Back To The Book Barn
Yesterday’s gloomy Charles Addamsy weather caused me to want to take a drive north to Columbia County to my favorite used book store, Rodgers Book Barn in Hillsdale, New York (Spill readers might remember this post about Rodgers from a few years back). The reason it’s fun to drive there in “weather” is because of the scenery — the vistas — on the way. I’ve never been out west (not further than Thurber country, i.e., Columbus, Ohio) so have only imagined, and seen in movies, the vast John Ford/Ansel Adams big sky country. Columbia County’s rolling hills and open skies are “human scale” by comparison (to borrow a Kirkpatrick Sale book title).
It was good to see the Book Barn’s proprietor, Maureen Rodgers. One of my many favorite things about her shop is that the inventory is not static. She’s always on the move in the store, looking through recent purchases, or stacking shelves. As we greeted each other (I’ve been going there for about thirty-five years) she mentioned she had the wood stove going earlier, but let it die as noon approached. A good call as the store was Goldilocks perfect, temperature-wise (not too cold, not too hot…just right).
Each visit, I make sure to pause at the Photography section, continuing to hope (against hope?) that Jerome Zerbe’s People On Parade will turn up. In my fifteen years researching and writing Peter Arno’s biography I failed to ever get my hands on one (after I requested to see a copy held at the New York Public Library, I waited and waited for it to rise out of the library basement on a dumbwaiter, only to learn, along with the NYPL librarians, that their one copy had gone missing). By the way, Rodgers’s prices are exceptionally generous. If there was a copy of People On Parade there, it might cost $8.00, not $1,500.00.
Rodger’s Humor section was — no surprise — a lot of fun. Someone had placed a chair directly in front of it, so I sat down and carefully went through each title. Good to see so many “friends” on the shelves. A signed Glen Baxter book has been there for ages. I already have an unsigned copy, and so continue to resist the temptation to buy this one just for Mr. Baxter’s signature (I’m sure I’ll regret this once someone purchases the signed copy). Having interviewed David Sipress not long ago, I was inspired to buy the copy of his Wishful Thinking sitting there (price: $4.00).
On the way to pay for the Sipress collection, I stopped at the Poetry section. I know nothing about poetry or poets (unless you include Bob Dylan…“I’m a poet, and I know it.
Hope I don’t blow it”), but I do know that John Updike (one of my favorite writers) published a number of collections of his poetry, and in all these years of searching through the Book Barn I had yet to come across even one of them. This day was different: a dust-jacketed first edition of Collected Poems: 1953-1993 fairly jumped off the shelf. I opened to the Preface, and read the first line:
As a boy I wanted to be a cartoonist.
Sold!
________________________________________________________________
Upcoming Events With Liana Finck
Here’s the schedule of events celebrating Liana Finck’s soon-to-be-released Let There Be Light: The Real Story Of Her Creation.
Pub Day…Tuesday, April 12
Green Apple Books / Virtual conversation with Lucas Adams.
9:00 PM – 10:00 PM ET
greenapplebooks.com/event/virtual-event-liana-finck
Thursday, April 14
Powell’s Books / Virtual conversation with Roz Chast.
8:00 PM – 9:00 PM ET
powells.com/book/let-there-be-light-9781984801531
Tuesday, April 19
The Strand / In person conversation with Kristen Radtke.
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM ET
828 Broadway, 3rd Floor, Rare Book Room, New York, NY 10003
eventbrite.com/e/liana-finck-kristen-radtke-let-there-be-light-tickets-288680279487
Wednesday, April 27
Greenlight Books / In person conversation with Hilary Campbell
7:30 PM – 8:30 PM ET
632 Flatbush Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11225
greenlightbookstore.com/event/liana-finck
______________________________________________
Cover Reveal For McPhail’s “Love & Vermin”
This is the first collection of McPhail’s cartoons (“new cartoons mix with old favorites” is how the publisher’s pr text reads).
It’s out this October (the 22nd to be exact) from Mariner Books. Mr. McPhail began contributing to The New Yorker in 2014. Visit his website here.