tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382076272947689523.post8164129994731422773..comments2024-01-27T13:22:38.545-08:00Comments on BOOKTRYST: A Wake For The Still Alive: Peter B. Howard Part 4Stephen J. Gertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14369781936876020975noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382076272947689523.post-46010252583219659302010-08-12T14:48:59.324-07:002010-08-12T14:48:59.324-07:00Peter has always been a celebrity as far as I go b...Peter has always been a celebrity as far as I go back in the antiquarian book trade, which is for more than forty years. I'm certain to have met him beforehand, but it is my remembrance of the 1970 ILAB Fair in London, England, that comes to mind first. It was the first International Book Fair that I participated in as an exhibitor, and Peter did as well. His appearance was not so much different than it is today, although obviously younger, and there was a sense of "Flower Child" with his persona. <br /><br />Serendipity is the perfect name for both Peter and his bookshop, and to convey the sense of a "lucky circumstance" for anyone who happened along to stop by his booth, Peter was cooking. It is the only time I can recall seeing anyone at any major rare books fair actually cooking, though we all know the expression can be used when a dealer is "on a roll" and selling well. In Peter's case, it was both. He had an electric coil plugged into an outlet and he was cooking JELLO -- yes, just like you would heat up a cup of tea or coffee, Peter was cooking Jello and pouring it into small paper cups, which he would then hand out to anyone who passed by or came to look over his exhibit. It certainly made him stand out amongst the crowd, and he has followed suit ever since.<br /><br />Peter is an incredible dealer. We have bought books from one another. We have traveled together to look at a church library. And when we were languishing with the archive papers from DODD MEAD Publishers, it was Peter who took it on consignment and we shared the commission as Peter began selling off the autographed book contracts of Sir Winston Churchill, Paul Laurence Dunbar, George Bernard Shaw, &c. He knows who is looking for what and he is is imaginatively precise in valing<br /> that which seems to have no comparable to use as a guide. <br /><br />And all of us know, Peter is a friend to his fellow booksellers who turn to him for buying, for selling, or simply for advice. Everyone was sad to learn of his illness at the Los Angeles ABAA Fair in February, and we all regretted his decision to cancel out of the New York Fair this past April. Where there is life, there is hope, and it already seems that Peter has outlasted his predicted remaining time. May that ultimate time continue to grow and lengthen, and for Peter to know he will always remain a legend for his brilliance as an antiquarian bookman and overall Good Samaritan.Justin Schillernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382076272947689523.post-32299661760513947582010-08-12T10:49:15.817-07:002010-08-12T10:49:15.817-07:00I made my first significant sale to Peter Howard i...I made my first significant sale to Peter Howard in 1978. Shortly after getting into business as a first edition dealer, I found, in the Lincoln Bookshop, Lincoln, Nebraska, a cache of modern poetry, including a little volume by Adrienne Rich entitled Ariadne , published by her parents in only a few copies when the poet was a child of ten. Knowing her name from my graduate studies, I thought the book had to be worth a hundred dollars or so, not a bad markup for a book that cost me seven dollars. I happened to glance at a Serendipity Catalogue (#21, as I remember), to find another copy of the same title for seventeen hundred dollars. I offered it to Peter for a thousand, he promptly bought it. This very sale convinced me that there was money to be made in the first edition business. I have been a bookseller ever since. <br /><br />I visited Serendipity many times first on Shattuck and later on University. I was always in awe of Peter, and he was always appropriately condescending to me. It was harder to like Peter than to admire him, although I realized, when I saw him at NY Bookfair 2010, how much I really did like him, and how much he has meant to me during my book selling career.<br /><br />Peter’s legacy, firstly, will be his foresight in valuing the archives of minor writers of our post-modern era and then convincing others, mainly institutions, to buy them. When the archives of minor writers are dispersed, they are often destroyed. Peter did not handle only the archives of popular or first-rank authors like Kerouac or Malamud, he handled archives of authors who appeared mainly in literary magazines of period and those of the self-published authors from Santa Cruz and Boulder, Colorado. <br /><br />For the booktrade, Peter has done an equally great service by his ruthless fair play as a dealer, ABAA chapter member and as the President of the ABAA. While he was President of the ABAA, in the early 1990s, Peter created guidelines for an equitable booth allocation at our bookfairs. No preferential location would be given to dealers with seniority or wealth. This was a far cry from earlier bookfairs. My own crusade to correct the abuses in the present New York bookfair comes from being on the ABAA Board with Peter at that time. <br /><br />I will end by calling Peter an uber-child of the 1960s. He believes that all booksellers are to be treated with respect. He rarely if ever took advantage of naiveté, nor could one gain an advantage on him. Negotiating with Peter was like playing a tough game of handball. One always ended up spent but satisfied. <br /><br />Gordon HollisGordonHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16241568119428323800noreply@blogger.com