An interview with Andrea Feodorov
Biblio checks in with Andrea Feodorov 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?
Collecting books was always a hobby for me. I loved to read, especially the classics, and quickly amassed a venerable library. I began by swapping books then, with my extensive knowledge, slowly gravitated toward selling them.
What drew you to bookselling?
I always loved to read. With an overflowing library, bookselling began a natural for me early on.
Did you have any mentors in becoming a bookseller?
My grandmother was a poet whose poetry was included in an anthology with Walt Whitman. My grandfather was a professor at Columbia University. Both sold books, not professionally, but in an amateurish way. But together, their library was as impressive as any I've seen. When they died, I inherited that library, which was far more than I could house. So I guess you could say they were my mentors.
What are your specialties as a dealer?
I love the classics, especially French existentialists like Sarte and Camus, and Russian writers like Gogol and Dostoyevski. I also specialize in classic American writers like Poe.
What's the most amazing book you've ever sold?
The most amazing book I ever sold was an old copy of The Occult Life of Jesus of Nazareth, a very old, strange book with bizarre and enchanting illustrations. I found two in an old barn in New Hampshire at a yard sale. I still have one copy which I've held onto all these years (this was in the '70s).
What is your favorite part of being a bookseller?
I love intereacting with others who love books. Selling books not like selling shoes or cars. It's highly personal. I grow extremely attached to the books I sell and I know those who purchase those books will become equally attached. It's a community.
Do you have an open storefront or have you in the past?
I had an open storefront in Portland and Seattle. But being retired and disabled, I'm no longer able to manage a brick and mortar store. Plus the internet has changed everything. I find I can do just as well through sites like Biblio.
If so, do/did you have any bookstore pets?
Yes! At both locations I had bookstore pets. Camus was a docile tabby who used to lounge on the desk by the front door of my store in Seattle. And Geothe was a black, olive-eyed ragdoll who affectionately brushed my customers' legs as they browsed my store in Portland. Goethe is actually still with me. But at 19 years, she does considerably less brushing!
What is the funniest / strangest / scariest thing that ever happened in your store?
One day a customer had a ladder get away from him and slid all the way from the history section to biographies. I ran over to help him, but he just kept right on browsing! Said he had forgotten a biography he meant to purchase!
What is your favorite bookshop (other than your own)?
These days, most of the small bookshops are gone. It's very sad and I did everything I could to ensure that wouldn't happen. But it has. So today, like most people, I'm pretty much consigned to shops like Barnes & Noble unless I want to drive long distances which I rarely do.
What do you personally like to read? Collect?
I like Shakespeare, Celine, Camus, Sarte, Gogol, Dostyevski, Chekhov, Voltaire, Poe, Tennessee Williams, Orwell, Wolfe, Emily Dickinson, Faulkner, Emerson, Goethe, Balzac, Jung, Neitsche, Ionesco - far too many to list.
What's your favorite book you personally own? Would you sell it, if the price were right?
My favorite books are a leather bound copy of The Complete Romances of Voltaire from 1927 and a leather-bound copy of Webster's Dictionary from 1929 - the last year before thousands of supposedly obsolete words were omitted.
What one book would you buy if price were no object?
The Gutenberg Bible.
If you were stranded on a desert island and could bring three books, what would they be?
The Nature of Personal Reality by Jane Roberts, Isis Magic by Isidora Forrest, and Swiss Family Robinson by Johan David Wyss (just kidding)
