Table of Contents From the Editor First IOBA Workshop The Out-of-Print and Antiquarian Book Market Seminar IOBA Q & A Column Interview with Piet Wesselman, of Antiqbook Maria Bustillos of Popula Max Woosley (Holy War author reveals all (well, some). Ok, a little!) A Short History of Paperbacks Fear and Loathing in a Small Town P.O. Regarding Black Writers & Literature the IOBA/ABE Search

On December 4, 2001, Vic Zoschak of Tavistocks books presented the first IOBA sponsored workshop on identifying first editions at his bookstore in Alameda, California. Emphasis was on which are the best reference materials and how to use them – the books covered ranged from early printed books of the 17th century to modern first editions. A complete report on the workshop will be in the next issue of The Standard. Future workshops will be on the East coast, and on different subjects to meet the needs of IOBA members. Chris Volk takes some notes as others at the workshop listen intently to Vic Vic Zoschak points out the usefulness of a reference book on Americana as Bob Erwin looks on. Discussion of early dustjackets and professionalism in describing books continued during the lunch break at a nearby Japanese sushi restaurant

The Boot Camp for Booksellers opened on Sunday evening on the fifth of August at the beautiful Colorado College campus in Colorado Springs. After giving a warm welcome, Director Mike Ginsberg introduced the faculty. The two scholarship recipients for this years seminar were asked to come forward. Kate Lindeman of Newburgh, New York, and Jennifer Sarratt of Tempe, Arizona received their scholarships from Ed Glaser and a round of applause from the participants. Mike then introduced Allen Ahearn who gave the Keynote Address on “Book Selling Past and Present.” A reception followed with faculty and participants getting to know one another over wine and hors doeuvres, after which they each had to bench press 200 pounds of books. The faculty consisted of the director Michael Ginsberg (of Michael Ginsberg-Books, Inc. in Sharon, Mass. Mikes a past president of ABAA), James Canary (Head of Special Collections Conservation at the Lilly Library at Indiana University Libraries), Mary Ciletti (owner of Hooked on Books, an open store in Colorado Springs), Ed Glaser (of Edwin V. Glaser Rare Books in Napa, Calif. Ed is a past president of ABAA), Lois Harvey (owner of West Side Books and Curios and the West Sides Book Annex in Denver, Co. She is an IOBA member and runs the Rocky Mountain Book Fair), Jennifer Larson (of Yerba Buena Books in Rochester, New York. Jennifer is a past Vice-President of ABAA), and John Townsend (of Towns End Books of Deep River, Conn. and has a broad background in computers and computerized databases). Guest specialists were Pat and Allen Ahearn (of Quill & Brush in Dickerson, Maryland. They are ABAA and IOBA members). These lecturers represent hundreds of years of experience in nearly every aspect of the book selling trade. This years participants were all from the US with twenty-one states represented. Texas had eight present. IOBA had four members attending: Julie Fauble (Century Books), Terry Lang (Books and Spirit), Jan and Dan Riker (Basset Books). Collectors, librarians, and both new and established dealers, as well as one gentleman from Barnes & Noble. A varied and lively group. Lulled into thinking this was going to be an easy week after Sundays reception, Monday morning began with a bang with sessions running all day from 8:30 in the morning until 8:30 in the evening with only lunch and dinner breaks and short breaks between sessions. A lot of information had to be covered before the close of the seminar on Friday afternoon. Mike Ginsberg asked each panelist to share their backgrounds and how they became booksellers. He started the sessions off right by telling us how when he was a kid he was headed down the wrong path and, being a wise woman, his mother told him to get a job. He went to work for a bookseller in a menial job (sweeping, etc.) but found that he liked being around books and decided hed try to find some to sell to his boss even though he knew nothing about which books were good. He would scout one of the large local stores and pick books he could buy for fifty cents or a dollar that he “thought were pretty cool” and then hed take them back to his boss and his boss would pay him two to three dollars for them. He thought this was so great that he went to more stores and finally he was selling so many books to his boss that he was given a raise and became one of the buyers for the store. His story was told with so much feeling and fun that the whole session became that kind of friendly tag team sharing of experience, opinion and camaraderie that makes everyone want to participate. Microphones were at strategic points among the participants work tables so that questions and comments could be heard by all. A faculty member always sat at each of the lunch tables and the lunch room buzzed with conversations. Each day was a marathon of subjects. By weeks end, the participants had not only been critiqued on the books they had been given to research, price and catalog, they had been shown by Jim Canary how to clean, protect, and correctly do small repairs to books. By showing what is involved in properly making repairs without causing more problems and lowering the value, it is a lot easier to know when to try to repair or not. There were three sessions devoted solely to computer technology. There were two sessions on operating open stores by Lois Harvey and Mary Ciletti. One evening the participants were taken to Mary Cilettis open store where she talked about and showed them how she bought and sold her books and she answered their questions about running an open shop. There was a session on appraisals and fees charged. There were two sessions on the auction process, one on online auctions by John Townsend and the other on catalog sale auctions, which concluded with a live auction where the participants bid on donated items and the proceeds were donated to the local libraries. There was a book scouting session, mini-sessions on taxes and accounting, book fairs and trade shows, web page design, forgeries, search services and quoting. Julie Fauble sent us a note after the seminar and in it she said she felt “inspired and enthusiastic and rarin to go.” Thats also how we feel. – By Pat Ahearn

Q. Would a member be kind enough to explain to me what a “Fourth Printing Before Publication” means (as noted in a copy of Andersonville). A. The publisher did a first printing of xx copies, for a book which was going to be sold in Sept, for example – Before the September release date came, the publisher had so many advance orders for this book from bookstores that it had to go back to print more copies 3 times (2nd printing before pub, 3rd, etc…) Any later printing before publication is just a later printing (of course, ALL first printings are before publication) – adding the “before pub” is just sort of bragging about how popular the book is/was. Q. With authors like De Saint Exupery and Du Maurier, are there any standard rules for alphabetization? Does De Saint Exupery go under D or S or E? A. Unless you want to get confused I suggest you let the computer do the driving. Shelve by the 1st letter of the last name regardless. Computers don’t care about articles no matter what language it’s in. So when you or someone you designate are looking for De E or Du M you go looking where the nice machine tells you. de Ex will be found at the Beginning of the DE’s unless you have removed the space. Shelve Mac with the MA’s and Mc with the MC’s and if two last names are involved, shelve by the 1st only if hyphenated. thus James Lee Burke is under Burke and some one like Chow Yun-Fat is filed under Yun. Q. What is acceptable in the way of defects for a book simply described as Near Fine? Any consensus? I ask, of course, because I returned a book that was described as Near Fine and the following defects were not disclosed. 1) Two small nicks top edge 2) Thumb size water damage to lower page edges causing silver gilding to flake 3) Center 6 pages protrude from signature block (manufacturing defect). A. We use Near Fine to describe books that are fine save for something like price-clipping, a remainder mark, or previous owner name on endpaper. The flaw precludes a status of fine, but the book is still crisp and attractive. (Naturally, book and jacket should be graded separately, and specific flaws should be mentioned.) Sometimes, I use Near Fine without any more description. That’s usually when a book lacks that really crisp, never-been-read feeling. There aren’t any flaws to describe; it’s just the book has mellowed a bit or was read gently once or twice. I don’t know how else to describe that when there aren’t any flaws that would knock it down to very good, but it just doesn’t have that crisp quality that knocks your socks off. So I call it Near Fine. Thanks and credits go to: Julie Fauble, Robert Schrader, Mike Stewart, Chris Volk, and Joyce Godsey. Jean S. McKenna – Chairman Education Committee.

Q: Piet, how and when did you originally get into the book business? As a high school dropout I wanted to become either a bookseller or a journalist. Bookseller was easiest. I worked in a (new books) bookshop and with a publisher from age 17 to 23. But during these years I got interested in academic matters while reading a lot of the books I handled, so I got serious and after my army service moved to Amsterdam, finished school in evening classes and went to the University to study social psychology. And stayed there as a teacher, first in group psychology, and from there it was a small step to families and social development of children. In the end I found myself researching “turn taking behavior in mother-child dyads’ play in 9-month-old prematurely born infants”. You can learn a lot from things like these, but I found it too restricted. I guess I have a “bookseller’s mind”: I like it better to know something about everything than to know all about a little. So I loved teaching, but loathed research. And always, and increasingly, thought of myself as a lost bookseller… Still – family to feed, missing the necessary knowledge and experience or investment money – I held on to the job until almost 50. Then again I got serious, went for a bookseller’s diploma but still did not have any money to invest, and antiquarian and used books came to mind, because in that area I could start small. Q: What has been the course of your career as a bookseller, i.e., a bricks & mortar shop, book fairs, paper catalogs, etc.? When did you go online, and how? First I tried to learn by visiting auctions, bookshops, talking to book dealers, buying books, reading books on the trade and my own interests: literature and botany. Spent months on collecting and reading Pound and Pessoa, or books on cactuses or mesembryanthemums, and studying bibliographies. Q: What are/were your specialties? And decided to specialize in these two. Poetry in Dutch is my favorite. Not that you can sell it but some of it is among the best 20th century poetry in the world. And ‘high’ literature, Nobel prize class (or what I see as worthy of a Nobel prize), in original languages which I try to read… When I had enough books and knowledge to think I could start selling the Internet was just beginning here. This was before the World Wide Web existed. I decided that it was the most cost effective way to sell books, so I started to enter them in my self-made database program to be able to publish catalogs in mailing lists and news groups. Luckily the WWW developed, which made things a lot easier. Q: How does being a bookseller in your country differ from how you see U.S. book dealers operating? Holland has nearly 1,000 used and antiquarian book dealers with a population of 16 million, so I guess this will be the first difference. General used books are for sale in almost every little town, and specialists and antiquarian book dealers are in all of our larger towns and cities. A popular guide to used bookshops counts 117 book dealers in Amsterdam (pop. 700,000). And book fairs, both outdoor and indoors, are very frequent here too. Another difference is that we hardly have a mail order tradition like in the US. This is why the book trade on the Internet is developing slowly here; people are used to getting their books around the corner and are not accustomed to ordering them through the mail. But the more special the book the farther you have to go to find it, so in this situation it is best to specialize when you want to make a start. Another difference: there are few book collectors who consider their collection a financial investment. We do not have the first editions frenzy you know in the U.S., and the sanctity of the dust jacket is not as enormous as in your country. Q: What originally gave you the idea of starting an online book database? We started Antiqbook originally just for Dutch booksellers, but were soon discovered by booksellers from other countries, and as the number of web catalogs rose we realized that we had to proceed to a more comprehensive way to present the books. Q: And how did you go about setting it up? I just started. Read a manual on web databases and started making a website. At first it was a small program on an ISP’s database. My skills grew with the database. And it’s not rocket science… Q: Did you have a background in computers? Or databases? Not at all, I just knew everything about babies… I did however write some computer programs I needed for research and so I was not afraid to pick up a book and find out what I needed to know. Q: Antiqbook is a wonderful service–easy to use, wonderful customer service from you for the listing dealers. Do you still have time to sell books, or does Antiqbook now take all your time? And how many people are required to keep it going? How much time? I haven’t sold a book for two years now 🙁 I am still buying and collecting, not really sure what to do with them later on. We’ll see. Antiqbook takes more than a normal working day. David Meesters, my Antiqbook partner, and I split the job: I do the database, he does everything else. We have part time assistance from two secretaries who do advertising, PR, and part of the database maintenance. For technical matters and some of the programming we hire people when needed, and financial administration is outfarmed, as the modern jargon has it. Q: What are your plans for the future, as far as Antiqbook and the book business? Antiqbook has to grow in size somewhat to stay viable, but I don’t like the idea of having an office, and personnel. We now all have our office at home and stay in touch by email, phone or chat programs. We like to think of our niche as the European book market and ‘better books’. I am not sure whether we will be able to realize this exactly. If anywhere, it is on the net where the market dictates in part which course you have to take. We have also come to realize that contrary to the expectations of some years ago Internet is not creating one global market, but is still very much a conglomerate of local markets. For example, you can hardly sell American books in France or Germany, or books in German or French to many people outside these language areas. There are exceptions, of course, notably in antiquarian and scientific books. We are thinking of ways to adapt to this situation. We are well situated at small distances from the UK, France and Germany, and we can communicate in their languages. So we will diversify online. Q: Do you see more and more U.S. business coming through Antiqbook? Antiqbook is now large enough so we don’t have to rely too much on the meta-search programs. There is something like a critical mass and I think we have crossed that point. Direct sales from the Antiqbook site are about 3/4 of total sales, and our visitors are from all parts of the world, including many from the U.S. There is also a steady rise in the number of American book dealers, but… Q: Have the recent events in the U.S. (World Trade Center and anthrax) affected your business much? Sure. I have the impression that just the last few weeks of November the trade is getting back to its normal course again, but from mid-September onwards sales from and to the U.S. are very much down. When we plot our sales figures you can trace all major events, like the first anthrax attacks or the Afghan war. There are also booksellers whose sales have suffered so much that they have had to cut their costs and have had to leave Antiqbook. We hope this is a temporary thing and try to make it easier on them to bridge this difficult time. Q: Any tidbits for us about plans you have for improvements or innovations for Antiqbook? Yes, there is a lot going on just now. We bought two new servers with multi-processors, multi-hard disks, as multi as can be, for speed and a great expansion of our database services. I am working on a redesign of the database and search programs, to allow for more precise queries, more selections (country, possibly languages, even bookseller association) and full text search. Q: Can you tell us a bit about you, personally? Many of us have dealt with you professionally, and I think we’d all like to get to know you more personally. Well, you have a good impression on what my daily life is like these days. Maybe the things I would like to do more if there was enough time tell something about me? My days would be filled with jazz, art, and poetry: I like to listen to the great jazz of figures like John Coltrane or Thelonious Monk: they are the greatest musical geniuses. I love 20th century art, especially modernist art and abstract expressionism, and many post-war American painters. I’d like to expand my collection of bilingual poetry editions, and just read, look and listen. Cooking is one of the other arts I admire and try to imitate; at this time Italian and Chinese food are my favorites. And I would definitely pick up practicing calligraphy again, to improve my hand but also for the pleasure of the concentrated work. Interview by Shirley Bryant. #booksellers

Q: What originally gave you the idea of starting an online auction? A: For years, in connection with my work as a housewares designer, I had been haphazardly collecting mid-century fashion and design magazines. In late 1997 I answered a classified ad from a guy in Hollywood who said he had some magazines, and somehow we wound up buying this whole warehouse full of books, originally with a view to opening a prop house. One thing led to another … we learned about the development of e-commerce in the course of our researches, and became very excited about it. My partner is ex of Wall Street, and a very farsighted businessman. It’s all his fault, really. Popula’s offices are still in the original warehouse in Hollywood. Q: Was the programming expensive and hard to do? How did you approach finding a programmer? How long did it take to get it up and running? A: We were very fortunate in our original developers. They were young guys in Florida who were very hotshot database programmers. I think it would be extremely difficult to assemble the same talent today at any kind of reasonable price. Our approach was kind of back-to-front. We studied the available enterprise software platforms, decided that ColdFusion would be a good bet for the type of applications we wanted to build, and sought the expertise for that platform, rather than the other way around. None of us are trained programmers, but we had been through software builds of one kind and another. The original build took about six months. Several of us come from art and design backgrounds, so that part we did (and do) in-house, and it saves a lot of time. In retrospect it was a good approach, though of course we were very lucky that ColdFusion became so widely accepted. Allaire (the company that developed ColdFusion) went public, and was eventually bought by Macromedia. So it’s become a standard platform. The most important thing is to have developers who can understand what the heck you are talking about, and vice-versa. The second most important thing is the stability and reliability of the technology, on all three fronts: hardware, software and programming. Any kind of commercial website involves innumerable details, welded into a single entity–it’s like an ocean liner, once the thing is in the water it takes a long time to change course, let alone put on the brakes. Q: Popula is such a fun, quirky site–is that just a reflection of your personality, or did you plan it that way to differentiate it from other auctions? A: Thank you very much for the compliment. Everyone involved in Popula is a collector himself. So the tenor of the site is very much informed by that personal involvement and interest, I think. And then, everybody here values good writing so much that we seem to attract incredible writing talent by sheer animal magnetism, or something. For instance Augustine Funnell, the current Blue Plate Special, wrote such a fantastic interview with himself that I just threw ours out, and used his instead. Q: Does running Popula take a significant portion of your time and energy? A: Oh, yeah. The Internet never sleeps, eh what? I haven’t had a real vacation for four years, or something. Q: I note you’re planning a fixed price area–do you plan to have this area be a significant portion of Popula? The reason I’m asking is that I personally feel eBay is missing the boat on their stores with not allowing store results through their regular search function. Amazon has effectively halved the sales from zShops by not having a tab and making it easy for their buyers to find. Will Popula highlight the fixed price items, or at least give them equal billing with auctions? We see the fixed-price area as being at least as prominent as our auction offerings. It is in the final stages of development now, so if anyone has suggestions on design and navigation, we’re very keen to hear them. In more general terms, we view Popula as a service for dealers. So our goal is to create as many selling opportunities for dealers as possible. Not just within Popula, but anywhere that dealers are likely to be able to move product, as we used to say in retail. So we don’t just allow links to individual dealer sites on our pages, we encourage them. We don’t feel that monopolistic or exclusionist practices are good for anyone’s business, in the long run. Multiple sites will always be the way to go for independent dealers, in order to maintain an environment of healthy competition. We develop our products with this in mind. Essentially, our perspective is that if dealers do well on Popula, they’ll continue to list with us, and everyone profits. So we concentrate on making sure that our dealers do well with us. Q: Another question along these same lines. When Amazon started zShops, it seemed to be the death of their auction program–I don’t know whether by plan, by lack of pushing the auctions, or whether their customer base just prefers fixed price items (pehaps that latter preference, because of their customer base and advertising being slanted towards new books?). Are you planning to keep Popula primarily as an auction site, equally auction and fixed price, or an eventual slant toward fixed price? A: Popula’s focus is and will remain one-of-a-kind rather than mass-market stuff, and will develop based on market forces affecting that niche. Though no one really knows exactly how this area of e-commerce is going to develop over time, it seems clear so far that the most effective retail strategy from the dealer’s point of view is a blend of auction and fixed-price sales. Q: Do you look at Popula as being a long term operation? In other words, whether or not Popula grows steadily, are you committed to having it in its present format (quirkiness and all) on a long term basis? A: Yes. Q: Would you change Popula’s format if it did mean substantial rapid growth? In other words, if eBay’s increasing alienation of sellers pushed them into finding other venues and it meant Popula could attract more of these sellers (and consequently, more buyers) by changing to a more eBay-like format, would you do it–or do you prefer having a smaller site that can reflect your personality and values more than growth (I’m not saying rapid growth is always better, by any means)? A: Again, the focus of Popula is one-of-a-kind stuff–vintage, rare, oop etc. Popula was (and is being) designed to serve this particular group of dealers and collectors. So anything that would tamper with that, we have resisted. That said, our goal is to grow Popula, on its own terms, into an absolutely immense venue. Another way to put it is that we’re very ambitious, but not at the cost of our original vision. Q: What does Popula mean to you? How does it satisfy you being involved with it? A: I believe that the Internet is for the empowerment of individuals. Popula’s mission is to help ensure that the Internet fulfills its original promise of leveling the playing field, so that small businesses can compete effectively with bigger ones. Our goal is to serve as a pure conduit between like-minded individuals; to encourage and foster contact, the transaction of business and the exchange of information. I am very committed to that, personally committed. To put it another way, we’re not against big business per se, but we are against big business reducing in any way the ability of individuals to have access, to communicate or to do business privately. Q: In your own words, what’s the image you are projecting and want to project about Popula? Popula is a place where dealers and collectors of rare goods can meet freely to transact business and exchange information. Popula’s focus on vintage, out of print and rare merchandise creates a fun atmosphere that is as much about respect for the past as it is about doing business. It has become a relaxed, discerning environment, full of the most fantastic freaks and autodidacts and geniuses. What do I want to project, I don’t know, it’s kind of a like a cross between a library, a cocktail bar and a casino. Thank you, Maria! Interview by Shirley Bryant. #booksellers

Q: Do you feel like a prophet, after the WTC and Pentagon attacks? I imagine it was hard to take, seeing it actually happen when you’d been so deeply involved in the research. Where were you when it happened? A: I was at work and received word that an airplane had struck one of the WTC buildings. Since I work in a vault without TV, I thought it must be some hapless single-engine piper or something. When I received word that a second aircraft hit, I knew it was terror. People around me immediately started saying how close the attacks paralleled my book. I was not pleased at all and said to one of them, “Don’t you get it? Probably ten thousand people are dead or are going to die. Whether there are parallels or not is not the point.” I’m certainly no prophet and don’t feel like one. Q: I understand Tom Clancy got contacted by Washington, D.C. after publication of The Hunt For Red October because of all the specific (and supposedly secret) info contained in his book. Unless it would violate security, has anyone contacted you about your book or any info in it? A: I have not been contacted by any authority. I have contacted President Bush, Jeb Bush, and even sent a letter to Governor Davis of California. I did receive an email from one of Jeb Bush’s aides. He thanked me for the information and assured me that Mr. Bush had forwarded the material to the national level. Still nothing from Washington. Q: What specifically got you interested in terrorists and writing about them originally? A: A discussion at work upset me. Several people were discussing (this was in 1997) that terrorists could never mount a large-scale attack here in America. I told them they were wrong and in the ensuing discussion, got the idea to write Holy War. Q: How did you do your research into militant Islam (or should I say Muslim?) warriors and their cells? Were you able to conduct all your research from the U.S., or did you travel to Muslim countries for some of it? Can you tell us something about the avenues you used to do your research? A: While a member of the USAF, I traveled inside the Soviet Union as an inspector. I found out that there were a large number of Muslims in that country. I did a little research via word-of-mouth inside the Soviet Union but the bulk of my research was done at the local library. I also called the local Muslim Mosque and received a lot of information. They were most helpful. Q: I think it might be scary, doing this type of research. Have you ever been put into a situation that seemed threatening to you? A: I have not been put into any situation that was even remotely ‘scary’. I do take certain precautions to protect my family. Q: What are your thoughts about the cause of terrorism, i.e., did your research indicate it was caused by poverty and hopelessness primarily (terrorists in general), or as a vendetta against Israel and Jews (Muslim terrorists specifically), or a combination of those and other causes? Is religion always involved with terrorists? A: Religion is not always involved with terrorists. I wrote an article “Politics or Religion” before the September 11 debacle. Basically, it says that sometimes it is impossible to separate the two. Terror is extremely broad. To localize a bit, terror by foreign nationals against America is generally caused by our foreign policy. While I believe that America is the greatest nation, by far, in the world, we do not always wear white hats. I do believe that as a nation we always strive to “do the right thing.” I am proud to be an American. Osama bin Laden has been vocal about why he hates us. Our stand with Israel and our apparent non-concern with Muslim concerns is Osama’s rallying cry. The Quran does not sanction terror! Q: Are terrorists always “led” by wealthy people? Which do you believe came first, if so–that a previously wealthy person was attacted to a cause that already existed, or that being a terrorist enables some individuals with good brains and business sense an outlet and motive to acquire wealth, to feed the organization? A: Terrorists are not always led by the wealthy. One shift has occurred in recent years. Terrorist groups were largely funded by states. Now these groups are being funded by individuals. Honey, diamonds, and sadly, drugs on the streets of America are funding terrorists. To be clear, large sums of money are not needed. When Ahmed Ressam testified at his trial (this is the guy that tried to blow up LAX) he stated that he was only given fifteen thousand dollars. Most of that went to living expenses such as hotels and food. Q: In the same vein (and I’m assuming you did believe this, not just happened on it for a story line), what things made you decide an attack on U.S. soil was highly probable? And why by Muslim terrorists? A: The last decade has seen an increase in terrorist attacks against US sites outside the country. USS Cole and the embassies are a couple of examples. The LA Times carried an article about the trial of Ressam. In it they state Ressam, “testified in detail about how he and other jihadists in bin Laden-financed camps in Afghanistan were taught how to attack electrical power grids, airports, railroads, large corporations, hotels and military installations during millennium assaults. They also were taught how to track down and assassinate political figures, he said.” While this article appeared in July 2001, it mirrors what I believed in 1997 and 1998 while writing Holy War. We are an open society and are easy targets. My protagonist agonizes over this point on page 68 of Holy War. “We’re in trouble, big trouble. America is too open a society to prevent this type of attack. We’re too trusting, too faithful, and if you think about it, too honest. America is complacent. We should have been working to prevent this from happening. A well-planned series of attacks by a small group of foreign nationals, with the help of American sympathizers, and backed by all the money necessary is capable of causing major damage to the American people as well as to America’s resources. Why hasn’t the FBI reacted already? And better yet, why didn’t America’s considerable intelligence resources know of the impending jihad and stop it before it began?” Muslim terrorists were an easy pick since they are the most well-trained and have the most hatred for America. Q: And, did your research indicate a high probability of such a U.S. attack in the near future? If so, can you say how and what caused you to come to that conclusion? Did your story line grow out of that probability? A: Osama bin Laden had been threatening a Holy War or Jihad against America for some time. I believed that in 1998 he developed, or was developing, a plan to attack the American homeland. There were many indicators such as the attacks against American holdings overseas and the USS Cole incident. I believe that the lack of American response led Osama bin Laden to believe that Americans were cowards. I believe President Clinton’s weak response by attacking an empty or nearly empty training site by cruise missiles was the second worst thing he could have done. Doing nothing was the worst and President Clintion did that on other occasions. So, I believed that Osama thought he was strong and we were weak. He felt ‘right’ in his beliefs that Americans were corrupt, that they were evil, and that attacks were justified. Q: Was your book intended as a real warning? If so, what made you decide to use fiction to put forth that warning? A: I wrote Holy War to ‘prove’ the possibility of attacks against America’s homeland. And that they would be easy to make by a small force. I used fiction, hoping that I could get it published before the attacks began. I hoped that many Americans would find the reading enjoyable and therefore gain some attention for my fears. Hindsight tells us that if Americans had kept their eyes open and notified authorities about suspicious events, we could have prevented SOME of the September 11 (if not all) attacks. One point, before September 11th Americans refused to have their ‘freedoms’ infringed upon, such as delays in airports for security purposes. Now, we are welcoming them. Q: Again, did you primarily research Muslim terrorists, or terrorists in general? A: I only researched Muslim terrorists since I believed they were the most logical choice. Q: I doubt any Muslim terrorist groups would have female members–does this seem, from your research, to hold true of all nationalities of terrorists? A: This is certainly not true of all terrorist groups. Many have female members. Q: I’m showing my ignorance here–are the Muslims and the IRA primarily the only terrorist networks–at least the only well organized ones? A: This is not true. There are many groups of terrorists. Until September 11th one of the most visible was a group in Columbia. Q: Does it seem logical to you, given your extensive terrorist research, that something like the Anthrax letters would be the handiwork of a Muslim terrorist cell? A: I don’t believe the Anthrax is the work of Muslim terrorists, although it could very well be. Anthrax is a poor weapon for terrorists because it is too difficult to spread. However, if terrorists simply want to sow terror then Anthrax letters are one viable method. Q: I’m sorry, I haven’t read Holy War (yet! :>) ). Does it contain anything similar to recent events–i.e., attacks through airplanes, biological weapons, etc.? If not, what types of attacks does it cover (and don’t give away the ending, please–I do want to read it)? A: There are MANY parallels to Holy War. My terrorists shot down aircraft on takeoff, used chemical and biological weapons, and flew an aircraft toward the White House and diverted to attack the Pentagon. Q: What is your sci-fi book To Live Again about? Does it follow a similar theme, within a sci-fi framework? A: My SF novel has nothing to do with terrorists. A scientist invents matter transportation then plots to store her ‘image’ on a computer so that the computer can recreate her if she dies. Interestingly however, my second, unpublished novel, Double for my Sins, and my third, also unpublished, Womack’s Dust, contain terrorists. Q: Was To Live Again the first book you had published? A: Yes, To Live Again was my first written and first published novel. Q: How did you get that first book published? Did you have an agent? (Many booksellers are frustrated authors, and it is always interesting to them about how an author gets that first book published.) A: Getting published was not easy. In fact it was most difficult. I spent seven years just finding an agent. Hundreds of letters to agencies were rejected and not one even asked for material to review. Most said they were too busy or were not taking on new clients. Many of the agencies I wrote about my work even advertised they were looking for new authors or that they were friendly to them. Still nothing. Finally, my wife (smart lady that she is) told me I should try the internet. So I did and within two months, I had an agent. Two years later I was finally published. Q: Did you publish articles before writing To Live Again, or the other way around? In other words, the progression of your career as an author apart from research and writing on your job. A: I have written seven novels, two have been published. I wrote my articles after my success with To Live Again, trying to garner some attention for my second published work, Holy War. Q: Tell us how you decided you wanted to be an author. Was it a natural outgrowth of your work, or did you get into your work because you are a good writer? A: I was encouraged for years to write. Family, friends, and coworkers all told me I should write because I told an interesting story. The clincher for me was when my supervisor told me that of all the people he had had work for him through the years, my work was the most succinct and effective in relaying the information he needed. Theodore Kleiser told me he never had to ask questions about a report from me, but almost always did for others. Afterward, I seriously considered writing. Q: Can you give us some info about future books you have planned? Are you working on one now? If so, when is it to be published? A: My promotional work for Holy War is consuming me right now. To be honest, I am itching to get back to writing. I have two novels I’d like to write. One is Kirlian Shadows, a book about an advanced photographic technique that ‘captures’ identities on film and No Stars without Night about a team of doctors ‘growing’ replacement bodies for themselves. Q: What do you personally enjoy reading? A: I have always been an avid reader. The average American reads only 1,000 books in a lifetime. I passed that number somewhere in the fourth grade! I read everything from suspense to science fiction. Amazon.com really likes me, I spend lots of money there. I haven’t ever read a Romance novel and probably never will, but all the rest are fair game. Q: Without being too nosy, what personal info about yourself would you like to give us, so we can get to “know” you as a person as well as an author? A: I am a fifty-year-old male with ten children. They range in age from 30 to identical twin boys who are almost three. I am married to a very intelligent lady who helped me in researching Holy War and provided some sound advice about one of my FBI characters. I work for the Department of Justice as a researcher (strange enough) but long to write full-time. My hobbies are racquetball, table tennis, golf, and fishing when I get the time. Thank you, Max. Interview by Shirley Bryant. #authors

Along with many other products of our culture, paperbacks have become a very active area for collecting. This article gives a short history of this quite interesting artifact, and a very brief overview of what collectors in the category generally look for. The web is chockful of informative articles and sites on the subject, mostly by enthusiastic amateurs (in the best sense of that word), and we have included links to some of these spread throughout this piece. Nineteenth Century Ancestors Many references on paperbacks will tell you that the first mass-market paperback ever issued was The Good Earth, by Pearl S Buck, in 1938. Actually, of course, paperbacks have been around a lot longer than that – as early, in fact, as the 17th Century in France and Germany. In the English-speaking world James Fenimore Cooper was writing frontier stories published in paperback-like format as far back as 1823, soon to be followed by a host of imitators. These were precursors of the tabloid “story papers”, like Brother Jonathan Weekly, in the 1840s. The introduction of the steam rotary press enabled these to be produced cheaply in large numbers, and the emerging railroad network provided a convenient means of distribution. Probably the first true mass-market paperback, though, was the so-called “Dime Novel”, which sprang into being in the 1860s. In fact, the first bona fide mass-market paperback in the English speaking world is said to be Malaeska , by Mrs Ann S Stephens, which was published in June 1860 by the pioneers of the Dime Novel, Erastus and Irwin Beadle . The success of this romantic tale of an Indian princess was such (it sold 65,000 copies within a few months of publication) that it gave birth to a whole new genre. Beadle & Adams (one of the Beadles sold out) began publishing a new paperback dime novel, featuring tales of derring-do by stand-up-guy frontiersmen, at first every two weeks and then every week. They opened a London office in 1862, and pretty soon the format had become all the rage with the English masses, who called these little thrillers the “penny dreadful”. Library of Congress has received, through copyright deposit, a Dime Novel collection of nearly 40,000 titles from 280 different series. Dime novels as such were somewhat eclipsed by so-called pulp magazines starting in the 1890s, an event which is sometimes attributed to a sharp hike in postal rates, but their spirit, at least, has lived on ever since. In fact, the pulp magazines, exploring the same terrain (basically, westerns, romance and crime), could be viewed as a kind of interregnum in the whole trashy paperback saga. The First 20th Century Paperbacks A landmark in the history of the paperback in the English-speaking world was the arrival of Penguin , the first really “respectable” paperback imprint, in 1935. The story goes that Allen Lane, Chairman of The Bodley Head, a London publisher, was returning by train from a weekend in the country with one of his authors — Agatha Christie — and her husband. The Bodley Head, like many publishers of the time, was suffering precipitously declining sales, and had been since the onset of the Depression, and Lane was looking for a way to save his troubled business. Browsing the station kiosks for something to read while he waited for the train, he could find nothing to buy except slick magazines and low-quality paperback fiction (like the cheaply produced Routledge’s Railway Classic reprint series). It occurred to him that good quality fiction and nonfiction might find a wider readership if only books were more affordable, and on July 30th, 1935 he introduced the Penguin imprint to an unsuspecting world. Early Penguins, with their distinctive orange/blue/green, white and black covers (no pictures, just a title, the Penguin logo and an author), were all priced at sixpence (that is, 2 1/2p in today’s British currency, or about 4 cents at today’s exchange rates) – about the same as a pack of 10 cigarettes, or a fifteenth the price of a typical hardcover at the time – and for the first time were sold not just in bookstores but in mass-market outlets like Woolworths and, naturally, railroad station kiosks. Lane took care that the type, the ink and the paper were of good quality, to match the content. The low price was allegedly made possible not, as many assume, because the covers were paper rather than cloth, but because print runs were substantially larger than for hardcover books – 17,000 copies was the breakeven volume; hence, Lane took a substantial gamble that there would be sufficient demand in the British market to meet a run of this size. In the event, of course, he was right. Within six months of the introduction of the first 10 titles, about one million Penguins had been sold; and Penguin Books sold over three million copies in its first full year, 1936. This was really what started the ball rolling for the modern paperback industry. The first ten titles? The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie Madame Claire by Susan Ertz A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway Poets Pub by Eric Linklater Carnival by Compton Mackenzie Ariel by Andre Maurois Twenty-Five by Beverly Nichols The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers Gone to Earth by Mary Webb William by E.H. Young In 1939, Penguin opened an office in the US, under the direction of an Englishman named Ian Ballantine, a man who was destined to play an important role in shaping the paperback industry in the US in the following decades. (In 1945 Ballantine, together with Bennett Cerf, founded Bantam Books, and in the early 1950s he founded Ballantine Books; both of these went on to become significant factors in the US and world publishing markets). The first respectable mass market paperback in the US was, indeed, The Good Earth, published by Pocket Books in November, 1938. This first, un-numbered version was apparently produced in a small test run of fewer than 3,000 copies and sold only in Macy’s in New York. In early 1939, following the success of this test, Pocket Books produced ten titles, beginning with Pocket Books #1 Lost Horizon , by James Hilton, and also including Shakespeare’s Tragedies, Samuel Butler’s The Way of All Flesh, Bambi and – once again — an Agatha Christie. The Good Earth was released again as Pocket Books #11 in September, 1939, with a slightly different cover . What was most notable about the Pocket Books, compared to Penguins, was the covers – attractive, colorful, eye-catching pictures designed to lure the potential reader into the story inside. Not that Pocket Books was the first to do this – lurid pictorial covers were a trademark of the story journal and the paperback almost since their inception – but, because of improvements in technology, particularly color printing, the quality of the cover art was in a whole new league compared to that of earlier generations of trashy covers. World War II And After World War II, just like the Civil War, was quite a boon to the US paperback industry. What is it about wars and the publishing industry? Well, as contemporary accounts often tell us, although war brings periods of extreme activity and terror, the active-duty soldier’s life is also filled with long intermissions of deadly boredom, hours of enforced unisex leisure usually not observed in the routine of the average peacetime civilian employee. Though there were, no doubt, lots of things he’d rather be doing, reading was one of a limited number of legal options available to the average GI under the watchful eyes of superior ranks and officers, and book sales, as a result, recovered dramatically. The paperback, too, is unusually well suited to reading in wartime. Unlike hardcover books, paperbacks weren’t really designed to be treated with respect. They were essentially a disposable product, cheap enough to buy and throw away – they’re still pretty much regarded that way, even though their prices have risen to unconscionable levels. They were also easier to ship in volume and a lot more portable than just about any hardcover. What better kind of book for the GI on the move to cram into his pocket when idleness ends and the terror begins anew? The official Armed Services Edition (ASE) paperback was a whole format to itself , with odd dimensions and dustjackets-within-covers. A total of 1,322 titles were produced under the ASE banner, many with print runs of over 100,000 copies (at a cost of around 5 cents per copy). They were distributed free to the troops, with author and publisher splitting the 1-cent per copy royalty. (For more info on this interesting sub-genre, click here). Certainly, it seems that the aesthetic direction of paperbacks over the next decades was heavily influenced by the reading taste of the GI. Although from the days of the early Penguin and Pocket Books there were some very respectable titles, the ones we remember are certainly more of the racy, action-packed variety. Freud’s Lectures? Shakespeare’s Tragedies? (These were the kind of thing produced by the Army & Navy Committees in their Armed Services Editions) No, nothing so mind-improving. The hardboiled detective school was perhaps the most successful genre to be published in this format in the 1940s – writers like Dashiell Hammett, “Ellery Queen” (who was actually a composite of two writing cousins, Manfred B Lee and Frederick Dannay), Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner. Many of the authors writing in this genre had got their start from pulp magazines specializing in detective fiction, like HL (Never-Overestimate-The-Taste-Of-The-American-Public) Mencken’s Black Mask (‘An Illustrated Magazine of Detective, Mystery, Adventure, Romance and Spiritualism’ – according to the billing on the first issue, April, 1920). The genre remains highly popular to this day. Often, without doubt, the cover was what sold the book –and this is still true in the “secondary” market – those awesome covers are surely what makes many of these books so avidly collected today, decades later. Kitsch and corny they may often be, but to the paperback collector these covers are works of high art, something to be savored and enjoyed. Often, in fact, the names of the cover artists (names like James Avati –click for a short Avati bio , Gerald Gregg – the famous Dell mapback artist – Robert Jonas , an abstract expressionist fan, Robert McGinness, Barye Philips, Norman Saunders, and Richard Powers , who specialized in Science Fiction covers) have lived on long after the authors whose books they decorated have been forgotten. There is an active market, too, in the original artwork from which the covers were made, though very little survives from the early days of mass market paperbacks. By the end of the 1940s, the success of Pocket Books had long since sparked an explosion of new imprints in mass-market paperbacks. Despite the success of the format, though, paperbacks were still regarded in the book trade as adjuncts to the hardcover business, and pretty much all paperbacks were reprints of hardcover titles. In fact, paperback publishers were often explicitly and exclusively contracted to distribute titles from traditional hardcover publishers. In the late 1940s, Fawcett Publications decided to expand in the paperback business but found itself hamstrung by a non-compete clause in its distribution contract with another publisher. A careful examination, however, revealed that the prohibition only applied to reprints of existing titles; and someone at Fawcett came up with the bizarre idea of publishing original material in paperback form. The Paperback Original (PBO) Thus, in 1949, was the Paperback Original or PBO born. Fawcett, under its Gold Medal imprint, released hundreds of PBO titles in the subsequent decades (as well as reprints under its other imprints, like Crest and Premiere). The hardboiled John D MacDonald (of Travis McGee fame), whose short fiction had appeared in story magazines like Detective Tales and Doc Savage in the 1940s, became one of Gold Medal’s earliest and most prolific authors, publishing eight titles under their imprint in the years 1950-54. Another hardboiled writer, David Goodis, also contributed three or four titles during Gold Medal’s early years. One of Gold Medal’s earliest rivals in the PBO business was Lion, which also published MacDonald and David Goodis as well as, most famously, the master of what you might call livre noir , Jim Thompson . (Click here for his immensely interesting bio ). In a frenzy of writing, this demonic writer turned out 12 novels for Lion in the 18 months between September 1952 and March 1954 – so fast, in fact, that Lion apparently didn’t even catch up until 1957, after it had already decided to exit the PBO business. Lion, incidentally, was also known for its superior cover art, using artists like Earle Bergey, Robert Maguire and Rudolph Belarski. The 50s saw a diversification, too, out of the traditional genres, like crime and sci-fi, into whole new areas of mass-market interest. Although there were still plenty of hardboiled writers to satisfy the fans (like MacDonald, Mickey Spillane and that bizarre, surrealist parodist of the hardboiled, Charles Willeford), in the 1950s and 1960s readers developed a strong taste for Juvenile Delinquent (JD) novels, as well as Drug, Beat, Slut, Race and general Teen-Rebellion stories — anything with gritty, urban, violent, sinful kinds of themes. Possibly this was a reaction to the repressiveness characteristic of this era of Joe McCarthy and J Edgar Hoover; the very idea of sex at that time, it seems, was enough to send frissons down the middle-class spine, and a whole genre of soft porn grew up in the paperback market in response, with covers and titles (Cheating Wives, Truck Stop Slut, Marijuana Girl, etc etc) to match. The 1950s, too, saw the growth of the so-called Movie Tie-In paperback, which has become a whole collectible area in itself, along with TV Tie-ins like The Munsters or the James Blish Star Trek paperbacks. Decline And Fall When and how did the golden age of paperbacks come to an end? Well, that probably depends on who you ask. There certainly don’t seem to be many collectors around looking for paperbacks from the 1970s or later, though, and it’s probably safe to say that by the end of the 1960s, as far as mass-market paperbacks are concerned, the best stuff had already been made. Except in Romance (publishers like Harlequin continued the tradition well into the closing decades) the lurid, kitschy element went right out of cover art. Maybe they didn’t want to pay cover artists anymore, maybe it was cheaper to have a photographic image, but for whatever reason most 1970s covers look distinctly restrained, almost cursory, and in the 1980s paperback covers became downright boring, often having no images at all, just a glossy, pseudo-metallic finish and an embossed design. As for the content, well, the let-it-all-hang-out era of the late 60s and beyond completely cut the legs out from under nudge-nudge, softcore, sleazy kind of literature. There was no need, any more, to beat around the bush; and the mass-market paperback seems largely to have reverted to its roots as a reprint of hardcover material at a lower (though not that much lower, these days) price. Do not despair, though: cover art seems to be making a comeback (both in hardcovers and paperbacks). Publishers may, after all, not have forgotten that it’s usually the cover that sells the book, and with modern graphic arts tools they can do some very fancy stuff much more cheaply than they would have using the old technology. It wouldn’t be surprising to see today’s paperbacks joining the collectible ranks a few decades from now, and collectors looking back on the 1970s-80s as merely the pause that refreshed.. Collecting Paperbacks So what do collectible paperback collectors collect? Well, here’s a quick rundown of favorite publishers and authors, adapted from the “want list” of one prominent retailer of vintage paperbacks, Black Ace Books of Los Angeles. Collectible Paperback Publishers ACE (particularly with A, D, G, H, K, N, S before the number of the book) AVON (numbers below 400 best, or un-numbered) BEACON BELMONT BERKLEY (again, lower numbers better, preferably below 400 – some have letter prefixes) BERKLEY DIAMOND (2000 series best) BLACK CAT BRANDON HOUSE (lower numbers, especially below about 6000) CHECKERBOOKS DELL (lower numbers, especially below 1000; also letter-prefixed numbers) DELL FIRST EDITION DELL 10¢ BOOKS (not many of these about) GOLD MEDAL (lower numbers, especially under 1000) GRAPHIC HANDI-BOOKS HARLEQUIN (lower numbers, under about 500) HOLLOWAY HOUSE JACKET LIBRARY LION MIDWOOD MONARCH PERMA (lower numbers, up to about 500. Also the M prefix is more collectible) POCKET BOOKS (lower numbers, up to around 100) POPULAR LIBRARY (lower numbers, under about 400. Also, the EB prefix is more collectible) REGENCY BOOKS SIGNET ZENITH This list doesn’t include so-called “adult” book publishers, such as Chevron, Domino, Essex House, Mercury, and Satan Press. Collectible paperback authors In quite a few cases, these authors have written under more than one pen name. The Black Ace list shows the author’s last name in all caps; the pseudonyms have generally been added. (For an excellent reference on writers’ aliases, see Trussel , to whom we are indebted for much of this information ) ALLISON, Clyde (real name William Knowles, also wrote as Clyde Ames) ARD, William (also wrote as Ben Kerr, Mike Moran, Jonas Ward, Thomas Wills) BLOCK, Lawrence (aka Chip Harrison, Paul Kavanagh) BREWER, Gil (alias Eric Fitzgerald, Bailey Morgan) BROSSARD, Chandler (aka Daniel Harper) BROWN, Frederic BROWN, Wenzell BUKOWSKI, Charles BURROUGHS, William S. (also wrote as Bill, William or Willy Lee) CHANDLER, Raymond DE ROO, Edward DI PRIMA, Diane (aka Sybah Darrich) DICK, Philip K. (alias Richard Phillips) ELLISON, Harlan (also used dozens of other names) ELLSON, Hal GARDNER, Erle Stanley (also wrote as AA Fair, as well as Charles M. Green, Grant Holiday, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenn(e)y, Robert Park, Robert Parr, Les Tillray ) GEIS, Richard GOODIS, David HAMMETT, Dashiell HIMES, Chester KARP, David (aka Adam Singer, Wallace Ware) KEENE, Day KEROUAC, Jack (Jean-Louis Incogniteau, Jean-Louis Lebrid Kerouac, Richard Lupoff) L’AMOUR, Louis (also wrote as Jim Mayo, Tex Burns, real name LaMoore) LOVECRAFT, H.P. (also used a lot of pseudonyms) MacDONALD, John D. (aka John Wade Farrell, Scott O’Hara, Peter Reed) MARLOWE, Dan J. (aka Jaime Sandaval) MATHESON, Richard MEAKER, Marijane (also wrote as Vin Packer, Anne Aldrich, ME Kerr, Mary James) MELTZER, David PERKOFF, Stuart Z. RABE, Peter SWENSON, Peggy THOMPSON, Jim WHITE, Lionel WHITTINGTON, Harry (also used a lot of pseudonyms) WILLEFORD, Charles (also wrote as Will Charles and Franklin Sanders) WILLIAMS, Charles WOOD JR., Ed (also wrote as Woodrow Edwards) Yes, this is Ed Wood the C-movie specialist. WOOLRICH, Cornell (also wrote as William Irish, author of the famous Marijuana Girl, and George Hopley) What should you collect? Well, most people seem to like to specialize in some way – consistency is the hobgoblin of our little minds. You might, for example, collect only Lesbian or Gay paperbacks, or Westerns or Hardboileds. You might collect all the Belarsky covers, or every paperback edition of Mickey Spillane. You might collect 1955. You might just like to collect covers with men smoking, or women looking back over their shoulders (the back view of women is surprisingly common on paperback covers, for some reason nobody has explained – or perhaps needs to). In other words, there’s any number of ways to segment the market. It really doesn’t matter what you pick – you just collect what you like. The nice thing about paperback collecting is that it doesn’t have to cost you a fortune. Literally almost anyone can afford to put together some kind of a collection. True, there are areas of the market where you might have to fork out a fair bundle to be a player. The average wallet probably won’t be run to the original Lost Horizon or first paperback editions of Raymond Chandler or Jim Thompson. But you can still buy truly amazing stuff for very modest amounts – paperbacks from the 40s and 50s with great covers, even top authors (later printings), for under $10. If you’re really broke, collect those very under-collected kitschy Harlequin romances. You could probably wallpaper a small room with them for under $50 in materials, and one day, who knows, they might become quite chic. More links: Stanford’s Penny Dreadful collection, with a very informative and interesting commentary on the early development. More background on Dime Novels A personal website of favorite paperbacks with an engaging coming-of-age autobiography as accompaniment A rundown on paperback cover artists Find out about Lesbian paperbacks and cover art Story of a compulsive collector Commercial site selling postcards and other art based on paperback covers

As with many of us, I was a book reader first, then a book collector. Then I decided to enter the wonderful world of on-line bookselling, which seemed ideal for me: I could learn the trade in my spare hours after my full-time job, and selling via the Internet eliminated the overhead and the huge time commitment of operating a brick and mortar store.  And becoming a bookseller was wonderful in every way, but one. No one had ever warned me that I would risk becoming Persona Non Grata at the local post office. Now, I live in a small city of about 8,000 souls,  and Ive lived most of my life here. I know a lot of local people, and the P.O. is Gossip Central. So my first sales initially gave me more opportunity to stop by the P.O., mail a few boxes, and trade the local news. But then came success.  Bookselling became a full-time job. And as the number of boxes to be mailed grew, and I became a regular hitch in  the local P.O.s normal get-along, I realized that Things Had Changed.   The clerks, who had in days of old hailed me with a wave and a “Hello!” and a beckoning to their windows, now allowed their eyes to sweep over me, not showing any signs of recognition, while doing quick mental calculations to determine just how fast or how slow they had to work to be able to wait on the customer in front of me, or behind me just not me, if they were lucky. And even though the losing clerk would still manage a strained smile as I handed over my mound of boxes, and would process my mailings efficiently and as quickly as possible, I knew that I had to take some action or risk being treated like some unknown, strange, and transient customer at my home P.O.; Robert Frost wrote, “Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to let you in.” Hed obviously never tried to mail 35 packages at one time at his home P.O. So I had a Great Idea: I would spread my mailing largesse among a number of post offices located within smaller towns that were still within convenient driving range, say, ten minutes or less from my home.  By quick calculation, I came up with four or five possibilities, and decided that the various short drives would also add some variety to my daily work-at-home routine. So I put my great plan into effect. One Monday, I had about 30+ packages to mail, two priority and the rest media mail. I decided to drive to a very small town population about 500 which had a new post office built on their main state farm to market road.  I figured it wouldn’t be too busy. How could it? Only 500 people lived in the town, and most of them had to be at work or school. My idea seemed like a winner, so I loaded the car and off I went to mail. When I walked in, I realized that while it looked roomy from the outside, the place was tiny, with just two service windows.  No one was at either in fact, no one was in the building anywhere I could see — but when I approached the counter a smiling young man quickly appeared and asked if he could help me. “I have a lot to mail,” I said, in an apologetic tone I had perfected since becoming a bookseller. “Great!” he said. “Lets get started!” Encouraged, I gave him the first two packages and specified priority shipping. He put the first one on the scale, entered the ZIP, and printed out a label for $2.75 in postage. He attached that to the package, moved it to the side, and reached for the second. “These two are priority,” I said again. “Theyre in priority boxes.” He smiled and entered the ZIP for the second. Now someone was in line behind me, waiting for service. No other clerk appeared. “Priority,” I said again. He looked at me, looked at the package, looked over the first package and said, “Oh. These are priority. I didn’t put enough postage on this one.” He picked up the first one. “I need to add some postage to this one,” he explained to me. Now there were two people in line behind me, and not even one package was done. “75 cents,” I said. “You need to add 75 cents.” He turned, picked up a calculator, and entered each digit accurately  and slowly. “Looks like 75 cents, ” he said. “Is that okay?” “That’s fine,” I said. He managed to get a $3.50 postal label on the second package. Now I was down to about 30 media mail packages, and I heard the bell on the door sound and sound again, as the line behind me swelled to four people.  “The rest of these go media mail” I said, pushing the first stack towards him. “Media,” he said. “Media mail.” “Yes, all media mail!” I said, now feeling slightly desperate and afraid to look behind me. “Media mail,” he said again. “Yeah, we have that.” He began to pick up the packages, one — by one — by one, for each one typing in the ZIP code SLOWLY and precisely, announcing the media mail postage  —- “That’s $1.33. This one’s $1.33. This’ll be $1.33.” — and each time asking me, “Is that okay?” “Okay,” I said. “All media mail. All okay. Whatever! Okay by me!” I smiled expansively, meaning to take in both him and the people in line behind me. “Hey! Media mail! Great rate! Works for me!” Slowly he worked through the stack of packages. And I do mean slowly. When I next looked behind me, there were nine people waiting for service. Nine pairs of eyes looking at me. Nine people with, maybe, one letter to mail or one stamp to buy. Nine people who actually probably lived in that town. Who would ever think that nine out of 500 people wold decide to drop by the P.O. at the same time? What are the odds??? Finally, finally, finally.he put postage on the last package. I breathed a sigh of  relief, and heard nine more from behind me. “Is that all?” he asked. “YES!” I said, a bit too enthusiastically. “Yep! That’ll do it! Here you go!” and handed him my American Express card. He took it, and looked at it like he’d never seen one before. “Credit card,” he said, in a tone of wonder. Then he thought for a minute.  “Yes, we take these.” He looked at the card, reading both sides like there were clues or something on them. Then he walked out of his window and other to the next, where the lone credit card machine was located. He looked at the machine and then started tapping something into the terminal. He began to read the screen. Yes — he was reading the directions for accepting credit cards. Now, folks who live in the country are pretty polite. But the folks behind me had become a curious blend of politeness, impatience, and wanting the clerk to learn this new skill, demonstrate it and MOVE ON. So we all watched, ten souls rooting for the eleventh as he read directions, pushed buttons, read more directions, and put the card through the reader. I was wondering how much longer this could possibly last, and I was painfully aware of the people in line behind me. It occurred to me that the people in line behind me must really, really hate me by now. I was nervous. I began to giggle. Actually, the first sound was more of a snort, followed by some hiccups and gurgles. The clerk looked at me and I smiled at him. The folks behind me, however, were not fooled. The clerk returned to the task at hand. Then he read yet another few lines of instruction on the terminal screen, looked at the card, look very confused and looked at me. He seemed to need something. Suddenly it occurred to me he had no idea what my total was, and was trying to read the display in front of me. “$42.98!” I said, far too brightly. “I owe you $42.98!” “$42.98!” chimed in a ragged chorus of voices from behind me. He said “Oh, okay!”, then walked back over to his window, looked at his screen, and said, “Yep! $42.98!” He walked back over to the other window and punched in the amount, then hit a button. For a few seconds nothing happened. Then the printout started coming. There wasn’t a burst of applause, but it was close. Me — I was fighting back more nervous giggles. He came back to the window and handed me my card, which I put away in my purse. He handed me the receipt and I signed it. He took it, looked at it, and turned to read something on his terminal. “I think I need to see the card again,” he said. “I’m supposed to compare the signatures.” Oh Lord! I dug into my purse and miraculously pulled the card out at first touch. He compared the signature on the card and the receipt letter by letter, then smiled and handed me back the card and my copy. I smiled too, in relief. “Do you need your receipt?” he asked. “Oh, yes,” I replied. “It has the ZIP codes on it. I like to keep those.” “Okay,” he said, and turned to the machine which printed out the postage receipts. It was then I noticed that there was about 25 feet of paper coming out of it. “That’s okay!” I said, but he replied, “No! It’s no problem! Really!” and diligently (beginning at the wrong end) began looking for where my info appeared. At this point, I couldn’t hear anyone breathing behind me, but they were there. Oh yes! They were all still there. And me? I was still past the giggles, way past the giggles, and rounding the bend towards desperation. Finally he handed me my receipt. “There you go! Anything else?” “No! No thanks! That’s it!” I said. ” Thanks again! Thanks!” and avoiding the eyes of everyone in the room, lunged for the door and freedom. Maybe in eight or ten years I can drive through that town again.  As for my mailing, I do it locally, at my hometown P.O. Weve gotten a system down, where I show up at roughly the same time every few days, and hand my items through a door, rather than standing in and confounding the line.  Now, when I go in for personal mailing needs, its like old times. All is forgiven… and its good to be back home. Editors Note : Id love to have a humorous bookselling article, customer story, saying, pun, cartoon, or ??? for each issue of The Standard. We could all stand some laughs, and for sure our trade does have its funny side. If youve got anything youd like to submit, please send it to me at aaabooks@azalea.net . The only requirement is that it make me giggle!

Q: One of your specialties is Black literature. How/why did you choose this area to specialize in? A: I had both personal reasons and what I like to think are practical business reasons. The civil rights movement was very active when I was a college student, and in the years right after that, and while I was only involved in very minor ways (participating in a tutoring program, etc.) it was something I believed in, and I began to read and buy books related to blacks in America. In fact, this was one of the common areas of interest between me and my first husband (now deceased), who was black and working as a part-time lecturer in black studies when I met him. Since we had two daughters, I continued to buy books in this area, so that they would have them available. When I started as a bookseller back in 1993, I was planning on selling books mostly by catalogues and at shows, and so within the overall area of modern first editions, I decided to focus on women authors and African American writers, two areas I both liked and felt were somewhat neglected, since historically most booksellers and book collectors in the U.S. have been white males. I also felt that since I was more knowledgeable about these areas than many booksellers, it gave me a little bit of an advantage that would offset my newness in the business. Long considered to be the first novel to be published in the US by an African American women writer, “Iola Leroy” by Frances E. W. Harper, first published in Philadelphia in 1892, remains an important landmark in black literature, even though modern scholarship has discovered earlier novels Q: Which Black authors do you consider the best overall and why? A: In terms of sheer literary elegance, I would have to say Ralph Ellison and the best of W. E. B. DuBois’s writings are extremely powerful. I think we all know the list of classic African American authors, ranging from Frederick Douglass to Hurston to Wright and to Baldwin, so I am not going to select a ‘best’ from among them. I am not even going to try and select some favorites because so often it is a question of which writer affects you the most on a particular day or in a particular mood. I will mention a few who I think don’t get the recognition they deserve: Percival Everett (who has written many novels over about 20 years, with a new, very funny one out just this year), Paule Marshall, Gayl Jones (her personal tragedies made her name better known for a while, but I think she is still not read enough), James Alan McPherson (he won the Pulitzer prize for one collection of short stories, but I wish he would write more), Sherley Anne Williams, George Lamming (from the Caribbean) I could go on and on and on another day, my list might be completely different. Many of the African American writers whom I like are poets, rather than novelists. Q: Do you think Black authors have a unique perspective because of being Black, or is that irrelevant? If they do have a unique perspective, do you think they’re writing things that non-Blacks can relate to, or are their experience foreign to most other races/ethnic groups? I guess what I’m asking is whether most Black literature is based on a past of poverty and oppression that any struggling ethnic group can relate to, or is it unique to American Blacks? A: To the extent that some (not most) African American literature is based on a past of poverty and oppression, I think it speaks to all groups who have struggled against these – however, the black experience in the U.S. is unique in many ways: the length of their history in the U.S. going back to the 17th century, the fact that they were brought to the U.S. unwillingly as slaves, and also that the form of slavery to which these Africans were subjected in the west was in many ways the worst the world has ever known (the only one which considered slaves as chattels, of no more significance than ownership of cattle). The other important thing to realize in looking at African American literature is that in many ways it is part of a world literature or a trans-Atlantic literature. The term “diaspora” is used to indicate the spread of those of African descent to most parts of the western world. So my own personal perspective has been broadening to include Afro-Caribbean writers (many of whom left the Caribbean and went to England, France, Canada and the U.S.), Afro-Brazilian, and African writers. In fact, if you are talking about a writer from Puerto Rico or Cuba who has come to the United States, is that writer a Latin American or an African American or both? One other point: the best literature is universal – Thus Grapes of Wrath speaks to all readers, not just migrant farm workers, and I think so does Wright’s Native Son, and Baldwin’s Go Tell It on a Mountain and Zorah Neale Hurston’s Jonah’s Gourd Vine, to give just a few examples. Q: Do most Black authors only write about Black characters? I’m curious about this, as Caucasian authors seem to write about all nationalities and racial and ethnic groups (although perhaps not with the authority that an author from a particular country or racial or ethnic group brings to writing), and most of the admittedly few current Black authors I’ve read seem to stick to Black characters and Black situations. A. I guess I am partly curious about why you say that white writers seem to write about all nationalities and ethnic groups. Certainly one sees this in children’s literature where in the past the writers were almost exclusively white, but the children were often from different countries, or little black children. But I think in serious literature it is much less common for a white writer to have the protagonist of the work be of another race. Again, in the past, some Southerners wrote novels in dialect, but these were intended to confirm white readers in their belief that Negroes were simple, child-like, happy folks, or untrustworthy and shifty or whatever. I don’t want to say that there aren’t any exceptions, because of course, there are but they are precisely that, exceptions: To give just one very modern example, Susan Straight is a white woman who set her first few books exclusively within the black community but she was married to a black man and living within that community at the time and her books stand out precisely because they are uncommon. 1829 bill from an estate sale listing the slaves sold at auction. Documents like this are a vivid testament to the inhumanity of slavery. Some other interesting exceptions occurred during the Harlem Renaissance when you had a white woman like Nancy Cunard create the massive anthology “Negro” or Marc Connelly write a play like “Green Pastures” Langston Hughes referred to this phenomenon rather uncomplimentarily in one of his poems, but the fact remains that the Harlem Renaissance was a time in which it was “popular” to be black. Similarly, during the Civil Rights era and the Black Power movement, there was a certain allure to the whole scene which led to many writers who were not black featuring black protagonists. However, it is true that most white writers have, in a sense, more freedom to write totally outside their own culture or their own experiences. They have been given this freedom by society, where they are not expected to “uphold the race” and by publishers. However, one of the ongoing issues for many black writers is not just expressing themselves creatively but also how much of an obligation do they have to work to correct injustice through their writing. Should they always be thinking of the white reader who might read their books and find his/her stereotypes confirmed if they described a black man as brutal or unfaithful (a criticism leveled against Alice Walker and Gayl Jones, for example)? Richard Wright, whose books focused on the daily injustices blacks faced in America, felt that Zora Neale Hurston was wrong in writing her novels about a self-contained black world. I just got a copy of Bronze, the second collection of poetry by Georgia Douglas Johnson, a minor Harlem Renaissance writer. Her first collection was criticized because it dealt with the “heart” and not race, so this was her book of poems on race (although still infused by the heart), and in her last book, she again ignored race. An interesting example is Charles Perry: his first and only published novel Portrait of a Young Man Drowning, was based on his own experience of juvenile gangsters in his Brooklyn neighborhood, but it features almost exclusively white characters – a decision made, according to Perry’s daughter, out of a fear that issues of race could cloud the humanity of the characters. Did this make it harder for him to get published? Just two more very different examples: Many people still do not realize that Frank Yerby was a black man. His earlier books did not have a picture of him on the dustjacket, and almost all of his books are historical fiction, adventure novels, and so on, set almost exclusively within a white world. When Charles Chesnutt published his first book, even though it used dialect, it was thought that he was white. In fact, he was light skinned enough that he could have easily passed for white, but instead his novels became increasing more “political” and less popular. What had been considered his last novel, The Colonel’s Dream, was published while he was still relatively young, and only a few years after his first, and sold poorly. In fact, a recently found later novel of his has just been published, and this is the story of a man who grows up thinking he is black, and discovers that he is white (does this count as a black writer writing a novel with a white protagonist?) So African American authors have both pressure from others in their communities to write about black people for many different reasons and from publishers who find it easier to keep writers in a ‘box’, a desire to overcome the prejudices and injustices they have faced, a dramatic history to write about is it surprising that they mostly write about black characters? Q: Do you believe it is harder, today, for a Black author to find a publisher? To be marketed as a mainstream author by publishers? Or do their works command a smaller audience which discourages publishers from pushing their work? A: Most African American writers would be considered ‘mid-list’ writers. I think that all mid-list writers are having problems now in finding publishers, but yes, this situation is probably exacerbated for black authors. I recently went to a signing by Mary Monroe, who just published her second novel more than 10 years after her first one and the reason was that she could not find a publisher. I can give several other examples of women who have had good critical reviews, or even won prizes for their books, but they wind up with no publisher for a while. Zorah Neale Hurston’s first book in a slightly battered, but still vivid and attractive, and very scarce, dustjacket with art by Miguel Covarrubias. Marketing is, of course, another issue and it is one that becomes very obvious in some bookstores where African American writers are for the most part put in a separate section of the store. In a way, this increases the ‘ghettoization’ of black authors, by implying that only black readers will be interested in their books. Writers like Toni Morrison obviously have broken out of this, but I think this trend is increasing. Q: What genres seem to attract the most Black authors? Does their being Black usually have an effect on these choices? A: African Americans write in all genres aside from straight “literature” there are many black writers in mysteries, romance, science fiction, juvenile and children’s literature. Perhaps the genres where they are relatively under-represented are science fiction and Western fiction. Q: Am I mistaken that most of the currently popular Black literature authors are women? If that is true, what is your thinking on why? A: If by popular you are referring to those who appear on the best seller lists consistently like Bebe Moore Campbell or Terry MacMillan or even Toni Morrison, then it might seem so. Remember most book buyers in the U.S. are women, and one of the things that Campbell and MacMillan seem to have done is to write novels about black women facing emotional/family/romantic/financial problems in a way that has more to do with being middle class American than specifically African American so that makes their novels popular enough that they will hit the best seller list. I don’t pay attention to the best seller lists all that much but I will agree that there do not seem to be any African American male writers who approach the popularity of Clancy, King, Koontz, etc. However, when looking at literature overall, there are many popular African American writers who are men. With some exceptions, popularity usually means that a book is less challenging, so I am not sure that is an important goal. Q: Are most Black literature authors (as opposed to autobiographical, nonfiction, or politically related writing) from the U.S.? If so, why? A: Well, I dealt with this a little above, but no, most of them are not from the United States. Africa and the Caribbean have both produced Nobel Prize winning authors (to use just one yardstick) the Caribbean especially has produced a large number of interesting authors, both in the past with such writers as Aime Cesaire and currently with not just “giants” of literature like Derek Walcott, but also with many interesting younger writers, such as Jamaica Kincaid and Edwidge Danticat and Caryl Phillips (and remember, not all black literature is written in English – much of it is in French and some in Spanish.) Many writers move between countries – in other words, lots of Caribbean writers go to Canada or England or the U.S., and back again. Q: Do you think that popular Black authors are helped a lot by the publicity Oprah gives their work? What other venues or people are helping Black authors? A: I can’t really give a complete list of authors Oprah has selected, but it seems to me that her effect has been much more dramatic on some of the white woman writers she has selected: specifically, I am thinking of her first selection, Jane Hamilton, who was very little known until that happened. In a sense, Oprah is much more conservative in selecting African Writers: many have already won recognition. Toni Morrison was already a Nobel Laureate, Ernest Gaines had won the National Book Award, Crosby books were already all best sellers, etc. I might be missing someone but offhand I cannot think of an unknown young African American fiction writer who she selected. Q: I’ve had some Black customers who only collect works by Black authors. Do you find this prevalent? A: Most collectors have to limit their collection – African American collectors are no exception. Certainly, many of them collect primarily in certain periods (Harlem Renaissance, or modern literature or late 19th century), but I have had African American collectors who only collect mysteries, one who was a serious Anne Rice collector, others who collect children’s books. And many of the collectors whom I have dealt with who collect African American authors are not themselves African American. Q. What percentage of your sales are books by Blacks? A: I actually looked this up because I wasn’t sure and I was surprised to see that African American books are approximately 15% of the books which we have catalogued and represent about 15% of our sales (in terms of numbers of books). The only difference is that the average sales price is somewhat higher than our overall average, and this reflects the fact that I will put more energy into “buying” in this area. I would like to see a higher percentage of our books in this area, actually, but finding really good quality books is becoming more and more challenging. Interview by Shirley Bryant. #africanamerican #collecting #reference

The program will launch shortly after the first of the year. Customers will be able to access the search from IOBA’s homepage or from a member’s home page. The search function is being provided by the Advance Book Exchange (ABE) and will search IOBA members inventory on ABE. The search function will be identified as IOBA’s, not ABE’s. The only ABE identification will be an option at the end of the search to go to ABE if the customer wants more listings. “This is one of the most exciting steps taken by IOBA,” said Sally Hollingsworth, IOBA acting president. “The ABE search will draw the public to the IOBA site and will be an important step in promoting our member booksellers. It is an excellent alternative to our own database for selling books.  Buyers will be assured of highest quality transactions and will be able to contact our Ethics committee if dissatisfied with their purchase.” IOBA members may wish to explore the Georgia Antiquarian Booksellers Association (www.gaba.net ) or the Florida Antiquarian Booksellers Association (www.floridabooksellers.com) sites to see how the IOBA search function will work. While IOBA’s page will look slightly different, it will operate in the much the same fashion. With the launch of the IOBA search function, the organization will also begin an advertising campaign in Firsts and other book collecting publications promoting our search function, IOBA’s membership and our ethical standards. The Firsts ads will be one-half page. “Our advertising campaign is at the core of IOBA’s purpose”, said Jim Hart, president. “IOBA members have pledged to adhere to high ethical and professional standards and we want customers to know that IOBA membership is a badge of professionalism. Our advertising campaign is the first step in achieving that goal.” IOBA members who have not yet joined the IOBA search function should send their firm name, ABE User ID and ABE password to Leonard Lanfranco, IOBA Public Relations Committee Chair (columbia@pagefour.com) before December 15 to be included. Members who have sent their information and are not on this list and who have sent in their information should contact Lanfranco immediately. Members who have signed up so far include: Anglophile Books Authors & Artists A Better Way Ainsworth Books B is for Book Bartmanbooks.com The Book House The Bookie Joint Books from the Crypt Canterbury Books Columbia Books Commonplace Books Alyce Cresap, Books & Ephemera Curio Corner Books DaNa Books Robert Erwin, Bookseller The Gallagher Collection RS Geer, Inc. Estella Geller, Books M.L. Granlund, Bookseller Century Books High Castle Books Janus Books Kaatterskill Books Novel Shoppe Poe’s Cousin Parnassus on the Net Published Page Quill & Brush Ravenroost Books S&D Collections Constance Sabo Bookseller\ Stray Books Tavistock Books Tim’s Books Volk & Iiams Webster’s Bookstore Cafe

Table of Contents Report from the President IOBA Q & A Column Dorothy Jane Mills, Author of “Ann Likes Red” Professionalism Len Kessler, the author of “Mr. Pine’s Purple House”, The Psychology of Acquisition: Turnover and the Maximization of Profits Jill Morgan, Publisher of Purple House Press What’s This Book Worth? John Dunning, author of “Booked to Die” Note from the Editor