Rare Book Monthly
Going Ex-Libris
Susan Heller: Scaling back a lifetime commitment
She has at one time or another sold her material on ABE, Alibris and Tom Folio but not much is listed today. To move she needs to sell the inventory because, while she has received satisfactory prices in her store and on listing sites, at the current rate of sales "I'll need to live to 500 to see the last book sold."
Robert [Bob] Emerson is now in partnership with Ed Hoffman of Columbus. In the partnership he is the senior man, born at the outset of the halcyon twenties. He retains a sharp mind and an engaging smile that make it impossible to guess his age. The binding seems too fresh to be 85. Three years ago he packed up the inventory he and his wife and partner Dorothy had built together over forty years at three locations in New York and Connecticut and contributed it to the partnership with Ed. Dorothy, Bob's senior by 3 years, has suffered from Alzheimer's for a decade and now lives in a long term care facility. In Bob's active mind their union, love and partnership endure. The decision to join Ed in Columbus was made in part because the Emersons did not have children. Their agreement provides the income that pays for the institutional care that Dorothy needs. Ed is the son they never had.
Susan Heller lives in Cleveland and works from home as she has for more than 30 years. Her husband Haskell, a physician, became ill in the 1960s, and spent his subsequent career examining patients for the V.A., a career path that provided less stress but also less income. Susan, who graduated college in 1955, was first an elementary school teacher, later a substitute and in the 1960s a part-time writer for the Savannah Morning News. Toward the end of the decade she settled into a life with books. In the beginning she advertised wants in Bookman's Weekly, locating material for acquirers. In time she became an opportunistic buyer focusing on good value and fine copies more than on any one category. This made it possible to frequently acquire material and in time her home became a cloister of chapels to the many categories of material she acquired over the years. Haskell died in 2002 and Susan's life has been in transition since then.
Looking back each can trace a series of decisions that in time culminated in "bookseller" after their names. For each the road ahead is less clear although for Bob many of the decisions are now taken and he's very happy to have them behind him.
Selling a bookshop outright or liquidating inventory present complex problems today because the surging electronic world has fundamentally changed the economics of bookselling during the years these dealers built their businesses. For them both the value of their inventory and how it sells have changed. Many books have declined in value as listing sites have exposed significant volume where only a few copies are demanded. Worse, emerging electronic selling methods require different skills than those relied on to build their businesses and these new skills are difficult to master later in life.
