Book Dealers in North American, 1960-1962

London; (1960): Sheppard Press. Small Octavo. Revised edition. 281 pages. These directories were issued every three years and were essential for both collectors, booksellers and libraries. Arranged by state, alphabetically by name and a section for specialties. There is a color folding map at the rear. Pages. 137-181 list several hundred book shops in New York (Manhattan and the Bronx) alone. A few are still with us (Argosy, Pageant and the Strand). Some of the most famous (Dauber & Pine, Lathrop C. Harper, H.P. Kraus and Seven Gables) as well as some who were still with us just a generation ago (Philip C. Duschnes and Bernie Rosenthal [who later moved to San Francisco). A look at California where Caravan and Dawson's are, the remarkable Peggy Christian, Warren Howell, Manwell Hunley, Kurt Schwarz, Bill Wreden and Jake Zeitlin's shop were thriving as well as the often view as nefarious Satyr Book Shop (which sold under the counter items to titillate the Hollywood elite) and a host of others in the beginning of a golden area of bookselling. The late Michael Ginsberg in a lament he shared with me a few years ago, where you could spend at least three long days and not see all the great shops. One final mention is of the shop in downtown East St. Louis of Paul V. Chamless's Landmark Gallery which was great though the story of how he left the pastorate of the local Assembly of God is another story. The publisher began publishing these directories in June of 1954, then published a revised edition in 1956, and finally this edition in January of 1960. Bound in brown cloth lettered in gilt, spine lettering gilt. A very nice copy, near fine. (Inventory #: 032106)