Rare Book Monthly
The Annual Gold Rush Book Fair
Lost Horse Books of Nevada City (left) and Michael Good Books of Woodacre.
After the dinner, John Hardy introduced Michael Good of Michael Good-Books of Woodacre, California, as the Honored Guest Bookseller for the Year. This annual award is for "Ethical Leadership and Scholarship in American Bookselling." Mr. Good, who, in his youth, tried several different jobs including construction and art, finally realized his future lay in antiquarian books. He talked at length about his years as a bookseller. Michael started as a young man in Scottsdale, Arizona, at Carleton McDuffy Books and then moved to San Francisco where he found employment with John Howell Books and Holmes Book Company, where he managed Holmes' Oakland store for many years. He said of his mentor, Holmes, "He taught me a lot about books and a little bit about Jack Daniels."
A few years later, Michael and his wife Sandra, who is a talented bookbinder in her own right, started their own shop in San Anselmo, California, which after some years of open shop, is now open by appointment. If you'd like to see their website go to Michael Good Books.
Saturday morning, booksellers gathered early to cruise each other's booths and get first pick of the best stuff. There were some fabulous books offered by every one of the exhibitors.
I know I shouldn't have favorites, but there were two stalls that I loved. One is Lost Horse Books owned by Debra Klever-Dobbins from Nevada City. She carries Books for the Equestrian, and cowboy and other non-fiction books, in other words, mostly horsey and mule books. As an old cowgirl and horse and mule lover myself, I was entranced by some of the incredibly rare and antiquarian horse books she had on her shelves. Another stall I really liked was Handsome Books from Berkeley, and mostly because they were so, well ... handsome. They specialize in 19th & 20th Century decorative bindings. I found some great Colt Firearms books for my Colt collector client at Bud Plant & Hutchison Books from Nevada City, and Friends of the Nevada County Library had a number of really fine tomes for really good prices. I blew it there, though, by not grabbing two really fine Erté books when I had the chance. I turned my back and whoops ... some other lucky book dealer got them.
We renewed some of our old acquaintances; PBA, of course, with Greg Jung and Bruce McMakin, Steve Blackmeer from Chanticleer Fine Books in Sonoma, Lori Hughes the Cookbook Book Lady from El Sobrante, CA., Bookchuck from the Grass Valley Book Town, and Foster Fine Books, Postcards, and Ephemera from our own nearby area, Minden, Nevada.
About 10 a.m. the doors opened to the public and a slow, but steady stream of customers came in to browse and buy. I think the weather might have been too hot and gas too expensive to roust out as many customers as one might have wanted.
There is always one incident at these shows that stands out. It never fails. About 3 o'clock, one of the local book dealers came by our booth to warn us that there was a known book thief wandering the aisles. He said that she didn't usually try to steal anything expensive; she just couldn't not try to steal something! Each book dealer in his or her turn was warned and knew what she looked like, and she was very carefully shadowed in every booth by every bookstore owner and by a few extra eyes along the way. She was a frumpy little woman with a funny old hat and one could almost feel sorry for her the way people tailed her. She seemed sort of oblivious and had to look at almost every book in every stall; I wondered if she knew why she had so many watchers.
