Unlimited Book Buying and Love

From Dave’s vintage postcard collection. Together, we warmed each other with many books.

We didn’t mean to do it. That is, Dave and I never sat down to ask “what would be our perfect life?” We just tumbled into it, kept hugging each other in delight, and never looked back …

Neither of us had pure motives! Mine were twofold: At first, I was darned annoyed with a local bookshop owner who’d dumped me by cheating on me (and after all the book pricing I’d done for him, too!), so setting up a specialty bookshop — just for poetry, mysteries, and “Vermontiana” — across the road felt like sweet revenge. Dave and I would have a much better shop, tuned to collectors’ preferences (quality, and rare, and lots of signed items). Second (more importantly!), my career crunch from age 5 involved being offered the usual “girls’ careers” of the 1950s: “Are you going to be a nurse or a teacher or a secretary, dear?” None of the above! What I really wanted was a job where I just read books all day.

So creating a bookshop of our own meant a child’s dream come true.

Dave’s escape from New Haven, Connecticut, to Vermont meant he could be as “bookish” as he liked, without his relatives criticizing him. His home collection focused firmly on Jewish culture, globally. But he loved to read mysteries, subscribed to several mystery magazines, and already had a habit of going to authors’ book launches to collect signed first editions in pristine condition…