Conversing with Mr. Americana: Talking Books With Bill Reese

Then something decisive happened: I got an offer from Peter to become an antiquarian book dealer. A customer of his had died, leaving behind a huge collection of Western Americana books that his wife wanted nothing to do with. They were asking for $40,000 in total for all of the books in this collection. There were 20 tons of books in this collection, largely double shelved. Peter enforced upon me the idea that this was a terrific bargain and a terrific chance for me. I was 19 at this time, a sophomore in college and I had a big decision to make. But it wasn’t a difficult decision. I went to my parents and asked to borrow $40,000 so that I could acquire this rare book collection and start off in the business. (One of the most difficult things about being a dealer, I later discovered, is getting access to the books, getting your inventory directly into your hands.) I bought the collection, started my business, and was able to pay my parents back within six months. I made a bunch of mistakes along the way, but I had room to make mistakes back then.

What I did was I became partners with Fred White Jr., a friend of mine who’s now deceased. I sold the collection with him. We did not have an open shop. We issued catalogues and sold by appointment only. I think frankly that we were ahead of our time with this model. To run an open shop you need staff, location, and all the expenses that go with them. The old model of the antiquarian bookseller is the generalist with a walk in shop. This is pretty much the way that the majority of book sellers operated up through World War II. We were specialists with a closed shop. This is more and more how things are being done today. Especially with the advent of the internet, the closed shop run by a specialist (not a generalist) is simply a more efficient model. We veered towards the closed shop in part because of the huge role that institutions played in book buying during the 1950s through the 1970s. Institutions don’t and didn’t want walk in shops; they especially veered towards the specialist model.

AT: Why do books and manuscripts appeal to you?

BR: What appeals to me is the sense that when one has a book or manuscript in your hands one has an artifact putting you into that past era. This is especially true with historical-related material. In terms of literature, I’m most interested in associative material, where you get a feeling of immediacy in terms of the author and the author’s relationship to the material. To sum it up, I guess I’d say that what attracts me to books and manuscripts is the sense of being in touch with a past era and thereby having or gaining a broader understanding of the evolution of human thought and society, of intellectual history and content as it were.

AT: Why collect American books and manuscripts? What about Americana draws you to it as a subject?

BR: The interest in history. In this country, people are interested in the history of the country. We see this on a popular level in terms of the works by Ken Burns or Steven Ambrose.

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Conversing with Mr. Americana: Talking Books With Bill Reese

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Conversing with Mr. Americana: Talking Books With Bill Reese

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