Rare Book Monthly
Articles - August - 2006 Issue
Tuttle Antiquarian Books Acquired by DeWolfe & Wood
Tuttle's next chapter will be written in Alfred, Maine.
Mr. Mayo will continue to be involved with books albeit on a smaller scale. "I am going to specialize in miniature books [less than 3" in any dimension, with few exceptions] and will be doing this as a hobby from my home, by mail, phone and internet. I may issue an occasional catalogue. It should be fun."
DeWolfe & Wood is no stranger to significant acquisitions of printed materials. They have a continuing inventory of several hundred thousand items from which they periodically categorize portions and offer them for sale. They operate a complex business that includes a traditional open shop, regularly issued catalogues, participation at regional and national trade shows, extensive online listings and a busy eBay presence. Frank Wood commented that a significant component of the Tuttle inventory will be sold in the shop, a sign that the material is particularly worthwhile. Since 1998, the firm has sold almost 22,000 lots on eBay, much of it ephemera and some of this newly acquired material will undoubtedly in time find its way to this venue.
The closing of a business of Tuttle's stature is no small loss to a field in which it has been a respected participant for more than one hundred fifty years. Perhaps the better way to see it is simply as a move. In Alfred, Maine the blood and sinew of this old business will be merged with an enterprise that emphasizes performance over tradition and has thus freed itself to be created by unfolding events. DeWolfe & Wood, although they sit in a sleepy Maine village, have been sitting on the forward edge of the internet revolution for a decade and every day entice buyers from around the world to acquire interesting material at competitive prices. The old book business may be disappearing but there is a new book business emerging and the Charles E. Tuttle Co. is now sure to be part of it.
Visitors to Alfred, Maine will soon find in the D & W shop Tuttle's annotated card catalogue that notes items, prices and purchasers of a bygone era. Perhaps on the last card of the final file will be one that reads like the deuce of clubs in the Outcasts of Poker Flat:
Across these shelves down through the decades
Passed the great literature of a nation,
The history of its people and the history of the world
Tuttle's, one of America's great booksellers of a now bygone era, will live on in imagination and memory to be remembered for their contributions to the world of print in its many forms.
Mr. Mayo's email address is microbib@sover.net. DeWolfe & Wood maintain a website with links to various aspects of their business: www.dwbooks.com.
