Bookseller Profile

Abebooks' uniqueness is our network of independent booksellers who work with us to provide the most diverse selection of rare, used and out-of-print books on the Internet. Take a moment and meet our member booksellers from around the globe. It is these sellers, with their experience, commitment and love of the used and out-of-print book business who help all our buyers find that treasure they've been looking for.

How did you get started in bookselling?

After attending school at Berklee School of Music in Boston I was a full time musician for a number of years recording and "gigging" with the likes of Van Morrison, The James Montgomery Band, and a number of other popular groups. In 1981 things were slow in my music career and I felt I needed a day job to even out the ups and downs of being a musician. I started the Yankee Book & Art Gallery with absolutely no experience in bookselling. A few factors went into the decision. I. It was relatively inexpensive to start up. 2. I thought it would suit me. After 20 years I guess the suit fits.

Bookselling is not the easiest way to make a living. What keeps you doing it?

I am a glutton for punishment.

What is your specialty? How did you choose it?

I don't really have a specialty as such. I am really a general antiquarian and out of print bookseller with a side dish of art, old prints and maps. I carry a number of books related to The Pilgrims ,The Mayflower and local history because of my location in historic Plymouth, Massachusetts. I tried to specialize in the past but I became very bored very quickly. I like the thrill of buying something I have never seen before and when you specialize you are always buying, it seems to me, the same thing. I like the continuing thrill of learning new things about subjects I did not know anything about. For instance, years ago I purchased a great collection of books on the 19th century English Pre-Raphaelite Movement. I learned a great deal from that book collection. Not only about the rarities but about the subject as well.


Do you collect anything besides books?

I have been collecting books on Lawn tennis for a number of years. Along with the books I collect original tennis art, prints, tennis rackets, ephemera, and having not won a trophy myself, an occasional antique trophy which I place on the mantel and try to pass off as mine.


Lots of people have "shop pets". Do you have one? Several?

I have a pet who is really a partner in the business. He is a 17 pound beautiful white male cat by the name of Powderpuss. He is actually in charge of public relations and is the official greeter. He has attracted a great deal of publicity for the shop just by being his charismatic self. He has had full page photo spreads in newspapers, appeared in a local calendar, and has had a feature in the national magazine Cats & Kittens. In all of these appearances he has made sure that I get a little credit for being the boss although I sometimes feel I am actually working for him.


What is the most unusual book you ever bought?

I have purchased many interesting and unusual books. Among them being a 1st Edition of Darwin's Origin Of the Species. However, the one that I found the most interesting was a book whose title I can't remember and was not particularly significant. It was a religious book published in 1854 in Richmond, Virginia. What made it so unusual was the hand writing in the book. The hand writing was by a Union soldier who wrote "This book was captured while the battle raged. Taken from a dead confederate soldier's body. At this battle my best friend went down. If you should find this book on or about my body please return it to my mother (an address in Pennsylvania was given) and tell her that I died gallantly on the battlefield." This is what makes this business so fascinating. I got this book at a book auction. It was sold in a box lot. I was pricing the books that I bought from that lot. I was about to price this book when I saw the writing, beginning on the first fly leaf, and as I began to read it I was amazed that I held in my hand a book that connected me so poignantly to an individual who was going through the most frightening and dramatic experience of his life. That he had this book in his hands, and had written these few but extremely powerful lines, and now, here in my bookshop over 130 years later, I was discovering them and reliving his experiences, was to me a very exciting feeling.


Do you have any legendary stories you tell about incidents in your store or as a bookseller?

I was lucky enough to buy one of the best collections of rare books that I think I will ever see in one place. This happened years ago when I was just 3 years in the business. A woman came into my shop and asked me if I bought books. I said yes and she said, "well, do I have books." She invited me to her home in Westport, Ct. where we had lunch and than escorted me into the living room that had built-in shelves that covered one wall. I got up on a step ladder and thought I would start at the top left and work my way across.

I was greeted in that corner by a group of James Joyce 1st editions, some of them signed. In fact, everything he wrote except for a few extremely rare pieces. Next to Joyce was a collection of Gertrude Stein 1st Editions some of them signed. Again, everything she wrote. Next was James Branch Cabell, Arthur Machen, William Morris, the Rossetti's, a collection of Christian Science material, extra illustrated sets, and so it went, and this was just the living room. The bulk of the collection was in the finished basement where all the walls were lined with fabulous first editions on various subjects. It was like walking into the rare book warehouse and they were all mine to buy. She was in no hurry.

I spent 5 years buying the books in that house and also in her house in Chicago. Once I went to her home to "stock up" and said I thought it was odd that I did not see any children's books. She said, "oh I have children's books and she opened the cabinet beneath the shelves in the living room and proceeded to pull out 35 Arthur Rackham illustrated books. Naturally, all of them 1st editions and 5 or 6 of them signed. I thought I had died and gone to booksellers' heaven. Another time I mentioned that I had never been upstairs in this house. She said that there were a few books upstairs in a secretary and by all means go and take a look. The first book I saw in that secretary was a 1st edition of the Book of Mormon. Coincidently, a group of young Mormon missionaries had been in my shop just two weeks prior and asked if I could find them a 1st edition of The Book of Mormon. One of their fathers collected them. Voila!!! Ask and you shall receive. I remember thinking at the time, I have only been in this business 3 years and look how easy it is to find these rare books, and I certainly picked the right business to be in.

Since then of course it hasn't been that easy. How fortunate I was. Another interesting story. One night I received a call from an unknown person at my home. She said I should get to a neighboring town immediately as someone was throwing books out of a second story window into a dumpster. I could not go that night but the next day I went to the place she said to go but I did not see a dumpster. I was about to leave when a man pulled up in a truck and Iasked him if he was throwing books into a dumpster the previous evening. He said he did throw books out of the second story window including a few bureaus, medicine cabinets and assorted "trash". This was all piled up in the back yard in a large heap. The books, he said, were on the bottom. It was the hottest day in the summer, over 100 degrees. I had to rescue these books, or at least see what was there so I started digging, sweating and digging some more when I started to turn up some goodies. It was the estate of a minister and most of the books were wonderful old religious books, the most interesting one being a rubricated book from the early 1700's. I felt like a rat digging through rubbish that day but the rat got the riches, and I lost about 5 pounds to boot.

What are your favourite books, or your recommendations?

My favorite books are actually the ones I have read twice. They include, West With The Night by Beryl Markham, The Outer Most House by Henry Beston, The Mormon Murders by Steven Naifeh, & Gregory White Smith, Booked To Die by John Dunning, The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling (short story included in The Phantom Rickshaw), A Handful of Summers by Gordon Forbes and Golf In The Kingdom by Michael Murphy to name a few.

The views of the author, expressed above, are not necessarily those of the Advanced Book Exchange