"THE SIDE DOOR" ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS IN MY COLLECTION
EVERY ANTIQUE DEALER HAS A FAVORITE BOOK THEY HAVE FOUND INSPIRATIONAL
IT IS A BOOK I CONSULT REGULARLY. IT SHOWS THE INTENSITY OF MY STUDIES. RIPPED DUSTJACKET, AND THUMBPRINTS ON SOME OF THE PAGE-TOPS. I AM A READER WHO EATS WHILE ENJOYING A BOOK. BIG PROBLEM. IT'S A CANADIAN BOOK COLLECTING BIBLE. THERE HAVE BEEN A FEW TIMES WHEN I'VE BEEN TEMPTED TO SELL IT, BUT ONLY BECAUSE THE PRICE HAS BEEN RATHER SUBSTANTIAL. I HAVE RESISTED FOR QUITE SOME TIME NOW, AND BECAUSE IT'S IN SHORT SUPPLY, AND A GREAT STORY FOR THE BOOKSELLER-ME, I WANTED TO SHARE A CHAPTER OR TWO WITH YOU. IN MY PREVIOUS BLOG, I MENTIONED THE COMPROMISES OUR FAMILY HAS MADE SINCE THE MID 1980'S, WITH THE RE-DESIGNATION OF LIVING SPACE, IN THE THREE HOUSES WHERE WE'VE RESIDED. I SUGGESTED THAT THIS WAS A COMMON OCCURRENCE AMONGST ANTIQUE TYPES, AND I OFFERED TO HIGHLIGHT ANOTHER DEALER WHO HAD MADE SIMILAR COMPROMISES OF HER ABODE, TO ACCOMMODATE A NEW BUSINESS SHE HAD ACQUIRED. IT'S AN AMAZING STORY OF RESTRUCTURING AND SUPPORTING FAMILY, AFTER THE LOSS OF HER HUSBAND; AND DEMONSTRATION OF WHAT A STALWART WORK ETHIC CAN DO, EVEN UNDER THE MOST ADVERSE CONDITIONS. HAVING TO SURVIVE THE ECONOMIC CHAGRIN OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION. AND TAKING OVER A BUSINESS SHE HAD ONLY A CURSORY KNOWLEDGE, IN ONE OF THE MOST RUTHLESSLY COMPETITIVE PROFESSIONS ON EARTH…….TUCKED TIGHTLY IN THE DOMAIN OF RARE AND OUT OF PRINT BOOKS.
"THE SIDE DOOR - TWENTY-SIX YEARS IN MY BOOK ROOM," BY DORA HOOD, WAS FIRST PUBLISHED, IN HARDCOVER, BY THE RYERSON PRESS, TORONTO, IN 1958. QUITE A FEW YEARS AGO, I WAS ABLE TO PURCHASE AN INSCRIBED AND AUTOGRAPHED COPY, DATED SEPTEMBER 1970. PRESUMABLY SHE HAD SOME BOOKS LEFT OVER FROM THE 1958 PRINTING, AND GAVE THIS PERSONAL COPY TO A FRIEND. IT IS INSCRIBED, 'TO MY FRIEND FLORENCE BOYT WITH AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE……DORA HOOD." DORA HOOD OPENED ONE OF THE MOST RESPECTED OLD BOOKS SHOPS IN TORONTO, AND WAS KNOWN TO BOOK COLLECTORS AROUND THE WORLD. THAT'S RIGHT, AND SHE WORKED OUT OF HER MODEST HOME, IN A TIGHTLY KNIT, BUT QUICKLY DIVERSIFYING NEIGHBORHOOD. THIS PROVED TO HER GENERAL ADVANTAGE, AS A BOOK SELLER.
"IT WAS BY CHANCE RATHER THAN BY DESIGN THAT I BECAME A BOOKSELLER," WRITES DORA HOOD, TO OPEN HER BIOGRAPHY. "IT CAME ABOUT IN THIS WAY. I DINED ONE EVENING WITH MY FRIEND, JEANETTE RATHBUN, AND THE CONVERSATION TURNED TO THE CONGENIAL SUBJECT OF BOOKS. I WAS SURPRISED TO HEAR HER SAY RATHER WEARILY, THAT SHE WAS TIRED OF BOOKS. SHE THEN CONFESSED THAT FOR MORE THAN TWO YEARS SHE HAD BEEN ATTEMPTING TO CARRY ON A MAIL-ORDER BOOK BUSINESS IN HER SPARE TIME, WHICH MEANT THE EVENINGS, FOR SHE HAD A FULL DAYTIME OCCUPATION. SHE HAD AT ONE TIME HOPED SHE MIGHT MAKE THE BOOKS HER BUSINESS, BUT NOW SHE KNEW SHE COULD NOT DROP HER SALARIED WORK IN FAVOR OF THE UNCERTAINTY OF SELLING BOOKS.
"AFTER DINNER I ASKED TO SEE THE BOOKS AND FOUND THAT THEY WERE ALL OUT OF PRINT BOOKS ON CANADA. I THINK THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME I HAD ENCOUNTERED THE EUPHONIOUS WORD 'CANADIANA' AS APPLIED TO BOOKS, AND IT WAS MOST EMPHATICALLY THE FIRST TIME I HAD SEEN SUCH A MINUTE AND TIDY SECOND-HAND BOOKSHOP; FOR SUCH IT WAS. SHE HAD ISSUED A FEW CATALOGUES AND HAD COMPILED A SMALL MAILING LIST, AND HER FILES AND ACCOUNT BOOKS WERE MODELS OF NEATNESS. I BEGAN TO ASK QUESTIONS. WHERE DID SHE GET HER STOCK OF BOOKS? THAT WAS THE DIFFICULT, SHE CONFESSED. IN HER LIMITED TIME SHE COULD NOT LOOK FOR THEM AND KEEPING STRICTLY TO MAIL-ORDER IT WAS DIFFICULT TO EXPAND. IT HAD ALMOST CEASED TO BE A PAYING ENTERPRISE. I STAYED LATE BUT FINALLY TORE MYSELF AWAY AND STEPPED OUT INTO THE WINDY MARCH NIGHT. I LIKED WHAT I HAD SEEN OF THAT SMALL BOOK BUSINESS. IT HAD A POWERFUL APPEAL TO ME AND I THOUGHT OF NOTHING ELSE ALL THE WAY HOME. SUDDENLY, AS I NEARED MY HOUSE, I FOUND MYSELF SAYING OUT LOUD TO THE SWAYING ELM TREES, 'THAT IS WHAT I WANT TO DO! I'LL MAKE HER AN OFFER.' BY THE TIME I HAD TURNED THE KEY IN MY DOOR, I HAD TAKEN THE FIRST STEPS ON A JOURNEY WHICH WAS NOT TO END FOR TWENTY-SIX YEARS."
THE MAKING OF A BOOK SELLER - AND A CANADIAN LEGEND
Now comes the compromises to family and home, in order to run an efficient, affordable business, to help raise her two children. Dora Hood writes in her biography, "In a short time satisfactory arrangements had been completed and I was in possession of a business about which I knew nothing. Looking back over this period, I do not remember having had the slightest misgivings about my ability to become a bookseller, although up to this time no experience in my life had included money making. But things were different now. I had six months before, become a widow and I knew I must add to my small income in order to keep myself and my two small children. If all went well, this was the answer. I had two assets. On the intangible side, I knew I had a certain awareness of books. On the tangible, a house that would lend itself to such an enterprise. It had four good sized rooms, one behind the other, on the ground floor, and it was on a street which was fast turning from a residential to a business one. I felt it might be possible, with the help of a housekeeper, to bring up my family, and at the same time conduct a business. I think on the whole, I found the latter job the less difficult. I remember vividly the first few weeks of my business career. Nothing could have been more unbusinesslike. I pushed the furniture to the back of my long old fashioned drawing room, and moved in a large utilitarian steel bookcase, a typewriter, and a massive steel letter file; and then the books arrived. As I unpacked them and spread them out on the Persian rug, I thought I had never seen a more uninteresting collection in my life. But I was wrong and, as time went on, I learned not to judge books by their outward appearance. This was the nucleus around which was to gather and disperse, as the years passed, and many thousands of Canadian books and pamphlets.
She writes, "I had no intention of keeping my trade to mail order only and hopefully expected a steady stream of customers once it became known that such a shop existed. Little did I know that collectors of Canadiana were few and widely scattererd across our great country, and that most men's thoughts were otherwise engaged in 1928 - that year of wild speculation and easy money. Nevertheless, a few letters began to arrive via the old address, and it was necessary to decide on a distinctive name. As books are a commodity of individual taste, I reasoned that perhaps buyers would like to know that they were dealing with a person rather than a company, and since men use their own names in business, why should I not use mine? The prefix "Mrs." sounded old-fashioned, even Victorian, so I decided to leave it out and as, in its present form, the business could hardly be called a shop, it became and remained Dora Hood's Book Room. I do not think any other name was considered. The public, uncertain as to how to address such an establishment, in general, solved the problem by the usual 'Dear Sir.' But curiosity got the better of some of them. A customer in Quebec begged to be forgiven, but he felt he must know whether the lady he was addressing was a Mrs. or a Miss. Later we became great friends but I failed to find out whether I would have been more acceptable as a single woman. Was I handicapped by being a woman proprietor of a second-hand bookshop? I do not think this occurred to me in the busy early years of my enterprise. But later, when I was well established, I knew I had to prove myself in a field where men almost exclusively had held sway."
As for how it affected her young family, she writes, "The Book Room was a new experience in the lives of my two children, aged seven and ten. It needed a rapid change in my behavior sometimes, to turn from three ingratiating bookseller to the stern parent when occasion arose. Once I arrived in the office to find my seven year old daughter already there and in the act of displaying an illustrated book to an amused customer, with the remark, 'Now here is a very nice book!' Fifteen years later, she became my chief cataloguer and we worked together until the time of her marriage. It was a family occasion for us to sit around the dining room table, and to roll and tie up the catalogues ready for posting, until increasing homework put an end to my children's part in it. It was six months before that I realized I had a full-time occupation on my hands. Gradually my hours at work lengthened, and often I worked far into the night, when the house was quiet, with my cat for company curled up on one of the wire baskets on my desk."
In a relatively short period of time, as a bookseller, Dora Hood was prospering enough, that she needed more books. More books meant the requirement of much additional storage space. "The time came more quickly than I had anticipated when more space was essential in the Book Room. The family retreated to a smaller room and the erstwhile drawing-room became wholly an office. More bookcases were fitted in, the fireplace was taken away, and the table on which we wrapped our parcels was moved to the hall. Still the room could hardly be called businesslike. There remained chintz curtains, the Chippendale bookcase and the Persian rug. I had qualms about the wear on the latter, until assured by a rug man who cleaned it, that that kind of rug was intended for use in mosques and would wear a hundred years." She notes, "By 1938, in spite of the Depression, the Book Room had developed growing pains. The room and hall that seemed so spacious at first, had grown uncomfortably crowded and each new purchase added to our problems. My children, too, were demanding more space for themselves and their friends, as they grew into adolescence. There were still two large rooms on the ground floor, an old-fashioned ample kitchen, and next to it an unnecessarily large dining-room. I decided on drastic measures to deal with a desperate need. i would make these two back rooms into offices and leave the front two for our living quarters with amidships, so to speak, a small modern kitchen. My architect, the late Hebert Horner, proved a man of deep understanding. He said it could be done by the simple means of taking down one wall here and putting another up there, by turning a window into a door, and thereby giving my customers direct access to the books. This returned the front door to exclusive use by the family and avoided inevitable collisions with important clients.
"But it wasn't quite as simple as that. To alter a house and still live in it, to say nothing of conducting a business at the same time, proved too much for me. I stood for it for a few weeks, then covering up the books as best I could, I fled to Muskoka and tried not to think of what was happening at home. When I returned, despite dust and general confusion, I knew I had made the right decision. It only remained to move the bookcases and then the books into the rear offices, no small task. The bookcases fitted into the new wall space as though they had been measured for it, which they were not. I had merely trusted to luck and the results were better than I deserved. All hands were needed to transfer the books. Dust flew, chaos reigned, books mysteriously lost turned up and in the midst of it all, the household cat was vainly looking for her favorite wire basket. With the posting of the 'Book Room' sign on the side door, a new era had begun."
"Part of the charm of keeping a second-hand book shop, I soon learned, is the uncertainty of where your next supply of books is coming from. I do not remember having worried about this, even in the early days of my venture. Very few weeks passed when no books were offered to me. To be sure, they were not always the ones I most needed, but that too added to the spice of life. It was comparatively simple to buy a dozen books, but quite another proposition to be offered a large library, when one was as inexperienced as I was. I was fortunate, I know now, in being offered good libraries for at that time I had few competitors who were willing to put their capital into books."
There isn't a rare or out of print book dealer in the world, who wouldn't be fascinated by the biography of Canadian book legend Dora Hood. Her life story gets much more interesting, as we continue to look at her accomplishments, and her ability to uncover great collections of rare Canadiana, was nothing shy of monumental. Her customers included Stephen Leacock, Sir Frederick Banting, and author Blodwen Davies, well known for her biography of Canadian artist, Tom Thomson. She was as much a Canadian historian as a book seller, and I'd like to share a few more passages, from her book, documenting how she went about this hunt and gather, which benefitted not only private collections, but museum, art gallery, and university archives throughout North America and Australia, India, and Germany. She was an intrepid archivist even though she didn't have the credentials to do so, and she could have easily taught Canadian history, because it is known, she read much of what she collected and then offered for sale. The story of Dora Hood and her famous Book Room, is obscure today, and hard to find, but its relevance, to everyone who either runs, or is considering opening a book shop, or for that matter antique shop, is beyond parallel as far as I'm concerned. Her dynamic as a buyer was well known and revered by her colleagues; her capability to navigate the intense competition, to secure the best collections, made her not only a female role model in the profession, but left many of her male competitors in disbelief, as she always seemed several steps ahead of them. She had amazing contacts within the book community. She was trusted and her clients could have easily added chapters of commendation to the small biography she penned so modestly at the end of her career.
As for the compromises of home and family. I've done the same to my family and they'll never let me forget it! Fortunately for our old bungalow here at Birch Hollow, we have emptied the collection into a safer and more secure town business site, and oh the joy of stretching out, without knocking over a spinning wheel, and a hundred books that we piled beside. Yup, and that would have been the result of a short arm stretch, or slight kick of the foot, right or left. "We used to have antique trails, and cross roads, in our living room," adds Suzanne, who has been reading some of today's blog over my shoulder. I will share some more intimate Birch Hollow "clutter" stories later, when she's not lurking behind me, here in my "private" office. And I will reveal some more collecting stories, as told by Dora Hood.
ON BEING THE SELLER OF OLD BOOKS AND THE ENCHANTMENT IT CREATES
ONCE BITTEN…….WATCH OUT…..MAYBE YOU WILL BECOME A BOOK DEALER
EVERY TIME I WALK INTO A SHOP THAT SELLS OLD BOOKS, I AM IMPRESSED IMMEDIATELY BY THE RICH, HISTORIC, WORLDLY AROMA OF SO MUCH BOUND AND PRINTED-UPON PAPER; POSSESSING THE AURA OF OLD WRITERS AND CENTURIES OF CONTENTED READERSHIP; SO MANY SHELVES OF HISTORY AND LITERATURE, FICTION AND NON-FICTION, NOVELS AND BIOGRAPHY, AND SO MUCH SOCIAL / CULTURAL FUEL FOR THE EAGER MIND TO FEED UPON. EVEN STANDING ALONE IN A BOOK SHOP, IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO FEEL ISOLATED OR LONELY. I ALWAYS THINK OF CHRISTOPHER MORELY'S "HAUNTED BOOK SHOP," WHEN I VISIT THESE HAVENS OF GOOD READING. I HAD A SIGNED COPY OF "THE HAUNTED BOOK SHOP," BUT ALAS, THIS DASTARDLY SITUATION, OF A BOOKSELLER ACTUALLY HAVING TO SELL SOMETHING, IN ORDER TO SURVIVE. AH, THE TEMPTATION OF MONEY OVER POSSESSION.
I HAVE BEEN IN SOME WONDERFUL OLD BOOK SHOPS, SINCE I BEGAN SELLING BOOKS MYSELF, BACK IN THE LATE 1980'S. IT DIDN'T MATTER IF THE SHOP WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF A TIGHT URBAN DOWNTOWN, IN A RUSHING-EVERYWHERE CITY, OR IN A SMALL TOWN, OR HAMLET, MAYBE EVEN OUT IN THE RURAL CLIMES, BECAUSE ONE STEP INSIDE THE DOOR, AND THERE CAME ALL THOSE FAMILIAR SENSORY PERCEPTIONS. THE VERY PROFOUND AND HAUNTING, "I'VE BEEN HERE BEFORE," SENSATIONS. WHETHER IT WAS URBAN OR RURAL, IT NEVER SEEMED TO MATTER. THEY WERE ALWAYS RUN BY HOSPITABLE, WELCOMING FOLKS, WHO FELT THEIR BOOKS WERE AN EXTENSION OF THEIR SOULS. THEY DIDN'T OFFER THIS AS A WELCOMING EXPLANATION, BUT YOU KNEW IT, AFTER ONLY A SHORT CHAT. IT WAS A REFLECTION IN THIER EYES, THAT THEY LOVED WHAT THEY WERE DOING IN LIFE. WORKING IN THESE SHOPS WAS NO EFFORT AT ALL. IT WAS THE "LIFESTYLE" SITUATION, I HAVE TRIED TO PORTRAY THROUGH THESE PRELIMINARY BLOGS ABOUT COLLECTORS AND THE ART OF COLLECTING. YOU WILL MAKE A TERRIBLE ANTIQUARIAN BOOK COLLECTOR IF YOU DON'T CHERISH BOOKS…..AND NOT JUST THE ONES YOU LIKE. I CAN HONESTLY SAY I HAVE NEVER BEEN IN AN OLD BOOK SHOP THAT I DIDN'T LIKE…..OR SPOKEN WITH ITS PROPRIETOR, AND FELT THEIR DEMEANOR TO BE COLD OR STANDOFFISH. THE PREVAILING ATMOSPHERE IS SCHOLARLY AND IT WAS THE SAME FEELING I GOT, WHENEVER I WENT INTO THE COMMUNITY LIBRARIES IN MUSKOKA, AND THE MASSIVE FACILITY AT YORK UNIVERSITY IN TORONTO, WHERE I STUDIED ENGLISH AND HISTORY. AS I HAVE BEEN SURROUNDED BY BOOKS, AND LOTS OF THEM, FOR MOST OF MY COLLECTING LIFE, I KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO FEEL AT HOME WITH "THE COLLECTION." I KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO HAVE TO SELL A BOOK, YOU'D RATHER NOT. SUZANNE HAS HAD TO PRY A LOT OF BOOKS OUT OF MY HANDS OVER THE YEARS, SUCH AS A PRISTINE FIRST EDITION, SIGNED COPY OF "BLUENOSE SKIPPER," SIGNED BY CAPTAIN ANGUS WALTERS. WE NEEDED MORTGAGE MONEY, AND THIS WAS A PRICEY BOOK. BUT IT'S BEEN THE SAME WITH ANTIQUES, FOR ME, AND I'VE HAD PANIC ATTACKS, SELLING OFF A FAVORITE BUFFET, OR FLAT-TO-THE-WALL, DESPITE THE FACT WE MADE A HANDSOME PROFIT. THERE ARE MANY READING THIS, WHO WON'T APPRECIATE FULLY, THAT ONE CAN ACTUALLY BECOME MORE ATTACHED TO A BOOK AFTER READING IT, THAN THE ANTICIPATION OF HAVING IT ON THE NIGHTSTAND…..AS A BOOK IN WAITING. I MUST HAVE READ "BLUENOSE SKIPPER," THREE TIMES BEFORE IT WAS SOLD, BUT THE BOOK HAD A LITTLE MAGIC ATTACHED, I CAN'T QUITE EXPLAIN. IT WAS LIKE HAVING CAPTAIN WALTERS READING ALONG WITH ME, TO POINT OUT THINGS I MIGHT HAVE MISSED DURING A PREVIOUS RUN-THROUGH.
I FEEL THE SAME ABOUT DORA HOOD'S FASCINATING BIOGRAPHY, "THE SIDE DOOR - TWENTY-SIX YEARS IN MY BOOK ROOM," PUBLISHED BY THE RYERSON PRESS, IN 1958. I WILL NOT SELL MY INSCRIBED AND SIGNED COPY. BUT I WILL SHARE SOME BOOK COLLECTING AND SELLING STORIES FROM WITHIN. IT IS A BOOK EVERY CANADIAN SHOULD BE FAMILIAR WITH, BECAUSE DORA HOOD WAS AS MUCH AN HISTORIAN AS BIBLIOPHILE. SHE CONSERVED A GREAT DEAL OF CANADIAN HISTORY, WITH HER ASTUTE HANDLING AND RESEARCH OF LARGE COLLECTIONS SHE HAD ACQUIRED. ITEMS OF NATIONAL IMPORTANCE WERE GIVEN GREAT AND PAINSTAKINGLY CAREFUL SCRUTINY, AND THE CONSERVATION ATTENTION, TO PRESERVE THEM FOR MANY GENERATIONS TO COME.
"THE SECONDHAND BOOK BUSINESS HAS A VERY LONG HISTORY AND HAS HAD SOME ADHERENTS WHO HAVE BECOME FAMOUS IN OTHER WAYS," WRITES FORMER TORONTO BOOKSELLER, DORA HOOD. "IT IS RECORDED THAT ALEXANDER CRUDEN 'MAINTAINED HIMSELF BY KEEPING A SECONDHAND BOOKSHOP,' WHILE HE COMPILED HIS MONUMENTAL WORK, THE FAMOUS 'CONCORDANCE OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS.' AT TIMES HE HAD PERIODS OF LUNACY, THOUGH WHETHER THIS WAS THE RESULT OF HIS STUDIES OR FROM WORRY OVER THE CONDITION OF HIS BOOKSHOP, HIS DOES NOT RELATE. HE DIED IN 1770 AND EVER SINCE HIS NAME HAS BEEN A HOUSEHOLD WORD, AN ACHIEVEMENT THE REST OF US HAVE NEVER ATTAINED.
"THERE HAVE BEEN MANY CHARMING ESSAYS AND BOOKS WRITTEN ABOUT BOOKSHOPS, REAL AND FICTIONAL, BUT THEY COME FOR THE MOST PART FROM ABLE PENS OF LITERARY BOOK BUYERS AND NOT FROM THE EVER GRUBBY AND HARDWORKING HANDS OF THE PROPRIETORS. 'HANDBOOKS,' THERE ARE WITHOUT NUMBER ON HOW TO CONDUCT MOST BUSINESS VENTURES, BUT I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF ONE ON HOW TO RUN A SECONDHAND BOOKSHOP. WE WHO DRIFT INTO THE TRADE DEVELOP OUR OWN HAPHAZARD WAYS AND WOULD, I THINK, FIND IT DIFFICULT TO FOLLOW RULES WE HAD NOT DEVELOPED OURSELVES. WHAT FOLLOWS, THEREFORE, MAY NOT APPLY TO OTHER BOOKSHOPS BUT IT IS THE INSIDE STORY OF HOW WE WORKED."
DORA HOOD NOTES OF THE PROFESSION SHE MARRIED, "IT TOOK ME YEARS TO WORK OUT A SYSTEM IN THE MANAGEMENT OF ROUTINE OFFICE WORK, WHILE WAYS OF BUYING AND SELLING AND WRITING CATALOGUES CAME ALMOST BY INSTINCT. WE HAD OUR DAYS OF JOYS AND SORROWS, OF TRIUMPHS AND HUMILIATIONS, OF EASE AND DRUDGERY AND THOUGH THE NET RESULT IN DOLLARS AND CENTS WAS MODEST, THE LIFE WAS SUCH A SATISFYING ONE THAT I NEVER DREAMED OF GIVING IT UP. AUGUSTINE BIRRELL, IN HIS PITHY WAY WROTE, 'NEVER CONVERT A TASTE INTO TRADE,' BUT I THINK HE WAS WRONG. I WOULD SAY YOU MUST HAVE A TASTE FOR BOOKS, OR YOU WOULD LOATHE THE TRADE."
KEEPING COMPANY WITH A BOOKSELLER
"Contrary to the general belief, we are a fairly honest lot. For instance, as we become more expert in our business, we actually pay more for the books we buy than we did as novices. Luck it seems is often with the beginner for when I was timid about every outlay I made on books, some wonderful bargains came my way. I have no qualms of conscience on this account, however, for had there been any rival buyer in the field, the books would not have become mine. As time went on I gradually built up a first hand knowledge of the value of a great number of books, both rare and commonplace; I could not in all honesty offer less than I knew they were worth to me. Most of us buy more books than we can handle, and lay out much more capital than we should. None of us grows rich! There is a vast difference between buying a few volumes and estimating the value of a large library. I grew to enjoy the latter, for it required skill and experience with the added possibility of something unusual turning up. As time went on, and especially after the 1939-45 War, I did not have so many unorganized collections offered me, such as the Jones and Heyden libraries, for by that time most of the loose collections of papers had been tidied up and unfortunately consigned to the paper drives. The only one of this kind that remained was the Coyne Collection, and that took me years to acquire although I had known of its existence for some time."
She writes, "More and more frequently I was called on to price and buy well selected libraries belonging to university professors, civil servants or wealthy businessmen. These books were usually arranged neatly on shelves in attractive libraries or in rather chilly basement playrooms, and the task was much simpler though not as exciting as ploughing through piles of miscellaneous books and papers. Gradually I devised a method of arriving at a price which developed into playing a little game with myself. I had in time become so familiar with the appearance of a vast number of Canadian books that without even reading their titles, I recognized them by the size, the color of their bindings and other features very much as we know the appearance of our friends without ticking off each feature. Therefore, when I came into a room full of books, I could take a general look at the collection and size up the trend of character of the library. After a few minutes' thought I would jot down on a piece of paper what I thought I should pay for it and put this away in my briefcase. Then I would go carefully over the whole collection, putting down in one column on my pad, the value of the highlights or really good books on each shelf and in another column, a covering price on what I called 'run of the mill,' books. These included those that turn up frequently and of which I had a good supply and the practically unsaleable others. Often this proved a thoroughly interesting operation, for when unfamiliar titles turned up, I had to spend some time going through them to decide on their value. Then came the final reckoning. The two columns would be added up, the good and the not so good, and putting them together I would arrive at the final price; and here is where the game came in. The original guess would be produced and the two prices compared. In nine cases I do not know how I did this and it amused and astonished me over and over again. Though the carefully detailed estimate was probably nearer the real value, I usually gave the seller whichever was higher."
So if you've ever wanted to know how book dealers operate in the heat of the moment, Dora Hood provides some valuable insights. "There is one difficult problem which every book dealer has to face. The owners of libraries, almost invariably, will not put a price on their books. Most of them want the dealer to do this, and, having got his expert advice, proceed with this as a basis for further bargaining with others. I do not think it occurs to them that this is somewhat unethical. The only method we can employ to offset this is tactfully to explain that the offer must be accepted or rejected at the time it is made and will not be renewed. Sometimes it is very difficult to be so dogmatic. Most bookish people are disarmingly nice and it is distressing to disrupt the friendship atmosphere. The best way is to take the seller into your confidence by explaining that you have many offers of books and must have an answer there and then lest you have too many unsettled offers. Fortunately, I was able gradually to build up a certain confidence in my business ways and my estimates were accepted among those who knew me. My advice to those who have libraries to sell, is to try one of three three following ways of going about it. !. Try to arrive at a price before you offer your books, keeping in mind that the dealer must make a profit and that he will have to dispose of the books one by one, while you are to get cash for all without further effort on your part. 2. Make a careful list of your books giving author, title, date and place of publication, and exact condition, being sure to find out if all plates and maps are present. Have several copies made and sent them simultaneously to the dealers in the community, asking them to quote a price on the lot. Then accept the best. It is not playing the game to withdraw books from the list after sending it out. 3. Go to a dealer you know and trust him if he offers to buy the entire library. This is much less trouble and will probably give you the best return."
She indicates, with considerable experience on her side, that "Booksellers are continually plagued by being asked to quote prices over the telephone. Often it is merely idle curiosity that prompts these calls and most bookmen refuse to give this information. Telephones, as we all know to our regret, are tremendous temptations to some people. I was frequently rung up after business hours by people who were comfortably at home and whose own offices were dark and silent. I remember once answering the telephone late at night to hear a cheery voice saying "We have just been having an argument about the value of the first edition of 'X'…..and someone said Dora Hood was sure to know, so we thought we would ring you up to see who was right.' My answer to this was 'That's very flattering, but what time is it at your house?' On several occasions I was asked to price books for probate, but did not particularly care for this work as the collections often contained quantities of miscellaneous books about which I could only guess. But once I was asked by the librarian of an important university as a business proposition, to put a price on a valuable collection of Canadiana. I was not told who had owned the books nor why a price was wanted. It was an interesting piece of work and required a good deal of research as many of the books were extremely rare. Again I applied my own technique of looking over the long list in a casual manner and jotting down an estimate. Then I went seriously to work on it, and as I did not know whether the books were to be sold or donated, I had to use my own judgement and decided to put on them the approximate current price. It took me several weeks to do the work in my spare time. Once again my estimated price and the final detailed amount were within hailing distance of each other, though a good many thousand dollars were involved. I learned later that the books had been left jointly to two heirs. The share of one was given as a gift to the library while the other heir demanded cash. What the final arrangement was I did not hear although I received a letter of appreciation from the librarian."
As a final note, Dora Hood offers an explanation about book pricing for retail consumption: "To end this account of the inner workings of the Book Room, I must attempt to answer the question I am often asked. How did you know what price to put on your books? It was necessary, in the first place, to learn the universal principle of supply and demand. To do this I studied the catalogues of reputable and well-established bookmen. I went to the reference library to look up auction reports but them only occasionally helpful. I became familiar with the background of the books I had to catalogue from my bibliographies and histories. This took time but once learned stood me in good stead. The current values of the books, for instance, of Champlain, Charlevoix, Heriot and Weld were not difficult to establish, but these were not everyday occurrences in the Book Room. The task became much more of a problem as the flood of later books increased and I was confronted with good books which apparently I had never before been offered. It was necessary then, I found, to develop an acute sense of the value of the content of each books; this and the cultivation of a retentive memory for everything I had ever read or heard about a book was, I believe, the most useful faculty I acquired. There is, of course, another factor not generally, I fear, taken seriously by the trade, summed up in the modern term 'overhead.' There is only one solution to this and that is to keep it so low that you are continually bumping your head and by so doing most of the work yourself. Probably in the end, we fall back on the ancient rule of trial and error. but looking back as a bookseller of long standing, I believe the crucial factor in successful pricing is to possess a deep and absorbing interest in one's vocation."
To my final breath in this mortal coil, I will be a bibliophile. I will buy books and then sell them. Not as much as I used to, when a little younger, but I could not have an antique shop assigned to my name, and have it void of some interesting books. At one time in my collecting life, I had about 40,000 books, and it has taken about twenty years, to whittle that number down to a manageable collection. I became obsessed with acquisition, but not so much, with selling proportionally, to what I was buying daily, weekly, monthly and annually. I was even resorting to sneaking boxes of books into our house, when Suzanne was at work, so she wouldn't yell at me for my excesses. I started changing my ways, when my old book hound friend, Dave Brown, commissioned me to do his biography. Dave didn't tell me at the time, he was seriously ill, and would likely never see the completed text. He was right. Dave passed away with 100,000 books stuffed into his small Hamilton bungalow. How bad was it? I'll bet you've never heard of load-bearing piles of books before. The handlers of the estate found this out, when they began taking the basement books out of the house, before lightening the load on the first floor. They nearly had a serious collapse. The piles of books, on shelves, were actually wedged at the top, against the floor joist of the upper level. Suzanne was my research assistant for the biography, which sold-out by the way, and it was after this, she put me on a reformation diet……no new books until the quantity was reduce by many thousands. Dave enlightened a lot of us, to the damnation of becoming a hoarder without knowing it. So now I buy only what I think I can sell quickly, and I have paid far more attention to the good advice from Dora Hood, than from what I found out about my old friend David Brown……a bibliomaniac by definition.
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