high up in the Andes, and when you stand far away you can gaze at it for hours, as the constantly changing light keeps revealing different patterns and structures. When you walk around the site there are mountain views and interesting architectural angles in every direction. Because the Incas left no written records, even the name of the city remains a mystery. Machu Picchu is actually the name of the mountain that the city was built on, but the city’s name has been lost to the ages. After a long day exploring the site, we sadly boarded the train for another long zigzag ride back down the mountain to Cuzco. Puno is a small, bustling city that serves as the major Peruvian port for Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. The main reason to stay in Puno is to take a boat tour around the lake. The tour takes you to visit the Uros, a Native American tribe that was dispossessed by their enemies many years ago so they moved to the lake district and built their own small islands out of reeds. About ten families dwell on each island, which lasts for seventeen years or so and then needs to be rebuilt. Almost everything is constructed out of reeds, including their houses, their boats, and their furniture. We visited two different islands, watched some of the women making dinner over reed fires, and bought some decorative reed mobiles from the children. We then took a long boat ride to the middle of the lake to the natural island of Taquile. This island while larger than the reed islands is still small. Its inhabitants still farm and weave the way their ancestors have done for centuries, without electricity and modern technology. Occasionally there is a house with a solar panel which is used to power a television set. On the way to the airport for a flight back to Lima, our tour guide took us to visit one of the local farmers. His farm was a multi-generational compound which consisted of communal cooking and storage facilities, along with individual mud brick sleeping houses for each family. They raise alpacas, and potatoes and quinoa. We sampled some of the fresh baked potatoes, though I declined the offer to dip them in sauce made from mud containing salt deposits that they use for seasoning. They tasted delicious enough without any condiments. He took us inside to see his sleeping quarters, and to my surprise one whole mud brick wall was filled with his children’s academic honor roll certificates and school medals. He was very proud of them, and it was encouraging in so rural an outpost to see such a profound respect for education. Miniature books are very popular in Peru, and there is a publisher who puts out a whole collection of tiny books, mostly classics. They have decorative covers, and are about two inches by one and a quarter inch in size. Don Quixote comprises two volumes. To my surprise, the best selling volume is a Spanish translation of the Kama Sutra. Both of my children wanted one, but we were able to find only one copy. It is the one book in the series that you don’t need to speak Spanish to appreciate, since it has a lot of pictures, which as they say, are worth a thousand words. This is one of the few times that I arrived home from a trip without regretting books that I neglected to buy, since I think I bought all six of the books that I was at all interested in. In fact, what I regretted was some of the books I bought before I left. I quickly put the dry history and useless guide books up for sale on Half.com and rearranged the G section to make a place of honor for The Motorcycle Diaries. Occasionally as I pass by the shelf, I see the book, look up at it, and say, “Yes, Che, you were right. Problems abound, but the people and the sights and the architecture are still spectacularly beautiful.” Joe Perlman operates Mostly Useful Fictions out of East Northport, NY

When making a large haul, all kinds of things turn up in the net. Even if it’s only books, rather than loads of paper, inscriptions and the things that fall out of books often give you some picture of the previous owner. While whipping through a load of estate books recently, I nearly threw a newer-looking one in the discard/recycle pile, rather than the price, check, keep for myself, or donate piles. That’s because it was written in. The title was List Your Self: Listmaking as the Way to Self-Discovery, by Ilene Segalove and Paul Bob Velick (Kansas City, MO: Andrews and McMeel, 1996). Now one could goof on this book at length to begin with, as an interactive example of cheesy self-help titles, but the authors kind of make their point in the introduction, and in this case they got results. The owner was moved to record personal facts and thoughts. Most of her personal papers were simply discarded, and although she mentions teen diaries and adult journals several times, it is thought that she either destroyed these or instructed her executor to do so. There are ten categories: Yourself, Daily Life, Business, Change, Culture, Men and Women, Greater Truths, Health, Growing Up, and Suddenly. Each includes thirty or so topics with a full lined page for responses. Some of the headings are pretty silly. List all the smells that make you scream. List what’s under your kitchen sink. List what kinds of people should never drive cars. List what’s consistently in your garbage. List all the greetings you’ve used to answer your telephone. List all the warnings you’ve heard about the evils of business. List the dangerous things you have done for money. List those restrictions, from stop signs to gravity, that you can’t stand living with. List the way you feel when a car alarm goes off. List all the things that could happen to you when you park in an underground structure. List what you like to do after sex. List your surefire sexy moves and lines. List the drugs you’ve tried. List what you know about the human body. List all the things you do to stop hiccupping. Suddenly you’ve arrived on Jupiter. List the things you can’t live without. Many are good though, and some of her responses are recorded as follows. List the places you go in your mind when you want some peace and quiet. -Back to our camp on the [X] Pond—many happy memories. -Fishing with [husband] in Quebec, Canada 250 mi. N. West of Montreal. What beautiful country. -Church—when children are quiet & well-behaved. -My easy chair in living room. List all the names you’ve been called, endearing and not so. -Bitch -Know it all -Opinionated -Judgmental List what always makes you laugh. -Tickling my ribs & feet. Doctors are forewarned! -Children when happy and/or surprised. -A good joke. -At or to myself over some stupid mistake of mine—example, putting mail in fridge. List the ways you don’t care to die. -Burn -Auto accident -Drown -Long term cancer List the animals that really scare you. -Snakes -Chickens -Feathered creatures -Horses and cows -Rats List the heroic feats you’ve performed. Olive says I saved her from drowning. I don’t remember. List the things you’ve said that you’d like to take back. Once when I was a wise, know it all teenager, I asked my mom—“Why do you hate me?” She surprised me by breaking into tears. So did I! List the brand names you buy and swear by. -Tylenol & Tylenol P.M. -Hannaford tissues -Helmbold’s hot dogs, bologna & liverwurst -Pam -Tide or All -Charmin -Most of Schwan’s products -Breyers ice cream List all the modes of transportation you’ve taken. -Horse & buggy -Horse & cutter -Model T, Maxwell, Auburn (cars) -Tricycle, toy auto-bike, 2 seater bike -Bus (school), bus (Greyhound) -El train, N.Y.C. subway, train -Auto -Jet plane -Ferry boat (Alaskan), river boat (nite line on Hudson), outboard motor boat -Dump truck -Snowmobile -Elevator, escalator List the first thoughts that run through your mind the moment you get up. -It’s another morning. Thank you God! -Let’s see what the weather is. -Paper here yet? -Where is my list for today’s activities? What am I doing today? -What’s for breakfast? List the biggest turning points in your life. -The ultimatum my mother gave me after I graduated from high school. “Get a job or enroll in a college!” After checking over the Help Wanted ads, I enrolled in [X College]—August 1937. -Graduation from [X College]—1941. -1st teaching job—1943, loved it! -My 1st marriage—I now embarked on 2-3 careers—housewife, teacher & secretary of our construction business. I enjoyed # 1 & 2—but soon had to give up #3—I disliked it intensely. -Loss of [husband 1]—moved back home & worked on a Master’s Degree. -When I said “Yes” to [husband 2] after only 2 months courtship. Married Dec. 1963. -Loss of [husband 2]—when I had to go it alone. Never had to stay all alone in my life before. It is scary. List all the times you’ve gone off the beaten path. Not too many, but I don’t care to list them. List how you’ve contributed to the welfare of the planet. -Teaching 10 yr. olds for 30 years. -Tried to lead a “good” life by helping others in many ways. -Collected & recorded many historical facts—preservation for future. List all the celebrities you’d like to sock in the face. No room for all. List all the celebrities you’d like to have sex with. None—thank you. List the ways the government lies to you. Too many to list. Latest scare tactic by Bush Administration re Social Security, etc. List all the magazines you subscribe to. -Guide Posts -Good Old Days -Reminisce—a gift -Ladies Home Journal—going to drop List the movies you’ve seen that were really worth two hours of your life. -Gone With the Wind -Mame -South Pacific -Oklahoma List the cultural spots you’ve visited that move you so much you are speechless. Am usually not speechless. List the times you said yes when you wish you had said no. The times I sold off all the farm lands. List the times you have consciously endangered your life. Driving Dad’s Auburn back & forth to [X College]. It could really fly. List those unanswered questions that have been plaguing you since childhood. -What is heaven like? -Is there really a hell such as many “olde time” talked about? -Why do people mistreat animals—esp. kittens & puppies? There are dozens of blank copies of this book available online starting at a dollar, and they had a couple of spin-offs, like List Your Self for Pregnancy, and More List Your Self. A few of these are written in, and there’s even an ex-library copy for sale! What to do with this biographical book of lists? On the one hand our journalist seemed to want her privacy. On the other, it is a hokey yet poignant repository of late thoughts on a long good life, and better than many listless 1800s diaries I’ve seen that are mainly concerned with things like the weather. I know one of the women she included under “List all the people who love you for who you really are,” and it will go to her. Shawn Purcell operates Balopticon Books & Ephemera IOBA Standard, Fall Edition 2007, Volume 8, No. 4.

I recently did something I never thought I would do: I tore a book to shreds. When my children were little, they routinely received harsh punishments for this sort of behavior. What brought me to commit such an act of destruction? It was not a fit of rage or any form of mental breakdown. It was an assignment for a class in book repair. Over the past year, I have had the opportunity to study book making and repair. Along with my fellow attendees, I shuddered at the thought of ruining a perfectly good book. I nervously sliced into the binding and pulled off the covers. I quickly became engrossed with the task and amazed at how difficult it was to break apart a well made book. Warming to the job, I ripped off headbands, scraped spine linings, peeled the endpapers from the boards, and even cut off the corners of the boards. I finished by removing a few pages from the text block and either crumpling them or tearing them into pieces. The next assignment was the really fun part—putting the books back together. I signed up for these classes as a bit of a lark, thinking that it would be interesting to learn how books are made and how all the parts come together. I came away with much more. I did not fully appreciate how books are made until I sat down and took a book apart, piece by piece, and put it back together with a trained professional labeling every part and explaining its purpose. After going through this process, you “read” books in a new way. Only by understanding book construction can you accurately assess a book’s condition. You will know how to spot repairs. You will be able to assess whether a book that looks perfectly fine at first glance has been previously repaired. You will be able to identify books that look hopeless but which are easily fixable. These courses also broadened my acceptance of book repairs. In the past, if faced with a damaged book, I would tie it up with a ribbon or put it in a protective box. I avoided buying damaged books, even when they presented a great bargain, and rarely recommended that clients spend money on book repairs. My attitude has changed. Whereas I once thought that damaged books were best left alone, I now see that bringing disabled books back into a usable form can be a positive thing. My own experience bore this out almost immediately. The week after I completed my first class in rebinding, a client asked me to fix a favorite old book of his that was falling apart. I explained that the process would alter the charming aged appearance of his book. I was surprised that he wanted me to proceed. I nervously performed the repair, almost certain that he would be disappointed by the result. To my great surprise, he was thrilled with the transformation and was practically in tears with appreciation that I had brought the book back into usable form. I am not sure why I found this so remarkable. Books are, after all, meant to be read. While I freely admit to a new found respect for the wonders of book repair, I still find myself a bit squeamish about one issue: to what extent dealers should disclose repairs to their customers. I have encountered several dealers who tout their ability to refurbish tattered old books and make a tidy profit on resale. I’ve often got the distinct impression some of these dealers were not advising purchasers about the repairs. So, what responsibility do dealers have to disclose book repairs to potential clients? Unfortunately, there is no generally applicable booksellers’ code to say what is required. While there are various guidelines that set operating standards for dealers, few offer guidance on this issue. Of primary interest to readers of the IOBA Standard would be how IOBA addresses repair disclosure. The IOBA Code of Ethics requires that its members take “responsibility for furthering mutual trust and respect between booksellers and customers by conducting their businesses with fairness and integrity.” Members must thoroughly inspect their books and post accurate descriptions. IOBA also requires its dealers to describe “defects, blemishes, or other characteristics which reduce a book’s quality” and prohibits its dealers from “mislead[ing]” customers. While this language supports the idea of dealers disclosing repairs in their listings, it is not explicitly required. The issue seems to come down to whether a well-performed repair reduces a book’s quality. I suspect some dealers would say that, by definition, repairs automatically diminish value. Others certainly would disagree. Also of interest to online booksellers may be the listing policies of services such as AbeBooks and Alibris. Neither appears to address the issue head-on. According to the AbeBooks Bookseller Policy, under Performance Standards and Code of Conduct, Section 11(d), dealers may not list “inaccurate or incorrect book information or descriptions…resulting in the misrepresentation of inventory.” There does not seem to be any specific obligation to disclose book repair history in seller listings. Similarly, I found no specific requirement by Alibris that dealers must disclose book repairs in their listings. As far as damaged books go, the Alibris Listing Regulations require only that sellers do not list “[b]ooks with missing pages” or books that are “[m]oldy, smelly, badly stained or unclean…unless specifically described as such.” One entity that addresses the issue directly is the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America. Like IOBA, ABAA requires its members to be responsible for the accurate description of material offered for sale. However, the ABAA goes a step further and specifies that “[a]ll significant defects, restorations, and sophistications should be clearly noted and made known to those to whom the material is offered or sold.” While this statement requires disclosures in certain situations, even here there is some degree of ambiguity. What does the term “significant” mean? What are “sophistications?” Does an ABAA dealer have to disclose erasures or re-glued plates? Dealers selling repaired books would be well-advised to think through the applicable standards carefully as they prepare their listings. In addition, when buying books, it makes sense to ask about repair histories. Without any uniform standard on this issue, it can only be assumed that dealers follow a variety of approaches to disclosure. I encourage all dealers to find the time to study book making and repair. I am not suggesting that all dealers need to become master book-binders. That is a skill best left to book artisans. A class or two is all you will need to find new insight and a skill set that will benefit both you and your customers. Ellen Firsching Brown operates Liberty Hall Books out of Richmond, VA IOBA Standard, Fall Edition 2007, Volume 8, No. 4.

This is the third in a series of articles taking a brief look at the pros and cons of the various multi-dealer book-listing databases. The first and second in the series looked at AbeBooks.com and Alibris.com and can be found in the two previous issues of the IOBA Standard. This article takes a look at Amazon.com, the largest and in many ways the most important internet bookselling site. Amazon’s commitment to “branding” and to creating a significant presence on the net resulted in years of losses, but it also created a name that has become a household word. For most people, and not just in the United States, Amazon and bookselling on line are synonymous. When looking for a relatively recent book—that is, titles published after the advent of ISBNs (International Standard Book Number), roughly 1970—Amazon.com offers more copies from more booksellers, both professional and amateur, than any other site in the United States. AbeBooks.com used to dominate in pre-1970 books, at least in terms of quantity, but this is beginning to change, and Amazon’s selection is expanding rapidly in this area also. In the past month, I have found several books where the only copy being offered on the internet, as far as I could determine, was on Amazon.com. It offers a marketplace unequaled in its reach on the internet. FOR BUYERS: PROS More books offered, used and new, than can be found anywhere else, with most of the new books being sold at some sort of a discount, often a significant discount. Free shipping on new books at a low order threshold (just $25), or discounted expedited shipping through Amazon Prime. Increasingly broad selection of out-of-print books, including those which were not issued with ISBNs or were issued before the use of these numbers. There are many sellers who list books on Amazon and nowhere else. These range from sellers with thousands of books, to those who just have a few books to sell from their personal library. Amazon encourages the listing of even just one book by a seller. Feedback on sellers. While any feedback system can be abused, reading the feedback about a seller, especially one with a significant amount of negative comments, can give a buyer some valuable information. Unlike eBay.com, the majority do not post feedback on Amazon.com; feedback comments probably represent somewhere between 25% to fewer than 10% of all customers. Ability to place a pre-order for a book which has no copies listed. The buyer can specify the maximum price and the lowest acceptable condition, and if a book meeting these requirements is listed, the order is automatically placed. For a scarce book, where condition does not matter, or matters little, this can be useful. Amazon’s A-Z guarantee. While not quite as strong a level of protection as it was in the past, this does give buyers a way of resolving problems if contacting the seller does not work. Because the Amazon.com marketplace is so valuable to many sellers, however, they are usually quick to resolve problems. When I received a trade paperback instead of the hardcover I ordered, the seller quickly gave a full refund (note: in this case, the seller had violated Amazon’s rules by listing a book which did not match the “product details,” something that happens frequently, and is sometimes disclosed, sometimes not). A very easy to use check out system, including “one click” buying if you only want one book, and standard shipping is acceptable. An enormous amount of other information about the book, including both editorial and reader reviews, a look “inside the book” which shows other books that referenced this specific title, and more. Amazon just added links to forums for discussions about a product or book (and if there are no discussions, links to active related forums) and its own version of Wikipedia, called amapedia.com. Amazon has always been content-driven, but the content is increasing significantly. Many internet buyers check Amazon for information, even when actually buying elsewhere. FOR BUYERS: CONS Search results can be a mess—there is just no other word to describe it! If a title has a paperback copy in print (or relatively recent), sometimes this is the only option which will show up when doing a simple author/title search. In order to find hardcover copies, you have to click on the paperback and then go to “all editions” etc. This is true even when the “recent” edition is no longer available, and there are copies listed under the other editions. The situation is even worse for older books. Amazon.com bought several databases of pre-ISBN books, but the information in them is often incomplete (“binding unknown”) or incorrect (“4 pages”). In addition, Amazon.com allows sellers to create “product details” pages, so sometimes a book which only had a few different editions might have 15 or 20 variations shown on Amazon, with the number of books “available” for each variant ranging from none to 50 or more. In order to really know what is available, you need to click all of these options. Here’s a recent example. I searched for a popular book issued in hardcover and book club in 1984, as a mass market paperback in 1985, and as a trade paperback in at least 1997 and just recently in 2007. The search was run using the author’s last name, and a short form of the title. Fourteen different results come back with the 2007 trade paperback first (which lists 50 used and new copies). The second result is the 1997 trade paperback (this used to be the “top result” until the new edition came out) with 26 used and new. These are followed by mass market paperback with 34 copies, hardcover with 5, paperback with 4, hardcover with 1, etc. and finally gets down to several listings for hardcovers and paperbacks with no copies. In looking at this screen, it appears that there are only 6 hardcover copies available, with the lowest priced at $7.50. If you click on the first title, you will see only the product information related to that particular edition. However, if you click on the second title for the 1997 trade paperback, which indicates that there are 26 used and new starting at $17.45, you will find the link to “other editions,” and HERE you will see a link to “hardcovers—106 used and new from .01.” So whether you are looking for a very inexpensive copy or you want a choice of “collectible” copies, this is where the majority of copies listed on Amazon.com will be found. But this is not all. Click on the title for the mass market paperback (34 copies used and new from .65) and you will see a link to 16 more hardcovers starting at $1.76. If you know the ISBN and use that as your search criteria (for the hardcover, for example) you will only see the 106 which we found linked to the 1997 paperback. The “advanced search” function will bring up better results—that is, all 5 hardcover options ranging from no copies to 106—but a buyer looking for the “best” first edition at the best price will still have to click on several different results. Note that this example is for a recent book. The results can be even more confusing for a pre-1970 title. The advanced search only has very limited options for narrowing down searches. If you are looking for a collectible copy, for example, it is important to remember that not all copies listed under that tab are “collectible” and some listed simply as “used” might be collectible. Amazon does not permit a book to be categorized as “collectible” unless the price is more than the list price (with a minimum of $10), nor can an “ex-library” copy be described as collectible, no matter how desirable the title might be. Books are listed which the seller does not have in his or her possession. This is especially true for uncommon books where it might appear that there are 4 or 5 copies available, all at rather high prices, but in reality the seller will try to find a copy after an order is received. Amazon.com is the first site where this happened, however it is no longer the only site, nor the worst. Often there is no or little detail about the condition of the book. The books are assigned a grade, ranging from “used-acceptable” to good, very good and as new, but the actual description often consists of nothing more than meaningless phrases like “satisfaction guaranteed,” “we ship fast,” or a generic “book may have” highlighting, library markings, tears, etc. While it is possible to click on a seller’s name and find other books offered by that seller on their “storefront,” the ability to search those books is very limited. Shipping fees are not combined. If you order multiple books from the same seller, a full separate shipping fee is charged for each book. Prices can be higher than on other sites. Some sellers adjust for the higher selling costs on Amazon.com; other sellers use computer driven automated pricing. Automated pricing can sometimes work in a buyer’s favor as the prices are driven to one cent, but if the low priced copies are sold, then the price can also automatically jump up—sometimes way up! One feedback statement I read recently on the site was from a buyer who wanted 3 copies of a title. He was able to place an order for 2 copies at approximately $6 including shipping, but when he returned to order a third copy, the lowest priced (from the same seller) had increased to $24. No unified international site, or combined international search. Each country site is separate. Only sellers with a US presence are allowed to list on Amazon.com, only sellers with a UK presence can list on Amazon.co.uk, etc. Not all sellers will ship internationally or by expedited mail. FOR SELLERS: PROS MORE BUYERS than any other bookselling site. What else matters more? The ability to determine if expedited or international shipping is an option, so large, heavy books which are expensive to ship can be excluded. Control over frequency of payments. Funds are automatically transferred every two weeks, but sellers have the option of doing so as frequently as once a day. In addition to Amazon’s own traffic, uncommon books on Amazon.com get very good search engine exposure. I was searching for some titles that did not appear on the meta-search engines like BookFinder.com or AddALL.com, but a Google search brought up the copy listed for sale on Amazon. Information that can be useful in determining books for which there is substantial demand, such as the sales ranking. FOR SELLERS: CONS The search problems described above might make your books hard to find. If you list your books individually, you can sometimes improve their visibility. The common use of automatic pricing, and the fact that Amazon always displays books “lowest price first,” often means that even if you list a copy at the “best price,” within hours or days your price may be undercut. Descriptions are limited to 1000 characters. You cannot upload a photo of your actual copy (except in limited circumstances such as in a seller-created product detail page), and the stock photos do not always match the copy you are selling. In doing a bulk upload, many books will be rejected for various reasons, such as the ISBN, the price being too low for a collectible, etc. Amazon’s matching on pre-ISBN books (a feature they expanded after closing zShops for booksellers) is getting better, but still misses many books. If you wish to give a partial refund (for example, when a customer purchased more than one book and paid more than necessary for shipping), it counts against booksellers in the “performance standards.” Frequent and seemingly arbitrary changes by Amazon. For example, the email notification of a sale no longer contains the buyer’s information. While Amazon created an “improved” alternate, in a downloadable file, this only works for PC users, not on Macs. Amazon does not permit the listing of “advance review copies” or “teacher’s editions” no matter how long ago they were issued, nor how collectible they might be. Shipping fees are set at a uniform rate, and it is a violation of Amazon’s policies to request additional shipping from the customer. Although Amazon.com changed its language and now states that the entire shipping fee is remitted to the seller, the new $1.35 “final value fee” on all books is the “shipping skim” in new clothes. Chris Volk operates Bookfever along with Shep Iiams out of the Sierra foothills of Amador County, CA. IOBA Standard, Fall Edition 2007, Volume 8, No. 4.

One chapter ends and another begins… While I am sure there are quite a few professors who left academe to open bookstores, I am not sure how many have spent their careers shouting, “5, 6, 7, 8…!!” For, you see, I have spent much of my life since age 22 teaching and choreographing jazz dance. It is not something that I aspired to as a child growing up in Long Island, New York. Rather, it was something that happened to me along the way to a career in music or theatre, both of which I was interested and involved in since childhood. Because I was not athletic (far from it, since the coach always had to place me on one or the other dismayed team), dance did not seem to be the life I would wind up pursuing. But, because the community college I attended after graduating high school (and after being transplanted to Miami, Florida, at the thirteen-year-old peak of adolescent angst) had a P.E. requirement, and dance was an option, I began dancing. Figuring that I would need dance for theater, I tried a class and was hooked. Now, some 35 years later, and after a B.F.A. in dance and a Master’s in philosophy and art, I have taught, choreographed and performed in so many places. From New York’s Alvin Ailey school to heading the dance program at Interlochen Arts Academy; from Alaska (where a certain female singer was a student of mine that I brought to the lower 48) to teaching in Israel, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Hawaii (even a master class at Barack Obama’s Alma Mater, Punahou School); to across the USA. Besides my role as teacher I also recruited talented students from schools in a 20 to 38 state tour each year (really built up those frequent flyer miles!). My final full time professorship was at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, where after ten years I was denied tenure. A chapter closed. My wonderful wife, Joanna—also from New York, but teaching outside of Dallas—and I met through the personals there. My experience at SMU was a sign to return to the east coast, and Joanna accepted a position teaching at St. Mary’s College in Southern Maryland. And there is where the next chapter opened. A whole county with no used bookstore? How strange! Maybe this was the time to try my hand at creating my dream in the county seat, Leonardtown. (Actually, I lie: there is one other used bookstore in this area. Before I opened, Joanna and I went to innocently check out the competition and quickly discovered that while the front room had an odd collection of mass market paperbacks, the real “meat” of the operation was in the back room through a curtain marked “you must be 21 to enter.”) Fenwick St. Used Books and Music I can hear my father joking about my mother “always having her nose in a book.” Maybe that is where I inherited my love for literature; I don’t know. I do remember reading the book that launched my full immersion in a life of reading: Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. I must have read it shortly after it was published. While I enjoyed reading from an early age, that book really affected me because of its exploration of morals and customs, and of how we would act if brought up in a totally different world. This begins to explain why I studied philosophy. Folks who visit my shop describe it in many ways. More than once I have heard that it reminds them of Shakespeare & Company in Paris. Others just love the many quotations I have posted around the shop. All seem to love the many categories of books. I am a generalist, although I do have some nice rare and signed books, including a section of vintage children’s books. The centerpiece of my shop is the old bar. My shop was a real bar for 30 years—it seems quite a rowdy one—and the actual bar was brought down by steamship from Baltimore over 70 years ago. Quite the conversation piece, and some old timers immediately place themselves where their favorite stool was. And to quote a recent article about the shop, “where the products are more likely to be inscribed than imbibed.” There is even a drive-through in the alley, where one could purchase alcoholic beverages through a window, which is still there and something I still have not figured out what to do with. (An audio book for the road, anyone?). Since I have visited at least 100 used bookstores across the US (and many in Europe) perhaps I have in mind what I like to call the archetypal bookstore. I know it is a place that I have created from all I have experienced before. I take pride in meeting and exceeding my customers’ reading needs and recommending authors that might interest them. Even though it is time consuming I do order books that I do not have in the shop, as I feel this is a necessary service. My shop has become a focal point of the reading and music community (I am also a musician and sell vinyl records and cds in my shop, featuring local talent as well as vintage jazz, blues and rock). There are also the local poets that meet once a month for an open mic. I enjoy helping my customers and I know they appreciate what I provide. They show it in so many ways. I started listing online almost from the opening of my shop. Abe was the first. I quickly learned of Alibris and others, and currently list on those as well as IOBAbooks, Amazon, Choose/ZVAB and my own site. The credo to which I have adhered is that I will not list books that are readily available. If there are more than 25 copies of it and the prices start low, I will skip it. My minimum price to list online now is $20. Like many others, Amazon seems to sell more books than any other site. I sell fairly esoteric titles there. Also, I must say, sales are good there because of name recognition. I know from experience that even college professors look to Amazon first. I started a list serv for owners of brick and mortar shops four years ago, because I could not find a consortium online. To date, I have over 250 members from all over and I am very proud of the group’s intelligence, kindness and success. It has been quite a wonderful resource for those of us with brick and mortar as well as online book sales. http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/oldbookstore. In addition to my full-time work with my shop and online sales, I am a wedding officiant. I create custom wedding ceremonies for couples wanting something unique and different. www.creativeweddings-somd.com. I have spent the last year on the membership committee of IOBA and I have found it very rewarding. I am honored to be part of this organization, which is upholding the highest standards of bookselling online. I hope that through the ongoing dialogue and profiles of online sellers, we can all benefit from this excellent organization. Joe Orlando operates Fenwick Street Used Books and Music in Leonardtown, MD. IOBA Standard, Fall Edition 2007, Volume 8, No. 4.

I’m Bob Schilling, a 46 year old bibliophile living in Gresham, Oregon; a native of the Northwest, born and raised in Seattle, WA; and a resident of Oregon since 1999. My wife of 22 years, Arlyee (pronounced like “Charlie” without the “Ch”) and I started Schillingslist Select Used Books in the fall of 2004. It’s a supplemental income for us, one that is ever growing, but more importantly, it’s a supplemental passion. Like many of you, I love to traffic in books, love to browse them, love to read them, love to be around them, love to handle them, love to find them and love selling them. My Pilgrimage into Books My love of books coincides with a religious conversion that happened to me shortly before my 21st birthday. I’d been a good student through high school, but got lost for a couple of years, dropped out of college, worked a few different jobs and lived for the night life and the weekends. Through the influence chiefly of my father, who was converted later in life, I became a Christian at age 20 and shortly thereafter renewed my education at a three year Bible College. I met my wife during my last year there. We were married a few months after my graduation, and then proceeded to pursue the course of our lives and the raising, eventually, of four children. I became a book guy in Bible College to the point that when my wife was pregnant with our first son, I seriously pleaded my case to name him, “Book.” I thought it could be a cool name, unique, maybe not too weird. My Booker T. Washington arguments notwithstanding, the good sense of my wife prevailed, and our son Patrick was given a less peculiar name; an event that to this day, makes him forever grateful to his mother! But, to back up again, I had the good fortune of an older Bible teacher who took a liking toward me. In my second year of college, he sponsored me for a trip with a tour group that he was leading to Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Greece. I was there introduced to papyri and incunabula; and through him, to the vast world of books. Thrift stores, garage sales and used book stores became my frequent haunts during this time, and I was bit by the bug, snagged by the hook, or whatever metaphor best describes that captivation that took hold of me for the bound printed word. Theology was the content of my choice, but the pursuit of volumes in this field led to broader and broader landscapes of subject matter, and also to an appreciation for fine bindings, for beauty, for the antiquarian, for the rare, and even for the odd. To feed my habit I sold books occasionally to used book stores. I developed relationships with a few booksellers, and though never officially a “scout,” I was frequent enough in my selling transactions that essentially I was one. Some friendships and relationships remain to this day from my early years of selling to dealers. My personal library over the years has been a revolving one, which helps me as a bookseller, because I’m not a huge collector. I’ve gone through seasons of collecting this or that. We collected nearly all the Landmark history books when my children were growing up, along with similar series like “We Were There” and “Signature Books.” We’ve always had a good collection of classic literature, and all my kids have also enjoyed their way through The Little House on the Prairie books, the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew (I was a Beverly Cleary and Danny Dunn fan as a boy), The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and all the Harry Potter books. My wife has long been a reader of historical fiction and mysteries. I’ve gravitated to theology, biography and history; and most lately to books on books. As I grow older I tend to hang on to volumes that have peculiar meaning to me based on content, usefulness, reference value, and worthwhile qualities to pass on to my children. Strange as it sounds, though not uncommon, I wouldn’t buy a lot of the books I sell; I’m just not that much of a collector, and I’m kinda’ cheap. I continued to pursue a theological education through three years part-time and then two years full-time in Seminary. In this pursuit of further education, we sold or gave away most of our belongings and towed a 5′ x 8′ U-Haul trailer behind our station wagon across the country. That small trailer contained all that we owned, and my wife is still glad to remind me that ¾ of it was my collection of books. We moved to what was a Mecca for Christian books in the United States, Grand Rapids, MI. Numerous Christian publishers and two of the largest used Christian book stores in the country were located there: Kregal’s Used Book Store and Baker Book House (with many lesser known shops that I soon discovered). I was in religio-biblio heaven and proceeded to strain and bust our pocketbook with acquisitions that “I just couldn’t pass up.” In my five years there, I learned a lot about theology and an equal amount about books. It was there that I made acquaintance with Joel Beeke, a local Pastor and book dealer; a bibliophile like few I’ve ever known. He currently is involved in both publishing and the selling of new and used books; and as part of a Seminary under his leadership, has developed one of the world’s largest collections of primary and secondary sources on Puritan theology. www.heritagebooks.org My Venture into Online Bookselling It was my father who first mentioned to me in 2003 that his pastor was selling used books online, and maybe it was something that I should look into. It was just the previous year that Stephen Windwalker had released his book, Selling Used Books Online, which I bought and devoured. I culled my personal library and started with a thousand dollars to buy additional inventory. I made many mistakes those first few months, fulfilling that adage that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. I did well buying theology, and learned some quick tips to help me with non-fiction, but wasted hundreds of dollars buying “signed” and “first edition” fiction. Fiction is obviously a major collectable field, and many a bookseller’s staple stock, but it wasn’t an area I knew well enough to start with. Around this same time, late 2003, early 2004, I came across www.bookthink.com. Craig Stark became an unknown mentor. The newsletters, the articles, the links, and the forum were to have a huge impact on my bookselling as I started online. I read as much as I could, trying to add to the select areas of bookselling that I knew relatively well. I downloaded ABE’s free HomeBase database, and started listing my books. I didn’t do my initial upload until January 2, 2005. I got my feet wet selling first on ABE, and then added Alibris, Amazon, Biblio, ChooseBooks, Half, and an eBay store. I also switched to www.theartofbooks.com for my listing database, as it allowed me to list on multiple sites and manage sales efficiently. I also purchased a scanner for my cell phone and subscribed to www.scoutpal.com, a very helpful service allowing you to retrieve online prices for books while scouting. I realize that many are critical of cell phone/PDA scanners and programs, and I also realize that many have looked to them as get-rich-quick devices, misusing them and frankly giving them a bad name. But the bookseller with a passion for books and an ever-learning commitment will gain definite benefits from such technology. Nobody knows it all, nor can they; and internet pricing information in the field opens many other areas and titles that you otherwise would pass by. A larger benefit, early on, can be the savings in not buying books that are either glutted online or have very little resale value. Earlier this year I employed www.chrislands.com to build my website. I’m a small player in this big world of online booksellers, with much to learn in a venerable trade. I may never be a full-time bookseller; but I’ll always be engaged in it at some level. It’s hard not to be who you really are. And for me, with other stewardships, bookselling as a part-time venture is probably the way that I’ll best maintain my love for it. As a supplemental avocation for me, it’s an activity that I daily look forward to. And that’s one of the other gems about this endeavor, isn’t it? You can dive in as deep as you want, swim as far as you care to, dabble in the shallow end, forge your way through the deep waters, or change your course midstream. My Business www.schillingslist.com I enjoy nearly every aspect of bookselling. It’s something my wife and I can do together. She helps with some listing and shipping, and we enjoy estate sales and a little travel here and there. It’s been a pleasure to be the conduit between a number of folks and the books they’ve been looking for. I enjoy the fraternity of fellow booksellers; a mixed lot, very diverse personalities and specialties, but by and large a very good group of people who have a passion for the benefits of reading and the joy of collecting. It’s a knowledgeable group, both booksellers and book buyers, and it has led to many interesting conversations. There’s never a lack of things to learn, and the world-wideness of it with the internet is astounding. The hunt, the treasure seeking, the finds, the surprises, and a few frustrations thrown in to make it real-life; all add up to a thrilling adventure for me. I have made the conscious choice to have fun in the hard work of this business. How cool is that? If FOL sales are becoming a pain, or if estate sales in the city are getting too competitive, then I’ll pursue those less and hit other venues more. But, I’ll never write off any of the venues. It’s an evolving thing. Hit or miss. Same with certain thrift stores. Some I swing by with more regularity than others, for good reasons, but you never know what might show up at any given venue at any given time. Of course, having the books come to you is far better, and some advertising and the frequent distribution of business cards are my means to that end. I’ve also made the conscientious commitment to try to run every part of this business with integrity and excellence. I’m very careful in the grading of my inventory, and sell few books that are in less than Very Good condition. Every dust jacket in my inventory is in a new archival Brodart protector. Every book is wrapped in tissue, bubble-wrap and an appropriate box and padding or double-criss-crossed b-flute for safe shipment. Every domestic customer is given their Delivery Confirmation number, and all orders are unconditionally returnable within ten days (or longer if the selling venue so dictates). I don’t try to make any money on shipping; I simply try to cover my costs. I gladly provide trade discounts to fellow booksellers. I write a personal note of thanks on all my packing slips. I specialize in Theology—particularly that branch springing from the Reformation, the Puritans and modern Evangelicalism. As with most areas of bookselling, there are a plethora of books in this niche that are nearly worthless in the second-hand market. I routinely sort through boxes of volumes and endless yards of shelving with 80-90% of the books, and up, not worth my time. But then there’s that other 1-20%, and those other exceptional sales; those mother-lodes where 80-90% is on the other end of the spectrum. My best buys, like many other dealers, have been entire libraries. Estates have been the source of some of my most valuable finds. And a few sources are bread and butter for me week in and week out. I’ve written a couple of articles regarding this specialty that can be found at Bookthink.com; and I authored two issues in their Gold Edition on reselling conservative Evangelical theology that Craig and I aptly entitled, “The God Edition, Part I and Part II.” Outside my specialty I sell mainly non-fiction; but have some very worthwhile Modern Firsts, some Easton, Franklin and other fine press works, and a fair amount of poetry and children’s books. My secondary specialty is Americana. American history I find very interesting and selective niches have peculiar interest for me both as a bookseller and a small collector, especially Northwest Americana. And an area that I do actually collect in is the narrow category of Indian Captivity narratives. Judaism, Islam, politics, reference, the arts and sports all play other prominent roles in my inventory. Another bookselling venture that I’ve helped revive in the metropolis that I live near (Portland, OR), is an annual book fair. As a member of our local booksellers association (PAUBA: Portland Area Used Booksellers Association) and its book fair committee, we held our first “Rose City Used Book Fair” last May and have tentatively scheduled our second one for a weekend in April, 2008. We’re a modest book fair with a wide range of books in subject matter and price. We advertise ourselves as “an unpretentious book fair.” We drew antiquarian dealers, some of whom regularly exhibit at the Seattle Used Book Fair each fall, specialty dealers and many other general used booksellers. We were able last year tokeep the costs for the participating dealers to under $100 per space (most spaces were $80 for an 8′ x 8′); and charged a $2 admission fee to the general public (or $1 and a can of food for our local food bank). The book fair was a great success, exceeding everybody’s expectations. The booksellers all made money, PAUBA more than broke even, and some contagion was started for future, annual book fairs. I would encourage any local bookseller’s associations to consider this as a future project. That’s me, and us. We’re glad to be a part of IOBA, and glad to be of any help to fellow booksellers, and fellow book buyers. Bob and Arlyee Schilling operate Schillingslist out of Gresham, OR IOBA Standard, Fall Edition 2007, Volume 8, No. 4.

I am Victor Goldring and trade under the simple name of Goldring Books. Based in Eastbourne, East Sussex, United Kingdom. It is operated out of our home and we sell on the internet only, with our website www.goldringbooks.com being established in 2004. I came to bookselling late in life having held a senior accounting position with an American multi-national oil corporation but decided to take early retirement at 50, too much stress and travelling having worn me down. It was certainly time to quit the “rat race” and to concentrate on enjoying life and having more free time to devote to ourselves. I am ably assisted by my wife Christine and not assisted by our cat Oliver, who regards all packaging as toys. I have always had a great love of books and have been a collector most of my life and bookselling was a logical step to take, combining a love of books with an additional income. It was good to make use of the knowledge gained over the years, although the learning curve is always ongoing, and also wonderful to be able to work from home. Our specialist interests are French Literature, Memoirs and Biographies in translation, French Revolution, Victorian and English Authors before 1960, Juvenilia, Travel, Historical Fiction, Birds, Cats, Animals and the Paranormal / Spiritual. We carry a regular, ever changing stock of Crime Fiction, Murder Mystery, Poetry, Modern Fiction and Non-Fiction, Foreign Authors, Business, Self Help, Religion and much more. Our eclectic stock includes the scarce and unusual with many signed copies. We tend to buy books that seem to be interesting, although we may have no detailed knowledge of the subject and are always prepared to take a chance. The enjoyment of bookselling is made more so by the appreciation of customers who have taken the trouble to compliment us on our descriptions, packaging and service. It is always pleasing when this happens. Having shipped books to some 45 countries it is also a good aspect of bookselling to be able to communicate with so many people and to answer detailed enquiries, which some may find tedious but which I feel is important, even though this may not result in a sale. If I may quote selectively from an American customer’s long note to us, I believe this says it all. “Firstly, I must thank you and compliment you on your excellent packaging, of which you are justly proud, and which is so terribly important, now-a-days….Secondly, I must just comment on your ‘Thank you for supporting a small independent bookseller,’ and I trust you will forgive my prolixity. I have been a bibliophile my entire life (now on the threshold of the twelfth lustrum) and a book collector for slightly over forty years. Small, independent, second-hand booksellers (that is, booksellers of second-hand books, not previously owned booksellers) have been the source of ninety percent of my books….The trade (and I emphasize that it is a trade, rather than a profession, since to my mind trades are invariably far more honest, beneficial, and pleasant than any profession) has always been an honourable one, and has always attracted men (and women) of intelligence and philosophy, with whom it has been (for the most part) a pleasure to associate with. Unfortunately (yes, even on a bright day there are always dark clouds in the distance) the inflated currencies of the last two decades, and the alluring ease with which they could be earned, saw some very disreputable persons call themselves booksellers, and this remains true today.” I am particularly thrilled by the hunt for books to add to stock, which has taken us to some interesting places. Tracking down good books can be both enjoyable and frustrating, and many calls to sellers result in viewing extremely poor condition volumes, the ubiquitous book clubs and the over expectation of value. Some people believe that because an item is old it is worth a good price and are disappointed to be told that this is not so. A challenge I particularly like is when I view a collection of books and need to make a decision to purchase after going through hundreds of volumes and to be able to use intuitive judgment as to whether they are good to buy and sell at the right price. This does mean reviewing books at quite a speed, but with the experience of looking at many books I find that I am becoming much faster and more adept. I enjoy the research of bibliographic information on a scarce or unusual work, if not always conclusive, and often spend far too much time trying to value a book that has no comparison and simply end up with a price that I believe to be fair. Our plans for the future include adding more stock gradually but not to become too large and unmanageable or there would be a danger that the enjoyment factor could be lost. We are quite happy with our level of success and to be a small fish in the ocean of bookselling. We would recommend the honorable trade of bookselling to anyone, provided that they adhere to ethical standards, are committed, have a passion for books, and do not mind hard work. I found IOBA through the forum of a certain listing site (no free plug for them!) and liked what they stood for and the ethics that they expounded. Ethics are important in any business and particularly so in selling over the internet. I am one of the few UK sellers to have joined but felt it important to belong to such an organization, and I direct customers to the code of ethics there that I subscribe to. Victor Goldring operates Goldring Books out of Eastbourne, East Sussex in the U.K. IOBA Standard, Fall Edition 2007, Volume 8, No. 4

Ye Olde Booksellers Adventures in American Bookshops, Antique Stores and Auction Rooms by Guido Bruno (Detroit: The Douglas Book Shop, 1922) is further excerpted, though now from a new personal copy hand numbered 925 of 1,000 printed. The Romance of a Chicago Book Dealer Wells Street, between the river and East Chicago Avenue, is the Bowery of Chicago. Once a residential section, now the old mansions and frame cottages, hastily erected after the fire, are dilapidated and are used as lodging houses and factories of the inferior sort. Here and there a modern structure, a storage house or an industrial plant. Dan Martin’s Mission is here, several rescue halls, a Salvation Army citadel, the famous coffee wagons on the corners of side streets, where unfortunates are given a cup of coffee, a loaf of bread and advice that should lead to salvation. The Moody church is the aristocrat of the quarter. Drunken men and women line the sidewalks day and night; gruesome phonographs are continually heard in rum shops. Policemen patrol in pairs, and this beat is considered the most dangerous in the whole city. In the midst of one of the worst blocks is a large show window. A pawnbroker would be most appropriate in these surroundings. But it is not a pawnbroker’s display; there are paintings and, if you choose to step nearer to examine them, you will scarcely believe your own eyes: a couple of portraits by Benjamin West, signed; a magnificent etching by Whistler, with the familiar butterfly in the left hand corner; high up near the ceiling, between mischievous gargoyles, a large canvas which one recognizes as a magnificent work of an Italian master. A few Duerers are pinned to the wall, rows of old books, not dusted for a long while, are on shelves in the center. “If these things are genuine,” I thought, “they are priceless treasures; of course, they cannot be.” I entered the shop. There was just enough space to open the door, to squeeze in: piles of books from the floor to the very high ceiling, drawings, paintings, carvings, leaned against the dusty backgrounds of old tomes. It was the most extraordinary place I had ever entered. There seemed to be some order in this most astonishing disorder. A little bell sounded somewhere in the faraway background. It was a very long room. I heard approaching footsteps, very energetic footsteps. I was astonished that a person could worm his way through an almost invisible passage between the heaped-up stacks of volumes—an old gentleman with hair hanging to his shoulders, a long beard, wonderful eyes which seemed to sparkle in the dim light of the strange place. I liked him at once; his quiet melodious voice, his dreaming faraway look and the decision of his manner. I told him frankly that the strangeness of the place, in such strange surroundings, had attracted me. I came again and again. And I treasure the hours I spent in Mr. Doerner’s “book-shop” as among the most pleasant of my life. I never grew tired of standing up there. There was no space for a chair, and I doubt if there was a chair in the place. I think it sacrilege to call Julius Doerner a book seller or antique dealer. He is a collector and an antiquarian. He knows his books, and has more than half a million of them. He treasures his works of art, delights in showing them to you, but selling? that is another question. There is not a phase of American history he could not lecture on with more thoroughness than any American University professor. His collection of pamphlets, of the earliest newspapers and periodicals, his gift of finding important contemporary notices relating to American history, in foreign journals, books and chronicles, is remarkable. I thought him an eccentric gentleman of means, who after extensive travel round the world, had decided to lead the life of a hermit among his treasures. He had, in fact, traveled very little; collecting had been his passion from earliest youth; he had denied himself for almost three decades the comforts and good things of this world; and he had found a very efficient way of beating our high cost of living. “It is not the high cost of living,” he used to say, “it is the cost of high living that troubles the world. For years I have expended seven cents a day for my living expenses, and you can see, yourself, that I am strong and healthy.” He is an excellent musician. Beneath thousands of pounds of books an old-fashioned piano is buried in his shop. He called the pile of material, that had to be removed before he could open the instrument, his time clock. Every once in a while he would forget his work (which consisted mostly of reading and compiling) and would devote himself with all the fervor of an enthusiast to Beethoven, Bach or Mozart. Very few customers come to his place of business. If some curiosity seeker, like myself, attempts to break into his sanctum, they find in him a courteous but not inviting or solicitous shop keeper. “What do you want?” is his curt question. If a book is asked for, he will fish it out from among his five hundred thousand books with an almost miraculous quickness, name the price, and then it is up to the customer to say “Yes” or “No,” and the interview is ended. His treasures are all “finds.” He discovered them in junk shops, in garrets of old mansions, in unpromising trunks of storage houses. There is, for instance, a most magnificent soft-shell cameo, a biblical scene, marvelous workmanship of some exquisite artist of the early Italian renaissance. He bought it from a pawnbroker for five dollars. He refused a staggering sum from Tiffany’s and resisted the very tempting price which Mrs. Potter-Palmer was willing to pay for it, not because he did not need the money or was holding out for a larger profit (the sum offered him was two thousand dollars, I believe), but because he preferred to have the cameo himself. Someone who has known Mr. Doerner since his first arrival in Chicago told me his story. He was a civil engineer, and lost his wife and child in the same year. Grief and disappointment turned him against his profession. He inherited at this time something like twenty acres of land in Chicago, which were in those days outside the city limits, but are now the most valuable property in the city. He was waiting for a final settlement of the estate, and used his idle hours looking about the book-shops in Chicago. Soon he was well known and well liked by all the book dealers. He purchased books and his knowledge of books was astonishing. About twenty years ago Chicago was a great center for book auctions. Shiploads of books from England were sold here, and Mr. Doerner soon became a frequenter of the auction rooms. Early printed books were his hobby. Once he could not resist and put in his bid of several hundred dollars for a rare collection. The books went to him. He could not pay, but gave as security a mortgage on his legacy. In subsequent auctions he bought large lots, increasing the mortgage upon his real estate. Then came the day when the auctioneers demanded payment. They foreclosed the mortgage, bought Mr. Doerner’s property at auction for a ridiculously small amount of money, at once quit the book auction business, parceled out Mr. Doerner’s twenty acres of land into building lots, and became—millionaires. Mr. Doerner bore his misfortune with equanimity. He continued his regular trips to the book dealers and one day a proposition was put before him. A bookseller on Wells Street, one of the oldest in the city, died suddenly, and his stock of books had to be catalogued in order to be sold at public auction for the benefit of his estate: “Would Mr. Doerner undertake to catalogue the stock and appraise it; the estate would pay him three dollars per day for his service?” Mr. Doerner accepted, and, to make the story short, at the end of six months, the cataloguing and appraising were not yet finished, the book-seller’s heirs were unwilling to pay Mr. Doerner’s fees, which amounted to several hundred dollars, upon the dubious chance of reimbursement by public auction: “Would Mr. Doerner accept the books, themselves, in payment of his claim?” He would. And so he found himself the proprietor of a book shop. Mr. Doerner has made discoveries during his career which were of the utmost importance to American history. His collection of paintings, especially of American paintings, would fill a private museum. He hates commercialism, he loves weak humanity, and, strange to say, the disreputable men and women of Wells Street love him, and he and his possessions are safe in the most dangerous part of the city. Or is it true, as he once answered in a rather pessimistic mood: “If they suspected that I had only one thirty-second carat of a diamond in my place, they would murder me and loot my shop in order to find it. But books or paintings, who cares for them in America?” Powner’s Book Shop No, there is no accident, no riot on the corner of Clark Street, opposite the City Hall. The scrambling mass of people are simply book lovers and book collectors, and Powner’s has got in a new consignment of books. Such scenes occur every Saturday. The big stalls in front of the shop are filled with all sorts of books, old Roman antiquities, books on sports, old poetry, collected by someone who had disposed of his books, or who had left his treasures behind him. Mr. Powner used to be a school teacher in Greensburg, Indiana, and he started his book business about twelve years ago with the thoroughness of a school master. Rare and valuable books are his own special department, and he leaves modern books entirely to his clerks. His shop today is the center for the Chicago collectors. The human interest he takes in his customers is that of a real antiquarian. Everybody is at home in his shop. He doesn’t begrudge anyone finding a gem on his “quarter counter.” Last week, for instance, some lucky chap found a first edition of Rousseau’s “Emile” with Rousseau’s autograph presentation inscription to the King and the royal coat of arms on the binding, and bought the book for seventy-five cents. “Such things may happen,” was Mr. Powner’s remark when he heard of the transaction. “I am glad he got it.” Saturday is the great book day. In the back room upon empty book boxes men of all walks of life sit around, prosperous business men, millionaires, who are just enjoying living, students, newspaper men from the nearby newspaper offices, but they all are linked by a common love. They are all ardent book collectors. There are a good many other book shops in Chicago. There is Hill’s, who caters to the extravagant wishes of Western millionaires. Then there is McClurge’s, the Model Book Store, conducted like a modern department store. But then there is the unique product of the Chicago book market, the peripatetic book-seller. Half collector, half merchant, these men are constantly nosing about shops, picking up books in Powner’s, for instance, for twenty-five cents and selling them at once for two dollars and a half to Mr. Hill, who they know has an inquiry for that particular copy. They love the uncertainty of their daily bread. Setting out in the morning upon their rounds, they look forward to their finds of the day. In a junk shop they, perhaps, will run across one of those scarce items which are found once in a lifetime, and again they may find nothing but worry about the needs of the day. In Boston Book stores are the intellectual barometers of our cities. Show me where people buy their books and I will tell you what sort of life they lead. Book stores always were and are mirrors of the habits and intellectual preferences of men and women. The private library has ceased to be the pride of the home. Homes have given way to apartments and flats with only little space to spare for book shelves. The garage has taken the place of the library. We see our friends in hotels and clubs, we spend our evenings only rarely at home. Our Age of Electricity and rapid transportation facilities does not permit us to acquire the placid habits of book collectors and of book lovers. Sure enough we read books, because we want to know what their authors have to say. But the author remains a stranger to us, the book once read is done with forever. We speak about automobiles, we look forward to owning a machine, we are building garages with the same enthusiasm that our fathers used to expend on their libraries and their books. New York is different. But New York is not an American city. It’s so near to Europe and its population so distinctly foreign that the change of the last 50 years is hardly noticeable yet in its book shops. Detroit, the old French settlement, which only ten years ago was a tenth of its present size, has no second-hand book shops at all. The Detroit book dealers mete out light summer fiction which fits into people’s lunch baskets in the summer and sentimental Christmas carols in the winter. Technical books, automobile literature are their specialties. This is only natural. Ninety per cent of the people are building motor cars in order to make a living; they are the buyers of the technical books. The minority live in order to buy cars and make motor trips, and therefore they need light fiction. The character of Albany is most truthfully portrayed in its book stores. Our legislators have so much time on their hands that they actually read historical books, books about Dutch New York, about the Wars of the Revolution, law books, old state records. It is considered good form to collect a historical library after being elected to office and residing in Albany. But curiously enough in these same serious book stores loads of that sort of fiction can be found which smuthounds of the Vice Society are eternally trying to banish from earth. Philadelphia, of course, specializes in Quaker literature; Buffalo, infected by the spirit of near East Aurora, is swamped with the things Elbert Hubbard used to love. Chicago discloses the peculiar love for art, literature and philosophy that its great percentage of German workmen brought over from their fatherland and left as inheritance to the second and third generation. It is almost incredible, yet true, that laborers, coming home from work in the stock yards, stop at the book stalls and buy an add volume of Kant, or Heines’ “Badlands and Poems.” Chicago always had the finest German books in the country, most likely brought over by the immigrants. San Francisco has a touch of the East. Books on mysticism have the honor place. Curious books of all kinds are bought eagerly. Indeed, the book stores here tell you the story of California’s strange cults, of its mystics, its prophets and its thousands and one seekers after the hidden truths of the universe. The last ten years have wrought an astonishing change in the book stores all over the country, but nowhere a sadder and more lamentable one than in Boston, Mass. Old Cornhill This oldest street of Boston, the Cheapside of New England, once an important center of city trade, gave Boston its literary charm. In the dilapidated old-time queer buildings, half a dozen book stores invited the lovers of literature. Here was the favorite haunt of the men who gave Boston a literary reputation. It was here in Cornhill that Thomas Burnham founded the first second-hand book shop in the United States in 1825. Young Burnham went from here day after day, with a basket of books on his arm, to the wharves to trade with sea-faring people. Almost one hundred years have elapsed and the shop is still there. Oliver Wendell Holmes had his chair and desk in “The Old Corner Book Shop”, and inColesworthy’s was a hidden nook where Whittier used to hide for an hour or two, reading newly arrived books, buy only rarely buying.“Littlefield’s” was next door, where Lowell, Longfellow and Emerson used to congregate, talk and occasionally buy additions to their libraries. But alas! Boston is no more the Athens of America. The book stores on Cornhill have shrunk to the number of four. New buildings have invited modern business to invade the neighborhood. The remaining book dealers, still following the traditions of half a century, are very old men. Their days are counted and soon Cornhill will be remembered as one of the landmarks that have been swept away by the modern spirit and are gone forever. Burnham’s Antique Book Store Richard C. Lichtenstein, fifty-five years ago an apprentice to old Mr. Burnham, is now the proprietor of the shop. He has many memories of great book days in Boston. “The most important of all my ‘finds’ since I entered the second-hand book trade in the late sixties,” he said (he’s a good and entertaining talker), “was the copy of Poe’s ‘Tamerlaine,’ which created a great sensation among collectors. This small pamphlet of forty pages, published by Collin F. Thomas in Boston in 1827, had escaped the searches of the keenest of book collectors. I usually spent my noon hour in other second-hand stores, and one day I found this small pamphlet which I purchased for 25 cents. I had a good many opportunities to dispose of it, but didn’t sell it before 1892, in auction. It was knocked down to Dodd, Meade & Co. for $1,850. ‘Tamerlaine’ has remained unique among all the books, being today the most costly American book known. I understand a New York bookseller is holding a copy at $15,000. “One day, I was offered a small volume which lacked the title and two leaves. There was nothing specially attractive about the book, but the same intuition for which I never could account and that guided me through my whole life as a bookseller, urged me to offer the owner $2.00, which was readily accepted. Later, I found out that the book was a copy of the Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in New England, Cambridge, 1640. Bishop Hurst bought the book for $1,000, and after his death, it fetched $2,500 in the auction of his library. But I have also met with great disappointments. The greatest one was on a visit to an old Boston family residing on Beacon Hill. An elderly lady, the only surviving member of the family, wished to dispose of her library, and I found her seated between two piles of books busily engaged in tearing out the fly leaves wherever they contained any inscriptions. Nothing could induce her to stop this barbaric atrocity. I begged of her to let me examine the fly leaves and titles before she threw them in the open grate. I saw to my grief, John Hancock’s inscriptions, and George Washington’s presentation to some lady contemporary, revolutionary persons of the first importance. Another opportunity I missed was years ago when Mr. James J. Blaine happened to drop in our shop, selecting a copy of Count Grammont’s “Memoirs,” asking to have the volume laid aside for him. He wrote his name on the title page and was to call and pay for it on his return to the hotel. The incident must have slipped his memory, for he never returned for the book, and I was foolish enough to erase his signature from the fly leaf. Especially in our days, where ‘Association Books’ were so very much in demand, Blaine’s name in the ‘Memoirs’ would have been a sought after curiosity.” A New and Evil Spirit Boylston street faces the big park, is a lively promenade, a good deal of shopping is done in its neighborhood, a street always densely populated. The Garden Side Book Shop hung out its shingle here, which consists of a huge garden gate. Women have a good deal to do in public life in Boston, and women are determined to be the intellectual guides of Boston book buyers, at least of such as wish to be “modern” and “up-to-date.” The Garden Side Book Shop is conducted by women exclusively. I dare say women must also be the chief buyers. The most marvelous and costly bindings on rows and rows of shelves. Books of poetry, novels, anthologies that were never heard of and what is still worse, will never be heard of, are beautifully dressed like brainless women, who wear gowns of Worth or Lady Duff-Gordon. Mrs. Bertha Beckford, one of the proprietors, approached me with the charm of the reception lady in a fashionable hair-dressing establishment, and invited me to inspect “some darling little books, the sweetest ever, just arrived, from Paris.” I followed her to a little salon done in pink and canary and viewed little miniature books, bound in French crepe, a wallpaper effect. There were French anthologies of bits of poetry and of war sentiment. Dowagers, with grown-up granddaughters, and studded lorgnettes went into fits of ecstasy over the “darling books,” and I shouldn’t be surprised if they bought some and took them “as much appreciated gifts” to some home for convalescent soldiers and sailors. Book Shops for Boys and Girls “Splendid,” I thought, seeing the sign next door. The shop where boys and girls can come and choose their reading. It’s located on the fourth floor of the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union. It looks like a pharmacy. There wasn’t a boy or girl in sight. A few old ladies, who must have left the sewing circle on the third floor, were sitting about, reading. I looked around the shelves and I wondered if all the Boston boys and girls lack red blood and the gift of fancy and actually read the books I saw. Miss Alma Howard, one of the dispensers of this shop, told me that all books are being carefully censored and selected by one Bertha E. Mahoney, the director of the Book Shop of the Union. Bertha seemed to be the ruling spirit. She has forbidden such and such books, she has placed others on the blacklist, but she also selected books that ought to be read by boys and girls. I asked what literary qualifications Miss Mahoney had to qualify her for the censoring. All I could gather was the fact that Miss Mahoney is Miss Mahoney, a whilom superintendent of the food shops of the union on the floor below. Needless to say, the union is a highly aristocratic place, frequented exclusively by the flower of Boston’s ultra fashionables. Why doesn’t someone start a real book store for boys and girls? Accessible to everyone, where second-hand books could be had for ten cents or a quarter? Every other old building in Boston, and many churches bear honor tablets, telling us that here assembled revolutionists of 1776. The Boston of today, with all its laws of restriction and of censorship, is proud of its ancient rebels. How paradoxical! In talking about laws, a new one has just been enacted. The police apply to the sale of second-hand books the same rule as to the sale and buying of second-hand clothing. A dealer, purchasing books from anyone, has to report the purchase to the police, describe the article purchased and has to wait thirty days before he can sell it. The law requires that each book dealer must pay five dollars for a license. A similar law had been enacted 60 years ago, as a civil war protective measure. Oh, Athens of America! Selling books with a second-hand clothes dealer’s license! Books in Ice Box Opposite the Copley-Plaza, in a fashionable little building of its own, is the Dorado of America’s rejected poets and poetesses, essayists, novelists, free verse artists and of everybody else Amy Lowell and Ezra Pound would press to their bosom. Here is the book shop of the Four Seas Publishing Company, and never was there a greater collection of literary atrocities in one room than in this airy, inviting “Hall of Fame.” The soul of Amy Lowell greets one uncannily articulate from the page of each book. A very ambitious clerk praised the authors of the books higher than genius has ever been praised in America. “We have bought 81 titles from the Badger Publishing Company only recently and have not spared any expense to print the most attractive title and jackets for this new addition to our stock.” Everybody knows the Badger books. The Badger Publishing Company gladly accommodates authors of novels and extends to them the privileges of their printing establishment provided they are willing to pay for publication. I descended to the basement to see the enormous stock of books the Four Seas Company had acquired. The store must have been occupied by a wholesale florist previously, and the most tremendous ice box I ever saw in my life filled the whole basement. The Badger books, thousands of them, were neatly piled up in the ice box. They were in the proper place, indeed. The Mysterious Book Shop On Washington Street is a very attractive book store conducted by a blind couple. Man and wife about thirty years of age, both totally blind. The shop is scrupulously clean. If you ask for a book, the proprietor will find it in a miraculous way, provided it is on the shelves. If you are browsing about, picking up a book here or there, he will ask you to read off to him the title, and then tell you the price. Both look happy, contented, and seem prosperous. I wondered how it had happened that they started in the book business, that both of them were blind; had they been blind before they married or had misfortune overtaken them after their marriage? They’re in a strange and mysterious place, but peaceful and harmonious.

from The Delaware & Raritan Canal: A Pictorial History by William J. McKelvey, Jr The Delaware & Raritan Canal: A Pictorial History by William J. McKelvey, Jr. (York, PA: Canal Press Incorporated, 1975). Nine copies on one of the search services. Four of these include the following notes. “With a substitute photo for one on page 27 if you find existing imagine offensive.” “Includes photo to add if another photo of naked men and boys along the canal is found to be offensive.” “One photo in book is of nude boys on bridge ready to swim in canal. Publishers provide a tipped-in alternate photo for those who find it offensive, so they can cover the original.” “Alternative photo has been hinged over photo of nude boys pg 27.” Whoever had my unlisted copy did not shrink from revealing this fine historical photo, as the unhinged modesty panel is nowhere to be found. Descriptions of Fine to Very Good Books -100% SAFE / Same-as-new. -Absolutely georgous book. -Perfect unmarked, factory new inner pages. -New never read perfect. -OOH, OOH, OOH pick ME!! BRAND SPANKING NEW!! -Book is in SUPERB condition. -Book was babied. -About like new except it’s mildewed. -The cover is bright and shiny. The text is clean, crisp, solid and unmarked. -100% new & unread & a bargain. -This is the original new book from the publisher. -Book in near new condion — like you bought it at the bookstore. -Fine. Never used. Perfetly usable. -This book is in exceptional condition for age. -The hardcover is near LIKE NEAR. -Spine has a tear, Else near bright. -Whistle clean, tight, & bright: Fine. -The finest copy in the world. Must have belonged to some kid that hated to read and never did. -A couple of Kool-Aid stains and lite ware otherwise Very Fine++. I can’t find the dustjacket. -Ultra clean. -N. V.G. to N.F. Email for detail if important. -Much better than good. Submitted by Gwen Foss (http://www.gwenfoss.com/about.asp) Book Blogs Sarah’s Books—Used & Rare http://sarahsbooksusedrare.blogspot.com Posted 9/7/2007 “Odd Volumes and Explained Absences” We’ve started shopping at the supermarket nearest our new house. Of course while I’m checking out the groceries, Ryan is checking out the dollar used book bin placed, I think courtesy of United Way, at the front of each store in this particular chain. And he comes up to me with a dear old book, Boswell’s Life of Johnson, edited by George Birkbeck Hill (Oxford 1887), olive green cloth, gilt lettering on the spine, large paper edition. Only problem: it’s volume six only, of a six-volume set. Where are the other five? Will I be scrounging in this dollar bin for the rest of eternity, hoping against hope that they will show up, one by one? Yes, yes I will. I did this with my huge Scribner set of the works of Robert Louis Stevenson – I found most of a broken set at a library sale years ago and couldn’t pass it up, then at the same sale the following year I found two more volumes in the set. The spines were faintly discolored in a uniform way, so it was obvious they matched my set. Now, and most likely forever, I’m only missing one volume. And this library discontinued their annual sale a few years ago. Anyway, back to Boswell – I resisted bringing this book home, poor volume six, because I knew it was going to be a real problem, and I’ve just spent several evenings struggling with what to do with other problems such as this, boxes and boxes of them – books that I’ve taken home for purely sentimental reasons. But under the bright lights of the supermarket, looking at that lovely old Oxford book, I flipped it open and saw two things: first, that this volume contained only “addenda, index, dicta philosophi, &c.” so technically it was readable on its own (the dicta philosophi is “a concordance of Johnson’s sayings” and is just too good for words); second, the book has a large fold-out frontis – “A Chart of Dr. Johnson’s Contemporaries, drawn up by Margaret & Lucy Hill, On the model of a Chart in Mr. Ruskin’s ‘Ariadne Florentina.’” Well. The book came home with us. You see how my mind justifies these things. The pages are uncut, did I mention that? So I’m cutting them, reading the dicta philosophi this morning. Here are a few apt samples, to sum up the week (I’ll leave out the source citations, for brevity): Antiquarian: ‘A mere antiquarian is a rugged thing.’ Concentrates: ‘Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight it concentrates his mind wonderfully.’ Housewifery: ‘The fury of housewifery will soon subside.’ Lexicographer: ‘These were the dreams of a poet doomed at last to wake a lexicographer.’ Philosopher: ‘I have tried in my time to be a philosopher; but I don’t know how, cheerfulness was always breaking in.’ Rained: ‘If it rained knowledge I’d hold out my hand.’ Verse: ‘Verse sweetens toil.’ That’s it from Johnson, for now. I’m wrapping things up at the shop today, because I’m about to go off to paint for a week. Another island retreat. I’ll be sans computer, by choice, and I’ll return after the 15th. I can’t wait to get back to painting, but I just found out I’ll be missing Ron Padgett’s poetry reading up the road at the University of Maine on Wednesday next week, rats and double rats! His recent memoir of Joe Brainard was simply terrific, Joe (Coffee House Press 2004) and now he’s got a new book of poems, How to Be Perfect (Coffee House Press 2007). I’m very sorry to miss him, but not so sorry that I’m going to come back to the mainland for the reading. When I return I’ll be posting pictures of books with decorative cloth covers – in my move I found a carton full of them. Books I kept only for their covers, and very lovely they are, too. Thanks for sticking with me, dear readers, through my frequent absences of late. I’ll be settling in soon for the coming winter. Just gotta get a bit more actual living in first. Made in IOBA Zebulon Montgomery Pike’s Great Western Adventure, 1806-1807 by Jack Kyle Cooper (Colorado Springs, CO: Clausen Books, 2007). $69.95 (20% off to dealers); very limited number available in hard cover hb isbn 0-9787046-1-4; hb isbn-13 978-0-9787046-1-2 (4to, blue buckram with gilt spine titling; 214pp, including index); b&w illustrations by Jon MacManus, plus maps, and four color plates. The dust jacket (painted exclusively for this publication) is from a portrait by Colorado Springs artist Joseph Bonomo, showing Pike and his climbing party on Mount Rosa while attempting the ascent of the ”Grand Peak,” later named Pike’s Peak by John Charles Fremont. Research of Pike’s clothing was completed by Colorado Springs historian John Patrick Michael Murphy who, after researching Pike’s journals, manufactured the outfit by closely following Lt. Pike’s descriptions. From photos of Mr. Murphy wearing the Pike climbing gear, Joe Bonomo created his portrait which is now in the collection of Jack Cooper’s widow, Jenny Cooper. The book is also available in paperback for $35 (20% dealer discount), isbn 0-9787046-0-6, isbn-13 978-0-8787046-0-5. This is Pam and Doug Clausen’s first publication. The Clausen’s are continuing the tradition of bookselling begun in 1946 by Doug’s father Henry A. Clausen, who opened the first Clausen’s Bookshop in 1946 in Colorado Springs. In our seventh location at 2131 North Weber Street, Colorado Springs, CO 80907. Toll-free 1-888-412-7717, or 1-719-471-5884. Shop hours Wed-Sat 10am-6pm. We are a general stock used and antiquarian bookshop, with emphasis on classics and history. We also offer certified appraisals and book mending services. For more information go to http://www.clausenbooks.com. The Herd Shot ‘Round the World The Successful Stockman and Manual of Husbandry by Andrew A. Gardenier is one of those great old turn of the last century agricultural titles that sat right next to the bible in the farmhouse. The copy in hand contains various color illustration “manikans”—four tipped-in cut-outs of a cow, for example, showing anatomical divisions, muscles, the circulatory system, and the skeleton, respectively, all resting on a paste-down page of the “digestive apparatus” complete with nine moving organ flaps. Hiding behind the last one are two little fetuses. Brilliant! I bet the children liked playing with this. Anyway, there are 684 pages of arcane information in here, but the farmer saw fit to attach a single small clipping from some ephemeral agricultural publication to one of the first endpapers by means of a straight pin. “To Prevent Choking.—As apples were plentiful last season and our cows had access to them at all times, we had a couple of cases of ‘apple in the throat;’ the animals were in a very dangerous condition and in the last stages. A heaping teaspoonful of gunpowder was given and in 15 minutes bloat and gasses were gone and the cow stopped choking. Thus by the application of this very simple remedy the cow was saved.” House Calls All I could ascertain was this. She lived in an old house in the country, about 100 books, very old, very interesting looking, and she didn’t know who owned them to begin with. “They were just there.” I asked for some of the titles. “They are not down here with me. You’ll just have to look at them.” I kept saying no but she broke me down, agreeing to meet in the parking lot of the local library on one of her trips through town. I usually don’t work out of cars, but this seemed like a good compromise. I almost always guarantee a minimum of $25 if they can pass the polite but generally rigorous phone interrogation. The other day, for example, it only took three questions to ascertain that a young man’s 500 hardcover books in the attic were actually the leftovers he was not able to sell on half.com. When such house calls don’t work out, my $25 minimum serves as a fairly sharp reminder to improve my line of questioning; and I leave them my card which sometimes pays off. She called to firm up the time of our meeting, adding that she was hoping for $5 each. “I already explained that they are probably not worth much at all. If you want $500 I don’t think we should bother getting together, as you would just be disappointed. You weren’t even able to tell me what kind of books they are.” “They’re in the car already. History books and such. I’ll take $25. I just want to get rid of them.” “Like I said before, they may be worth a lot more than that, but I won’t know until I see them.” We agreed on a day and time. The car pulls in, the trunk pops open, and there sat six boxes of just about the most awful books you’d ever want to see, time-blasted, cracked and warped, dog-eared and foxed, oddly moisturized and linty, bad historical fiction and tame bodice-rippers from the likes of Thomas Costain, Frank Yerby and dozens of lesser lights in these fields, mostly ex-library to boot. “Hmmm. I’ll give you the $25, but I can’t do anything at all with these, and only a couple are even good enough to donate to a charity book sale. You say you don’t know where they came from?” “Nope. I run the lake association laundry room lending library where we have our summer camp, and they just appeared on the shelves one day four or five years ago.” Somewhat Punny Bookstore Names Lots of these are probably no longer in business. A Likely Story (South Miami, FL) A Likely Story (Urbana, IL) A Novel Idea (Sarasota, FL) A-Book-A-Brac Shop (Miami Beach, FL) All Booked Up (The Villages, FL) All That’s Fit to Print (St. Petersburg, FL) Beyond Words (Northampton, MA) Bibliowha? (Beverly Hills, CA) Bookberries (New York, NY) Bookin’ It (Little Falls, MN) Bound to Please (Sidney, NY) Burning Books (Austin, TX) Chase the Bookseller (Boulder City, NV) Deliberate Literate (Memphis, TN) Dog Eared Book Barn (Hoosick, NY) forWORDS (Torrance, CA) Full of the Dickens (Sandusky, OH) Hardback Cafe & Bookstore (Chapel Hill, NC) Jots and Titles (Marietta, GA) Moby Dickens (Taos, NM) Monkey See, Monkey Read (Northfield, MN) Novel Hovel (Redlands, CA) Novel Shoppe, dba Aunt Teek’s & Uncle Lectable’s Vintage Store (Taylor, TX) One for the Books (High Point, NC) One for the Books (Newhall, CA) Pleasure Bound (Sedona, AZ) Run for Cover! (Brooklyn, NY) Shelf Indulgence Books (San Francisco, CA) The Bookkeepers (Texarkana, TX) The Cerebral Deli (Dunseith, ND) The Happy Booker (San Bernardino CA) The Little Read Book (Wauwatosa, WI) The Prints and the Paper (Eugene, OR) The Scholar Ship (Stafford, VA) Tome Raiders (Charlotte, NC) Twice Read Tales (Kennesaw, GA) Twice Sold Tales (Red Bank, NJ) Verbatim (Foley, AL) Westside Stories (Santa Cruz, CA) What the Book? (Seoul, South Korea) [Editor’s favorite] What the Dickens (Auckland, New Zealand) Words-Worth Books (Holbrook, NY) Writ & Wisdom (Pittsburgh, PA) Submitted by Gwen Foss (http://www.gwenfoss.com/about.asp) Estate Sale Tales Friday morning, and just one local estate sale to check out. I could go into all the surrounding suburbs or nearby cities or outlying towns but don’t feel like it. Kind of an interesting house with knotty pine floors, old print curtains, red floor lamps, and rather vast interior spaces. The Ponderosa East. I got there late because I generally can’t abide the opening gun crush these days. Most of the good furniture was sold already. Found a very heavy old ledger in the basement filled with transcribed musical scores. For example, “Casta Diva” from the opera Norma by Vincenzo Bellini. On old, large format rag paper, title pages (some decorated) in Italian in the flourishing hand of one Giovanni Ruscetta, all the musical notes written out, four to eight pages each, mostly dated 1897 Naples. Don’t know what they might be worth but the whole batch was only $25. The homeowner had been the longtime choral director at a big high school a couple of towns away. I was poking around in a basement file cabinet and made a low offer on all his files. They were bemused but agreed if I would leave anything personal for the lawyer, which I can do with my eyes closed by now. There were also twenty tied bundles of music on a table in the garage all marked $12 each, probably so they could go down to $10 each, but by noon they would have been happy to get $5 for the whole lot. On the antiques side, picked up an anatomically correct ceramic bulldog that I thought was kind of cheap at $8 till I got home in the bright light of my outside work area and saw the fine line that bespoke of a broken head. Either I’m slipping or it was simply too dark in that piney house. Ben Cartwright would have mentioned the repair if this was his live garage sale rather than his dead estate sale. On the other hand, he would have shot anybody who tried to steal it. The bulldog will stay outside prettifying a cement block which braces a twisty Jenny Lind planter-bearing headboard, there to remind me about looking for damage while heading out on these campaigns. I stuck that headboard in the round stone strip between my back walk and garage wall a few years ago for the same reason, to remind me not to buy old beds in bad condition, but it looks all grown in now draped with trailing nasturtiums and other blossoms. Maybe this area can be made into a shrine for relatively weatherproof auction and yard sale errors. Also got a large Imperial two-section blue enamel with white stenciled letters clam steamer/chowder dispenser for $15 that produced an incredibly loud noise as I tripped running back up the basement steps before the light changed in this still-crowded estate sale. Thick bright red and green suspendered woolen pants with an old Montgomery Ward label for a dollar (an easy twenty at the antique center) and ten or so other items rounded out the lot, for a grand total of $175. The deceased had a long high narrow shelf crowded with dozens of ceramic Irish decanters, all marked $30. I pulled down the “Dogs of Ireland” specimen while they were tallying my purchases even though it looked more than a little tacky. “We can work with you on the price if you take them all.” I burst out laughing but they took it well. There is very much of an ebb and flow with estate sales, and the tide often starts going out rapidly at noon on the first day. Among the files were many of his non-legal personal papers. Obviously there were no descendants. First you notice this by what’s for sale and then confirmation usually comes in the checkout line banter. Here were his college term papers (mostly As but two Cs marked “late” and “too much quoted material”), lots of glee club work, WW II action in the Pacific Theater, very active in music organizations, summer music camps, an impressive resume, etc. There was one carefully preserved letter from the 1970s containing ostensibly friendly but rather ominous advice from a superior in the school system. R.K.O. (many folders carried these initials and I thought they might contain valuable movie material till I got home) had to reinvigorate his efforts with the music department, which had become noticeably tired. Too many old timers were coasting. Look what the principal did to the Language Department last year. You’re next. I can’t sell this for you. You must continually impress. No doubt you’ll want to discuss this with me soon but don’t be on the defensive. Think Positive! Among his many letters of acknowledgement and choral group hotel reservations (you were working hard the whole time Robert…screw them!) were lots of early job offers, including one from a new Arizona high school that sounded great. He might have been happier (or even still alive) if he’d taken it. It never fails to amaze that a schlub like me should be the final evaluator of such a life. Two large boxes documenting his earthly presence waiting for Monday’s recycling trash, and the common published items are just fertilizer for my growing business. Hopefully. That reminds me to check on Giovanni Ruscetta, the musical transcriptionist. Nothing jumping off the screen. Would have been better if he himself was famous too. Probably just a student or a wannabe. The only decent surprise in the whole lot was an incongruous Pittsfield, MA boxing poster from the 1930s or so which should do pretty well on the Bay or at auction. The referee was “Shotsy” Shanahan, and the biggest fighters were “Chick” West, “Young” Oliver, and “Joe” Eagen. “Joe”? Image of 7th Ave. Books 7th Ave. Books, Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY I took this picture last summer, not realizing I should have panned a bit to the right in order to catch Park Slope Books just next door. The sad demise of 7th Ave. Books is reported in the 7/28/2007 issue of The Brooklyn Paper. http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/30/29/30_29seventhavebooks.html Book Store Labels: The Christian Book Centre, Madang, New Guinea Found on the upper left rear inside cover of Mountains in the Clouds by Olaf Ruhen (London: Angus & Robertson, 1963). Solicitations The Standard can always use interesting, well-written articles on subjects of interest to the bookselling trade, although we would fall off our Office Max chair if we ever received any that were not solicited or strong-armed to begin with. Please query first, however, to editor@ioba.org. You will be supplied with submission guidelines, but to summarize, the material should be original, it is subject to editing, you retain copyright, and of course there is no payment other than most everyone’s satisfaction. You do not need to be a member of IOBA, except for the IOBA Bookseller Profiles section, though we would surely like you to join. We are very interested in the book trade outside the U.S. as well. Currently we are seeking short pieces for the following self-explanatory columns. House Calls; Garage/Estate/Library Sale Tales; Auction Action; Book Show Impressions; Book Store Lore; and Library File. Booku Early preview estate sale guy, you said all the books upstairs and down for $300, but you reneged on the upstairs, so while you’re in the basement haggling with a plumber, I’ll just liberate this blue dictionary to you compact edition of the OED to me I’ve always wanted. Book Store Labels: The Christian Book Centre, Madang, New Guinea Found on the upper left rear inside cover of Mountains in the Clouds by Olaf Ruhen (London: Angus & Robertson, 1963). From the comic section of the New York Sunday Mirror dated 8/22/1948, “Louie” by Harry Hanan. Bookfallout IOBA Standard, Fall Edition 2007, Volume 8, No. 4.

Table of Contents From the Editor Appraising for Booksellers An Interview with Donald Hawthorne of Noah’s Ark Book Attic “Meet Me in St. Louis,” or, A Book Dealer’s Travels to the Gateway to the West Ephemeral Assays: Face Cards Book Expo America 2007: “It’s About People and Books” Pros and Cons of Alibris.com for Buyers and Sellers Craig Horle and Laurie Wolfe of Classic Books and Ephemera Nancy Johnson, Bookseller, Denver, CO Brian Cassidy, Bookseller, Monterey, CA Ye Olde Booksellers : Adventures in American Bookshops, Antique Stores and Auction Rooms Addendum

I recently received a review copy of Fairs, Markets and the Itinerant Book Trade (various editors and authors), hot off the Oak Knoll Press, those heroes of books about bookselling. It is based on papers given at the 27th annual conference on book trade history, and covers such diverse topics as the rise and fall of the early German fairs; itinerant booksellers, printers, and peddlers in Sixteenth-Century Spain and Portugal; the legal entanglements and Italian-French-Spanish book trade insights occasioned by the 1586 street murder of prominent publisher Symphorien Beraud; rural East Anglia and urban Netherlands distribution channels; Scottish chapmen; and London street booksellers in the period 1690-1850. In the end, this is really a labor history, though the writers clearly embrace the subject of bookselling more than most labor historians would feel akin to, say, fish mongering, or some other early trade. The tenuous thread of bookselling history recedes into the mists of time. The earliest references here are to the early modern era, where Latin works were brought to market at such internationally convenient gatherings as the Frankfurt fair. Eventually, colorful traveling merchants kept more popular printed material on hand for the edification of country folk. Books were carefully chosen due to the weight factor, and their main stock often consisted of more ephemeral leaflets, newsletters, pamphlets, songbooks, ballads, lurid broadsides, almanacs, prognostications, catchpenny prints, jest books, lampoons, nominas, and chapbooks. Street selling in towns and cities took on a variety of forms. There is a lengthy discussion of bookstalls, as opposed to barrows or mere boards on the ground, though all were hopeful stepping stones to the established shop. Hawkers would often gather a crowd by telling stories or singing from their texts, which were then sold on the spot. Itinerant peddlers and lowly street vendors, often blind or disabled, naturally left very little historical record. Finally, bookselling was a constantly evolving vocation, subject to a great number of natural and regulatory market forces, not the least of which was the law of supply and demand. Fairs, Markets and the Itinerant Book Trade, edited by Robin Myers, Michael Harris and Giles Mandelbrote. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2007. The little we know of these early practices and networks comes down largely in the form of legal records. Inquisition-style religious intolerance, Old Bailey transcripts, and a myriad of minor disputes and proceedings have added to our understanding of an otherwise transitory means of existence. Researchers are also aided by early market registers, handbills, lists, guild minutes, tax data, licenses, correspondence, accounts, reminiscences, and the occasional engraving. Booksellers were centuries ahead of other trades in the development of trust and credit, and in the use of printed catalogs. Details emerge from these sources. In 1488 printer-publishers accounted for one-twelfth of the rental income for stalls at the Frankfurt fair. At one point there were 31 tolls on the Rhine just between Basle and Cologne, and it is calculated that such transportation costs added about a quarter to the price of the goods. Sigmund Feyerabend’s records for the years 1590-1597 shows he had around 350 customers from 110 different locations, 10-15% of these being individual readers not in the trade. Foreign imports at the Frankfurt fair declined from 39% down to 0.3% between the 1560s and 1710. A carrier is waylaid outside of Wimpfen and broken barrels of books thought to contain greater riches were ruined by a heavy rain (“There went my profit.”). There is even some speculation on the origin of double entry bookkeeping. An unspoken theme throughout this work is the trial and error of pioneer booksellers, often working under difficult and unstable conditions, that paved the way for us today (not to say that difficulty and instability have been eradicated). Anyway, I read this on the train to Manhattan on May 30, where the boys caught a rock concert at the Garden and the girls a Broadway play. Meandering along endless blocks, I observed modern street booksellers representative of those who came before. One sharp fellow was selling Curious George reprints off a folding table at two for $5, while another on her last legs guarded a hopeless sheet of crappy paperbacks. The weekend fleas resemble ancient fairs, and Book Rows have been springing up for millennia. This connection to the past is somehow reassuring in the middle of the internet revolution. I also dropped into Bauman Rare Books for a look at the pinnacle of the commercial aspect, and from there into the Grolier Club, which exists solely for the deep appreciation of the printed word. (Check out their current miniature books exhibit before the end of July if you have a chance.) We passed through the Diamond District on the way—also built on the backs of those who came before—where the pecking order and trading is even more intense, but what a cold and facetless commodity when compared to the beauty and mission of books. The electronic Standard arrayed in front of you includes a discussion of professional book appraising; an elegant interview with a modern old school bookseller who has been plying his trade since the 1940s; and a Perlman book trip to the Joe-Me state. There’s an ephemeral assay on fair of face postcards. Laura Smith tools over to Book Expo America; and Chris Volk presents the second installment (Alibris) in her series on search service Pros and Cons. There are Bookseller Profiles from PA, CO and CA; and there wasn’t much flotsam for the Addenda section so it’s mostly jetsam this time. October, then, for the next issue. Have a nice summer. IOBA Standard, Summer Edition 2007, Volume 8, No. 3.

All of you have gotten the phone call. The person on the other end has inherited or been given or found at a garage sale a book/books which he believes may be the next record breaker at a Sotheby’s auction. “What’s it worth?” he wants to know. That is not the type of appraisal this article is going to address. Those appraisals can be handled with a few simple sentences such as, “That copy of Tarzan’s Revengepublished in 1952 missing the front cover and the last three pages is worth roughly 50 cents if I am in a charitable mood.” I get my share of these too, probably more than my share. This article also does not address the type of appraisal that we all do to raise money for a worthy cause. This is where you and other appraisers of antiques, fine art, toys, etc. donate your time and give verbal guesstimates of the fair market value of various “treasures” brought in by hopeful people. This last is the cheap version of the Antiques Roadshow. Those are sometimes fun, sometimes rewarding, and sometimes boring. The type of appraisal this article addresses requires a written report with a lot of research backing it up. This type of appraisal usually gets scrutinized by the IRS or an insurance company. In 2002 when I decided to explore adding “appraiser” to my business card, I started attending the meetings of the local chapter of the International Society of Appraisers (ISA). What I learned at those meetings was that I was ignorant of what it takes to get an appraisal accepted by insurance companies and that a poor appraisal could land me in trouble with the IRS. So I joined the appraisal society and took courses in appraisal theory and practice. The courses I took combined with my 8 years as a bookseller gave me the accreditation I wanted. I did my first appraisal on a library with approximately 4,000 books shortly after that. I have done a number of appraisals since. Most of them have been for estate purposes: to value an estate for taxes or to value it for dissolution as in the case of a divorce. I have also worked on a few insurance damage claim appraisals and valued other collections so that they can be insured. The most critical types of appraisals are for items being donated where the donor wants to take a tax deduction. I’ll say more about this type of appraisal later. Back in the 1980s the United States went through a painful and expensive savings and loan shakeout. A number of these organizations had loaned money based on real estate appraisals which were not realistic and were, in some cases, fraudulent. A standards setting board, the Appraisal Foundation, was founded and a standard called USPAP, for Uniform Standards for Professional Appraisal Practice, was written and accepted in 1989. This standard sets guidelines for ethics and report writing. It is updated periodically and appraisers are encouraged to keep up with the changes. It has become more and more important. Appraisals which are seen by the IRS are judged by this standard. USPAP has been cited in court cases as the standard to follow in writing appraisals. The appraisal societies teach courses on USPAP and members of the societies sit on the Appraisal Standards Board giving input to changes and keeping their members up-to-date. What goes into a written appraisal? There is general information: identification of the client, purpose of the appraisal, where and when the items being appraised were seen by the appraiser, type of value being used (fair market value, replacement value), method of determining value, markets explored to determine value, and analysis of the markets’ present trends. There are statements relating to the appraiser’s ethical standards and the standards the appraiser follows in writing the report. For the higher valued books, a description of the book or set of books is written, a photograph is inserted into the description, and I include a listing of sources consulted in determining value (auction records, catalogs, online sources, other booksellers consulted) and the reasoning used in setting value. In the Addenda I also always include a page listing sources for bibliographic and value information, a glossary of terms used, my professional profile, and a page discussing how a book’s condition is determined. The IRS has experts who review appraisals, especially the ones for donations. For donations of items valued at more than $5,000, a copy of the appraisal must be attached to the income tax return and a special form filled out and signed by both the appraiser, the donor and the donee. IRS regulations state that an appraisal of property being donated that is valued in excess of $5,000 must be done by a qualified appraiser and in the latest revision of regulations for Form 8283 dated December, 2006, they give their definition of a “qualified appraiser.” Their definition in simple terms says that this individual has earned appraiser designation from a recognized appraisal organization or has met certain minimum educational requirements and experience requirements, and regularly prepares appraisals for which he/she gets paid. The IRS’s Art Appraisal Services department reviews these appraisals. Each year at the annual conference of the International Society of Appraisers, a representative of the IRS Art Appraisal Services discusses changes in the regulations governing appraisals. At the conference in April of this year, he said that they are looking more closely at appraisals in order to weed out those who do not have the qualifications and do not follow the regulations. Speculation is that the same requirements for “qualified appraiser” will soon be extended to estate appraisals as well. If you are considering doing appraisals, I would advise you to join an appraisal society and get the education. In addition to education and keeping members abreast of changing regulations, I have found several other advantages to being a member of the ISA. Individuals in the society help each other and give each other advice. They also refer business to each other. My business is listed on the society’s main website and on the North Texas Chapter’s website. This last listing has brought me some business. The monthly meetings are fun and educational and the parties are great too. The other two well known appraisal societies are the American Society of Appraisers (ASA) and the American Association of Appraisers (AAA). All three set high standards of ethics for their members and are concerned with their continuing education. I have done some very interesting appraisals on books outside the genres I sell. One was for an old, thirty two pound Catholic Gradual. The monks who hand wrote the musical notes and words to the chants drew small faces on two of the capitals. Were the faces self-portraits or portraits of other monks? I found it fascinating. The most interesting appraisal I have done so far was for an estate containing thirty six special books. What made this appraisal so interesting was that all of the books had fore-edge paintings on them. I read two books on fore-edge paintings, and talked to three booksellers who have sold a number of books with such decorations in order to determine value. Some of the paintings were quite unusual. Two of the books had double fore-edge paintings, so that if you fanned the pages in one direction, you saw one painting, and then fanned the pages the opposite direction, you saw a completely different painting. Another had a painting of a hunting scene which started on the bottom edges of the pages, continued onto the front of the page edges and ended on the top of the page edges; most unusual and delightful! In this appraisal the books without the paintings were not really valuable. The value was in the charm and subject matter of the paintings. Now I need to say a word about the people who call and want an “appraisal” but are really interested in selling the books to me. I generally ask if they want an appraisal or want to sell me the books. Because of ethical concerns, I can’t do both things. I also explain to people who want to know the value because they are interested in selling that the verbal appraisal is for retail value which they will not get if they sell to a bookseller because the bookseller has to cover his costs and make a profit. Sometimes it is necessary to explain the facts of life to people wanting to get retail prices for their books. They don’t like hearing that there are costs associated with online auctions, that garage and estate sales rarely bring in retail prices, and that trying to sell on one of the online book sites requires work, has costs, and seldom means instant riches. Life is difficult and so is bookselling. I want to conclude this article by saying that my impression of booksellers in general is very good. When I have called or emailed a bookseller who has expertise in a certain area asking for advice or an opinion, I almost always get a courteous and helpful response. Thanks to all of you for being nice guys. Shirley Dyess operates The Dust Jacket out of Irving, TX and can be contacted at http://www.thedustjacket.biz. IOBA Standard, Summer Edition 2007, Volume 8, No. 3.