Reboxing TPI records into durable storage containers and disposing of unneeded paper. Some wonderful things begin turning up. Here’s a note from January, 1989 – 37 years ago, by my count. As it turned out, the Quaker call was a life-saver. Almost broke $100,000 at the NY ABAA fair, which was held in the nasty Americana hotel, if I recall correctly. A good thing, too. That year the shop grossed less than $30,000.
I remember motel rooms under $15.00 a night on early scouting trips. As to fairs at the Americana, if I recall correctly, we had two. One was an ILAB event, held in conjunction with an international congress (field trip!) of members. This was the first of our fairs run by the late Sandy Smith, some years before he was called upon to regularly run New York. Martha Stewart was the caterer. A friend of mine from London who specializes in fairly esoteric English literature was approached by a man who asked, “Anything about pigeons?” He replied no. The man’s friend walked up to the inquirer “Did he have anything about pigeons?” Told no, he said,”These guys…”
Hy Doty load was a wonder…
I bought a big collection/part of the Doty load ….the slavery and African Americana from a bald guy in Newburyport…..nobody knew him….but he had a special closet…he said he had traded it for travel books from “some guy”. He turned out to be a wonderful fellow….took me out for drinks, dinner and wimmens…he looked like Darwin….
Wonder what ever happened to the guy…..does anyone know who I am referring to….
….I hadn’t even met you yet G-man. For a moment I was in the triangulated magic of a “book deal” …..gone right..
Hy Doty’s house is just up the road from me now…..
Whenever I pass it, I still wonder how the inside looked loaded with thousand of old Quaker tomes….
It’s one of those houses where you wondered if there were old books in it…..back in the day….
Amen