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An interview with Adamstown Books

Biblio checks in with Adamstown Books to learn more about their book business, collecting interests and more! To view and shop their inventory, click here.


When did you get started in bookselling?

At the encouragement of a couple antiques dealers, I started out selling primarily Civil War related books at a few antiques co-ops.


What drew you to bookselling?

I have been interested in collectible books since I was a teenager. My Father collected Arkham House editions and I still have a stack of letters, correspondence between him and August Derleth.


What are your specialties as a dealer?

American Civil War, Pennsylvania History, the Victorian period. Since our store is located at a Seminary we have been consciously expanding our Religion and Theology offerings.


What's the most amazing book you've ever sold?

A scholarly press edition of a work on the Old English Rune Poem.


What is your favorite part of being a bookseller?

As a book lover, I have to say that book scouting is my favorite part


Do you have an open storefront or have you in the past?

We currently have a retail store at the historic Lancaster Theological Seminary.


If so, do/did you have any bookstore pets?

No.


What is the funniest / strangest / scariest thing that ever happened in your store?

We get a lot of characters in the store.


What is your favorite bookshop (other than your own)?

From purely an aesthetic sense, the environment as much as the books, I like Baldwins book barn near West Chester PA.


What do you personally like to read? Collect?

For light reading I enjoy some of the fiction that continues some of Jane Austen's novels.


What's your favorite book you personally own? Would you sell it, if the price were right?

It isn't expensive, but I have a facsimile first edition of The Age of Innocence (my favorite novel).