A wry, unvarnished chronicle of a career in the rare book trade
during its last Golden Age When Gary Goodman wandered into a
run-down, used-book shop that was going out of business in East St.
Paul in 1982, he had no idea the visit would change his life. He
walked in as a psychiatric counselor and walked out as the store's
new owner. In The Last Bookseller Goodman describes his sometimes
desperate, sometimes hilarious career as a used and rare book
dealer in Minnesota-the early struggles, the travels to estate
sales and book fairs, the remarkable finds, and the bibliophiles,
forgers, book thieves, and book hoarders he met along the way. Here
we meet the infamous St. Paul Book Bandit, Stephen Blumberg, who
stole 24,000 rare books worth more than fifty million dollars; John
Jenkins, the Texas rare book dealer who (probably) was murdered
while standing in the middle of the Colorado River; and the
eccentric Melvin McCosh, who filled his dilapidated Lake Minnetonka
mansion with half a million books. In 1990, with a couple of
partners, Goodman opened St. Croix Antiquarian Books in Stillwater,
one of the Twin Cities region's most venerable bookshops until it
closed in 2017. This store became so successful and inspired so
many other booksellers to move to town that Richard Booth, founder
of the "book town" movement in Hay-on-Wye in Wales, declared
Stillwater the First Book Town in North America. The internet
changed the book business forever, and Goodman details how, after
2000, the internet made stores like his obsolete. In the 1990s, the
Twin Cities had nearly fifty secondhand bookshops; today, there are
fewer than ten. As both a memoir and a history of booksellers and
book scouts, criminals and collectors, The Last Bookseller offers
an ultimately poignant account of the used and rare book business
during its final Golden Age.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
