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All praise to R. Dunaway, Bookseller...



 
 
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  #1  
Old July 19th 06, 10:58 PM posted to rec.collecting.books
Jonathan
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Posts: 3
Default All praise to R. Dunaway, Bookseller...

Yesterday was hot in St. Louis. Grand Blvd. was noisy and crowded.
I went into Mr. Dunaway's shop and browsed for an hour. It was cool,
quiet and organized. I found two fairly-priced books (obscure and of
interest,
I imagine, only to me). I bought them and spent half the night
reading one of them.
The experience of taking refuge from the clutter of a city into the
repose of a good
bookshop, finding a good book that barely dents the wallet, and
spending the next
few hours captivated by the purchase, is one that our grandchildren
will not enjoy. At least not in my home town of Milwaukee.
It can now be said (with the closing of "Recycled Books" on Prospect
Avenue)
that the Eastside no longer has a used bookstore.

Perhaps I should move my family to St. Louis. It seems
to be more of a book town.

Regards,

Jonathan Brodie

Ads
  #2  
Old July 20th 06, 01:52 AM posted to rec.collecting.books
Annibale
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Posts: 2
Default All praise to R. Dunaway, Bookseller...


Jonathan wrote:
Yesterday was hot in St. Louis. Grand Blvd. was noisy and crowded.
I went into Mr. Dunaway's shop and browsed for an hour. It was cool,
quiet and organized. I found two fairly-priced books (obscure and of
interest,
I imagine, only to me). I bought them and spent half the night
reading one of them.
The experience of taking refuge from the clutter of a city into the
repose of a good
bookshop, finding a good book that barely dents the wallet, and
spending the next
few hours captivated by the purchase, is one that our grandchildren
will not enjoy. At least not in my home town of Milwaukee.
It can now be said (with the closing of "Recycled Books" on Prospect
Avenue)
that the Eastside no longer has a used bookstore.

Perhaps I should move my family to St. Louis. It seems
to be more of a book town.


Actually your complaint about Milwaukee is probably true in many larger
cities all over the country. Partly it has to do with the internet, and
partly with the difficulties of having an open shop, anywhere. Although
I would not say that New York was a bad book town, now, I am old enough
to remember 4th avenue at its heyday, and it was a much better book
town then. In that immediate neighborhood, that I know of, Strand is
the only one left. If I go back to the days of Biblo and Tannen there
must have been ten or more street shops, as well as several very
interesting shops higher up in the surrounding buildings. That is where
Goldwater's shop[black, hispanic, left wing-but he himself collected
incunabula] was after he left University Place. In midtown, we also had
several used, rare and new art book shops. Weyhe was the best, but
there were three more in midtown, Wittenborn and two others whose names
I no longer recall.

The only town I have spent time in, going from shop to shop, in the
last ten years was Washington DC, and I was pleased by the number of
shops. There is a little cluster in Georgetown which is quite nice.

Best,
Annibale

Regards,

Jonathan Brodie


  #3  
Old July 20th 06, 02:22 AM posted to rec.collecting.books
Evelyn C. Leeper
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Posts: 43
Default All praise to R. Dunaway, Bookseller...

Annibale wrote:
Jonathan wrote:
Yesterday was hot in St. Louis. Grand Blvd. was noisy and crowded.
I went into Mr. Dunaway's shop and browsed for an hour. It was cool,
quiet and organized. I found two fairly-priced books (obscure and of
interest,
I imagine, only to me). I bought them and spent half the night
reading one of them.
The experience of taking refuge from the clutter of a city into the
repose of a good
bookshop, finding a good book that barely dents the wallet, and
spending the next
few hours captivated by the purchase, is one that our grandchildren
will not enjoy. At least not in my home town of Milwaukee.
It can now be said (with the closing of "Recycled Books" on Prospect
Avenue)
that the Eastside no longer has a used bookstore.

Perhaps I should move my family to St. Louis. It seems
to be more of a book town.


Actually your complaint about Milwaukee is probably true in many larger
cities all over the country. Partly it has to do with the internet, and
partly with the difficulties of having an open shop, anywhere. Although
I would not say that New York was a bad book town, now, I am old enough
to remember 4th avenue at its heyday, and it was a much better book
town then. In that immediate neighborhood, that I know of, Strand is
the only one left.


But new ones have opened--Alabaster and 12th Street Books come to mind.

--
Evelyn C. Leeper
In literature, as in love, we are astonished
by what is chosen by others. --Andre Maurois
  #4  
Old July 20th 06, 02:50 AM posted to rec.collecting.books
Carney Wilde
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3
Default All praise to R. Dunaway, Bookseller...

Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:
Annibale wrote:
Jonathan wrote:
. Although

I would not say that New York was a bad book town, now, I am old enough
to remember 4th avenue at its heyday, and it was a much better book
town then. In that immediate neighborhood, that I know of, Strand is
the only one left.


But new ones have opened--Alabaster and 12th Street Books come to mind.



I think I'm a bit too young to know about 4th Avenue at it's heyday,
but in the Strand's nearly immediate neighborhood, I would also mention
Skyline Books on West 18th St., Books of Wonder (a children's
bookstore), also on West 18th St, The Salvation Army Thrift Store
(definately a crapshoot) on 4th Ave on 10th Street, and Partner's and
Crime Mystery Bookstore on Greenwich Ave off 6th Ave. I recently
purchased Daniel Woodrell's first novel, Under the Bright Lights in F/F
condition at a bargain price at Skyline Books.

AL

  #5  
Old July 20th 06, 11:54 AM posted to rec.collecting.books
Bob
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 35
Default All praise to R. Dunaway, Bookseller...

Carney Wilde wrote:
Books of Wonder (a children's bookstore), also on West 18th St,


Ah, Books Of Wonder.
The only wonder is how they manage to sell any books with the
exorbitant prices they charge!
Old-timers may recall when they were over on the corner of 7th Ave &
18th in a smaller shop.
Good for browsing but not for buying unless you absolutely, positively
HAVE to have the book at that exact second!

Sad to say but the used book store business is going the way of
high-buttoned shoes and buggy whips, replaced by online sales and, most
of all, eBay.
One by one, they are dropping by the wayside and when the last one is
gone, this country will be the poorer for it.

  #6  
Old July 20th 06, 05:19 PM posted to rec.collecting.books
Ruth Streeter
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Posts: 8
Default All praise to R. Dunaway, Bookseller...

Here's another Book Store just closed.
Bob Streeter

July 20, 2006
By Bruce Edwards, Rutland Herald Staff
The outdoor book bins that were a visible calling card for the
business at 28 South Main St. are now empty. So, too, is the large red
building with its inventory of 40,000 books.

A Rutland institution for 174 years, Tuttle Antiquarian Books closed
its doors last month ? a victim of technology.

"The reason for closing was the effects of the Internet," Jon Mayo
said Wednesday while watching workers load books onto a truck bound
for Maine. "We think that's what did us in."

Mayo, 67, who purchased the business five years ago with Jennifer
Shannon, said consumer buying and selling habits had changed to the
point where Tuttle couldn't compete with eBay, Amazon and everyone
else in between.

"It's impossible to compete with someone who can sell their books from
their living room," he said.

Mayo also said it became increasingly difficult to buy quality books
to replenish the company's stock of old books.

He said most of his customers were tourists who dropped by and
out-of-state book dealers.

The store on South Main Street resembled more of a library than a
traditional bookstore. There were shelves upon shelves of books on
almost every conceivable subject ? 200 subject listings to be exact,
according to Mayo.

The Tuttle family has a rich publishing history going back to the
1800s when a Tuttle family member owned the Rutland Herald. In
addition to Tuttle Publishing Co., there is Tuttle Law Print; both
companies continue in business to this day, though ownership has
changed over the years. Downtown, there is the recently renovated
Tuttle building.

The family had also owned Tuttle Stationery Co., which has since gone
out of business.

Charles Tuttle, who ran Tuttle Publishing for years, came back from
serving in occupied Japan at the end of World War II. That experience
resulted in Tuttle publishing myriad English language books on the Far
East, especially Japanese history, culture and language.

In 1979, Tuttle spun off the company's rare and old book business as
Tuttle Antiquarian Books, expanding an existing secondhand bookstore
in the basement of the publishing company's offices at 28 South Main
St.

Following Tuttle's death in 1993, his Japanese-born wife, Reiko,
continued to run the book shop. In 2001, Reiko Tuttle sold the
business to long-time employees Mayo and Shannon. Reiko Tuttle died
earlier this year.

A statue in the likeness of Charles Tuttle that sat on the front porch
of the bookstore has been donated to the Tuttle Publishing Co. in the
Airport Business Park, Mayo said.

Mayo said he and Shannon sold the inventory of 40,000 books to another
book seller, DeWolfe and Wood, in Alfred, Maine. The main building at
28 South Main and the adjacent building at 26 South Main, which was
used as a warehouse, "are being been sold to a local person," said
Mayo, who declined to identify the buyer.

The city assessor's office listed the value of the properties at
$200,000 and $167,100 respectively.

The smaller Tuttle building at 26 South Main St. was built in 1795.
The white federal-style building was the home of Mrs. Samuel Williams,
whose husband was the first pastor of the Congregational Church,
according to Jim Davidson of the Rutland Historical Society. The main
2-1/2 story building with the gambrel roof was built in 1900.

Mayo, who began working for Charles Tuttle in 1957, said he has mixed
feelings about closing a business with such a rich history.

"There are a lot of emotions involved, some good, some bad,' he said.

 




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