riverrun bookshop blog

Dick Higgins, poet and publisher

2011-03-15T22:12:00.007-04:00

unknown photographer 1970s

Dick Higgins had tremendous creative vitality. He was alive with ideas. Besides being an artist and publisher, Higgins was an arouser, an organizer, a proselytizer. He lit fires for Fluxus.

A YouTube Dick Higgins interview by Norrested & Thomsen in Copenhagen - Higgins discusses the differences and similarities between the dada and fluxus movements

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9feLztCuQ18

another YouTube video interview - Higgins shows Something Else Press Books and tells anecdotes about production and about authors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKAhRlsbawc&NR=1

A bitter lamentation by someone who calls himself Allen Bukoff, PhD, Social Psychologist and Fluxus Artist. It's addressed to some high profile artists and admonishes them for letting the movement slip away. He peevishly announces that he is shutting down a number of sites that I, for one, would have liked to look at.

http://www.fluxus.org/higgins/

A Child's History of Fluxus by Dick Higgins - odd but interesting

http://www.artnotart.com/fluxus/dhiggins-childshistory.html

Dick Higgins explains and discusses pre-fluxus metadramas - link also includes many.

http://www.thing.net/~grist/l&d/lhiggins.htm

Ernest, Frank, Reynolds, and Toni

2011-03-14T20:08:00.014-04:00

unknown photographer 1975

Ernest J. Gaines and Frank A. Scioscia

Reynolds Price and Toni Morrison

Usually the Literature Advisory Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts meets in Washington DC.

July 1975 they met in Big Sur, a particularly majestic section of the California coast. Not a bad place to meet and discuss the majesty of literature and how to encourage it.

Some of the members of the panel are pictured here. Links below tell more about the pictured author-members.

warming and inspiring article about Reynolds Price and his students in Duke University newspaper

http://dukechronicle.com/article/reynolds-prices-students-recall-storied-writers-magic

Angelfire list of all Reynolds Price's publications + personal info

http://www.angelfire.com/nc/ReynoldsPrice/

Academy of Achievement biography pf Ernest J. Gaines includes vivid pictures

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/gai0bio-1

a more personal article on Price from Los Angeles Times while he was still alive and well

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-ca-reynolds-price24-2009may24,0,7037737.story

The Official Website of the Nobel Prize - Toni Morrison biography

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1993/morrison-bio.html

Distinguished Women of the Past & Present presents a very interesting biography of Toni Morrison

http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/morrison.html

slide show of 9 recent Jennifer Zdon photos of Ernest J. Gaines

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/10/20/us/Gaines.html

accompanying article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/us/21gaines.html?_r=1

FAS at the National Endowment for the Arts

2011-03-13T12:02:00.011-04:00

In 1974, a couple of years before he founded riverrun, and while he was still working at Harper & Row, Frank Scioscia was invited to serve on the Literature Advisory Panel of
the National

Endowment for the Arts.

What an honor! He accepted. Who wouldn't?

I think Fran McCullough - on the Panel herself at the time - recommended him.

The invitation was signed by Nancy Hanks, the Chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Arts from 1969 to 1977. Perhaps she could better be called the Queen of the Arts. She built up the federal program and earlier was behind the scenes at the inception in 1964. Before the inception actually. She worked with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund helping to lay the groundwork for what was to become the National Endowment for the Arts. She was a remarkable woman. And she signed Scioscia's letter! Not that a signature on an official letter represents much of a relationship, I guess. I'm posting it though.

Frank got a very big kick out of serving on the panel.

Later he did have more than a signature; he had a very substantial and treasured friendship with a different Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts: Dana Gioia.

Gioia was Chairman from 2001 to 2009. He instituted all sorts of dynamic and satisfying projects for us. For us citizens. I have two special favorites: the Big Read - almost a national book club - and the veterans' memoir writing project.

Dana Gioia ambled into riverrun bookstore one day. It was just exactly his kind of store. Gioia was just exactly Scioscia's kind of customer. The men hit it off immediately. Both had unlimited interests. Both were down-to-earth kind of guys.

When they met a short time later, the two Marys, their wives, hit it off as well. Dana and Mary Gioia moved to Hastings on Hudson. They were up the hill and slightly south along the aqueduct from riverrun.

The way I choose to remember it is that Dana said, "I want to live in a place that has a bookstore like this," and his Mary agreed.

Frank Scioscia did not live long enough to see Dana Gioia become Chairman of the Endowment for the Arts but it wouldn't have surprised him.

That appointment would have been the absolute only thing about George Bush that Scioscia could have applauded. And he would have applauded mightily.

more about the National Endowment for the Arts

http://www.nea.gov/

how to apply for a grant in literature

http://www.nea.gov/grants/apply/Lit.html

Art Works article on Dana Gioia

http://www.nea.gov/chairman/gioia-bio.html

A whole bunch of fascinating video clips on Big Think, of Dana Gioia chatting about different things that interest him. http://bigthink.com/danagioia

Book Rags biography of Nancy Hanks

http://www.bookrags.com/biography/nancy-hanks/

FAS at the Indian Pageant on Mt. Hood 1948

2011-03-12T22:11:00.012-05:00

Frank Scioscia always had something to read in his pocket or some place nearby. Books everywhere actually. Even at Max Gilroy's Indian Pageant with Umatilla Indians on Mt. Hood.

Max, with his wife, Virginia, built a fort up in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. For a couple of summers, 1948 & 1949 I think, Max orchestrated a pageant with plays and native dances.

Max and Virginia Gilroy and Frank and Mary Scioscia were friends at Reed College together. Both men came to Reed fresh from their World War II experiences. Both women came fresh from their straight A high school experiences. Max recruited the Scioscias and others for his pageant. Those were grand summers.

One of the Umatilla women made Scioscia a wonderful leather shirt. It's still in the family. Just like the books.

Umatilla Indians

http://www.umatilla.nsn.us/history.html

Max Gilroy's son, Scott has an interesting page: http://members.shaw.ca/sgilroy/main.htmll

Max Gilroy wrote a newspaper column called The Old Dropout. A short-cut to some of those:

http://members.shaw.ca/gilroys/dropout.html

Virginia also wrote interesting stuff based on the unusual scenery of her life, but she never published, therefore, unfortunately, no link.

riverrun art ad

2011-03-12T11:12:00.004-05:00

by Greg Stephens

J.K. Gill's Portland, Oregon

2011-03-11T17:11:00.006-05:00

In the late 1940s a lively crew worked at J.K. Gill's Bookstore. They were surrounded by books and interesting co workers.

World War II was over and life was good.

Arianna Grassia - School Librarian

2010-11-13T15:04:00.010-05:00

Arianna Grassia is the new librarian at Hastings middle and high school. She brings her own buoyant enthusiasms into the library.

“I love the job. I love the village. I love the people .” But what’s her favorite?

“The students! They are wildly entertaining. They’re self possessed and enthusiastic and they can hold a conversation. I really enjoy having them in the library. The space feels lonely when they’ve gone.”

Arianna is a young librarian but even so she didn’t come directly to it. She majored in English at the University of Buffalo. “Of course,” says Arianna. “My parents would have been stunned if I’d majored in anything else. They were both English majors and we always had books in the house. Everywhere. I’ve read all my life. I find it very comforting to have books around. I have shelves and shelves in my apartment.”

After she graduated, Arianna worked for MTV, which owns Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. Grassia was Executive Assistant to the producer. Her boss created Blues Clues and Umi Zoomi. Arianna Grassia liked the work in some ways, but was eager for something more directly related to English.

“On a whim, I applied to library school. It turned out to be a very interesting degree and a perfect fit.”

Grassia had important mentor librarians. She student taught at libraries in Rye and in Rye Brook. Diane Harrington – recently retired – was “incredibly supportive”. Petra Bova was unusually kind.

Dee Ratteree, the Hillside librarian in Hastings, was a fascinating model. “She is wildly eccentric, in a lovely way. She has great presence and is incredibly knowledgeable. She is a great and a wonderful guide for me.”

Arianna graduated less than a year ago. She took a job in the Dobbs Ferry Public Library, where she still works. I wondered if that didn’t put her in a loyalty bind at athletic contests since there is such a lively rivalry between Hastings on Hudson and Dobbs Ferry.

“Oh no,” said Arianna. “I will always cheer for the Hastings students. Those are my kids.”

One of her many kids is Francesco Scioscia, a ninth grader at HHS. Francesco and Arianna were conversing in the library about books. He wanted a recommendation. Arianna Grassia recommended The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

“It is well plotted, with good characters, slightly dystopian, but a very good read for young adults. The rights for the trilogy have already been sold to the movies.”

Here is a Grassia prediction: The Hunger Games will be the next Twilight.

Ariana offered to reread the first volume of the trilogy with Francesco so they could talk about it. They chatted more. Arianna was waiting for her father who was picking her up that day. “He’ll be forever,” said Arianna. “He found a bookshop in town that he loves! In it, he just forgets all about time.”

What a coincidence! Francesco Scioscia is named for his grandfather, who founded that exact same bookstore where Mr. Grassia was browsing in time warp at that very moment . riverrun.

Mr. Grassia recommended books to his daughter all her life. When she was quite young, he recommended the Great Illustrated Classics. They are abridged and there are illustrations on every page. She enjoyed them then and she recommends them to young readers now. “People don’t seem to gravitate to them nowadays, but back in the 1990s, when I was growing up, they were the cat’s pajamas!”

Growing up, Arianna liked William Steig and Shel Silverstein. She’s still a big Harry Potter fan.

Her adult favorites are American authors like Mark Twain, Henry James, Herman Melville, and William Faulkner. They people her bookshelves at home where she revisits them often.

I asked about her favorite books as a child. “Nancy Drew,” she answered unhesitatingly. “She’s the best. So clever.”

When Arianna’s mother was young, she’d read the Cherry Ames, Nurse series. Her mother told Arianna about them. Arianna remembers telling her mother, “that nurse sounds stupid compared to Nancy.”

Grassia still loves children’s book and books for young adults. She was tickled to learn that Biscuit’s author, Alyssa Capucilli, lives in town. “Biscuit is one of my favorites. I love, love Biscuit.” Grassia knows that there are many more authors and illustrators in town. She’s excited about discovering who’s here, perhaps meeting them and teaching their children.

“There are very special vibes in this place,” she said. “You get it right away from the children who come into this library.”

I asked what her plans for the future were.

“Keep reading. Discover new authors and share them with the kids.”

Ms Grassia has started a blog for students and others:

http://lloydlibrary.tumblr.com/

Hunger Games author reads chapter 1 of Mockingjay:

http://www.scholastic.com/thehungergames/

about William Steig:

http://www.kidsreads.com/authors/au-steig-william.asp

the Great Illustrated Classics @ Waldman Publishing:

http://www.greatillustratedclassics.com/SearchResults.asp

an unofficial Nancy Drew site:

http://www.nancydrewsleuth.com/

Cherry Ames Nurse Stories site:

http://www.series-books.com/cherryames/cherryames.html

Alyssa Capucili's website

http://www.alyssacapucilli.com/

Nixon Newspaper

2010-06-01T11:38:00.004-04:00

For some reason this paper happened to be lying on top of a box of books at riverrun.

August 1974. A turning point in American history.

Ford committed political suicide by pardoning Nixon the month after he became president. But was it the right thing to do for the country? It probably was.

Two years later two very decent men faced one another in the contest for president.

Nixon's resignation speech

Sept.8 1974, Ford's pardon Nixon speech

Read Street Blog mentions resignation and promotes All the President's Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein

Barbara Morrow

2010-05-26T14:58:00.005-04:00

Morrow is a scholar of classical Greek. She had fun composing clerihews for the Hastings on Hudson Literature Club Clerihew contest around great Greeks of old. She won the contest. riverrun offered a book prize. Barbara had as much fun redeeming the book prize as earning it. She spent an afternoon considering books. Her house is already full of books so she felt some pressure to be extremely discriminating. It was even fun being discriminating!

Was there really a poet named Homer?

Some scholars say definately no, sir.

The ancient bard

Is taking it hard.

The iambs of witty Archilochus

Were bawdy, scathing, and scurrilous.

He made a name

For his power to defame.

The lyrics of lesbian Sappho

Made all the girls tingle and gasp so.

In Athen sage Solon did cry,

"Let me learn her new song and then die!"

Euripedes'lengthy career

Was more than a little bit drear.

How tragic he had to die

Before winning first prize for The Bacchae!

The beauty of young Alcibiades

Set strong men on fire with desire to please.

So imagine his dismay

When Socrates turned him away.

Bookstore

2010-05-25T14:29:00.007-04:00

photo November 1979

Frank Scioscia moved his Dobbs Ferry Bookstore to Hastings on Hudson in 1978. He named his new store riverrun.

riverrun is an inviting store. On the day of this picture though, two of Frank's grandchildren preferred to read outside the store in the bright sunshine.

Mary, almost 6 in this photo, grew up and spent several years cataloguing books and organizing shows for riverrun. Michael, just turned 9 in the photo, is now the manager of riverrun. Like his grandfather and his father, Michael loves the store.

Back then riverrun was a hobby, not really a business, for Frank. He put considerably more money into the store than he took out. But it was worth it. riverrun was a hobby he truly loved. Everyone did.

Not a business and, after all, not a hobby either. riverrun was Frank Scioscia's calling.

Davy Crockett's Wild Sports in the West - 1837

2010-05-20T20:41:00.013-04:00

This almanac chronicles some of Davy's wildest adventures. Crockett grapples with mighty beasts and rushes, headlong, into peril.

The pamphlet was published in Nashville Tennessee, more than 150 years ago, by "the heirs of Col. Crockett". It is dramatically illustrated by an artist who relied on rumor and imagination a bit more heavily than on strict observation.

Giant elks romp in the West for hunters willing to risk elk-revenge. The pamphlet includes humble little contributions to the field of natural science: Elks "are fond of the great forests, where luxuriant vegetation affords them an abundant supply of buds and tender twigs; or of the great plains, where the solitude is seldom interrupted, and all bounteous nature spreads an

immense field of verdure for their support." But watch out! "When at bay, and especially if slightly wounded, he fights with great eagerness, as if resolved to be avenged."

Crockett describes childhood entanglements with the fearsome alligators that lived near his home, breathtaking dangers with wild boar, panthers, and bear. He can parry attacks by fierce animals with scarcely an uptick in heart beat, but the one beast he just can't stand comes from the damned north:

"Of all the cursed Adam varments in creation, keep me clear of a yankee pedler. They swarm the whole valley of the Mississippi, with their pewter watches and horn gun flints, peppermint drops and essences. Although the greatest chaps in creation for brag and sarce, they always play possum when there is danger; and skulk out the back door and over the fence in no time."

No skulker Davy Crockett. That's for sure. The almanac describes with admiration a noble

mastiff defending ladies from mountain cats, a brave farmer turned on by his bull gone berserk, a man from Ohio who, being pursued by a black snake, through cleverness and dexterity managed to get the snake to tie itself into a knot.

The almanac also includes important regional information for foreigners - about the American rifle for instance. "It admits the ball being sent home from the very muzzle by a mere wad; and is further peculiar in there being no kind of attention to balancing the length and weight of the barrel by the size and make of the stock. Practice alone will teach you to hold it with ease to yourself. There is a great deal more coquetry displayed in the use of the American rifle; and the nicety with which an object may be struck at 50 or 100 feet by a knowing hand is undoubtedly extraordinary."

There are also survival tips gleaned from far distant and remote bits of the globe, like India. Basic almanac information, like high tides and sunsets and various other astronomical calculations for the year 1837, is also included.

The illustrations and suspenseful narratives and useful tidbits are so intriguing that, despite its limited relevance to the 21st century, I am sorely tempted to reprint this pamphlet. In case I don't ever get around to it, I leave you with this account by Col. Crockett himself for your use in case you want to cross a dangerous river unmolested by various varmints.

"Of all the rivers on this airth, the Mississippi beats all holler. Many a tough time have I had in swimming across its turbid waters. I always rubbed myself thoroughly with skunk's grease before attempting to cross. By this means I kept the alligators and wild cats at a distance as they can't bear the smell of this crittur."

biographical outline

another account of Davy Crockett

His tombstone reads: "Davy Crockett, Pioneer, Patriot, Soldier, Trapper, Explorer, State Legislator, Congressman, Martyred at The Alamo. 1786 - 1836" more from American west

Lone Star Junction

a collection of facts about the Mississippi River

Harper & Brothers Publishers

2010-05-18T15:53:00.006-04:00

probably 1950s

This curiously-styled photograph is likely taken at the Harper offices, then on 44th Street in NYC. I think these men make up the national sales force. Frank Scioscia is seated all the way to the right. I almost remember the name of the man seated next to him. But who are the others?

Joe DeVoy - Walking on Clouds

2010-05-09T00:17:00.008-04:00

Joe DeVoy signed copies of his novel, Walking on Clouds, at riverrun yesterday. He doesn't really think of himself as a writer yet he says, although he does like to write.

Walking on Clouds was born out of a writer's block. "I was working on another story, a love story actually, but I'd come to a place where I didn't know what was next. I couldn't figure it out. I couldn't write anymore." Just when he was most stumped and frustrated, an entirely unrelated idea came to him. "It didn't have anything to do with the one I was writing. I kept thinking about the new idea every time I tried to continue the love story. My wife encouraged me. I developed the new ideas into this book."

DeVoy's wife is important in his life. "Family is the most important thing to me," he says. DeVoy's grandson was on hand at riverrun to see his grandfather sign books.

Joe DeVoy has lived through an experience that other writers haven't. In fact, he's lived through an experience that other people haven't. He once fell six floors down an elevator shaft. His legs were broken and crushed. I wondered if that terrifying and painful episode showed up in his book.

"No," he said. "Not in anything I've written. Recovering from something like that is slow and you can't do much of anything. It gives you a lo

t of time to think."

This novel is about something that requires a lot of thinking on the protagonist's part.

He has to figure out how what to do in an ethically complex situation.

Walking on Clouds by Joe DeVoy.

A Couple of Book Dealers

2010-04-26T18:46:00.009-04:00

Gene Hollingsworth & Mac McMann with Gene's wife, Kay

1960s - photo probably by Phyllis McMann

These guys were a couple of characters.

Gene ran a book service out of his house in Manhattan Beach, California. Inside it was cool and had that good book smell. Outside it was sunny-bright and had that good beach smell.

Gene also played the horses. In a way, he couldn't lose.

Sometimes Gene Won Big at the track. He often spent his winnings on more books, bolstering the value of his inventory. When Gene lost at the track, he erased the pencil-written prices inside his books. He raised prices to balance out his loss, spreading the increase judiciously over a wide swatch of inventory.

Mac owned and ran Old Oregon Bookstore in Portland, Oregon. He didn't play the horses but sometimes Mac did Win Big on his books. Once in the 1950s he bought a book at The Salvation Army for pennies that was worth thousands. A Portland newspaper, "The Oregonian" I think, ran a dramatic story on the episode. Found Treasure: Astute Bookman makes Killing on Shabby Book, or some such headline.

Mac and Gene had already been friends for a long time when this photograph was taken. They entertained one another, and all around, with great book stories.

Michael Andre - poet, publisher, critic

2010-04-21T15:43:00.013-04:00

1979 photo by Christopher P. Stephens

Michael Andre is a man of many talents. Chris first met him in connection with the Unmuzzled Ox, Andre's very interesting periodical. Some time ago I was a bystander when someone asked Michael what made the Ox go. Why was it successful?

"Contributors," said Andre. "When you have good writers with something to say, people want to read them. The magazine sells."

The Unmuzzled Ox does have good writers with with something to say. Andre himself is one of them.

Once I was at a party on the lower west side, somewhat near the scary meat-packing district. Some guy, a guy who seemed like he knew what he was talking about, told me that Michael Andre was the best living art critic.

unmuzzledox.blogspot.com

theartblog.org

Bobo Bird - Burkina Faso

2010-04-17T13:56:00.008-04:00

This extremely attractive bird sculpture, called Bobo bird by it's former owners, was probably made by one of the Bobo People of western Africa.

great source for art of Burkina Faso

H.B.L.S.S.

2010-04-10T08:48:00.007-04:00

photo by

Herb Allen

November 1948

Reading

A Conversation with Christine Lehner

2010-04-09T19:14:00.014-04:00

Christine Lehner has an especially favorite part of the blurb Richard Russo wrote for one of her books. Lehner and Russo hadn't met. He only knew her through the writing. Russo wrote:

"Christine Lehner's What to Wear to See the Pope is perhaps the most haunting, idiosyncratic, gleefully subversive, and satisfying story collection I've read since Isak Dinesen's Seven Gothic Tales."

"And I adore Isak Dinesen," said Christine. "Reading her is one of the first things that made me want to write! My mother was a big fan of Isak Dinesen too. She gave me the books to read. Probably too early but I didn't care. They were great."

Lehner's mother is Belgian. She spent much of her life in Egypt. I like to think of her mother reading Isak Dinesen in a shaded room with the desert off in one direction and the Nile, probably close by, in another direction. And I find it almost as exciting as Christine does that Russo recognizes Dinesen in Lehner just through her use of words.

Christine Lehner collected stamps as a girl. "They're so beautiful and so evocative of faraway places. I worry that people aren't collecting stamps anymore. Great collections will end up in dumps somewhere getting rained on."

Lehner also read as a girl. "And read, and read, and read. At first I was mostly interested in Nancy Drews and other mysteries, The Lives of the Saints, and poetry. My interests became more eclectic as I grew older. Now I even read quite a lot of non fiction."

I wondered if Christine still liked poetry, and if she went to poetry readings, and why.

"Yes, of course I still like poetry. I love it. The word usage in poetry is so interesting. When I was young I liked The Romantics - Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Galway Kinnell. I've always preferred the visceral, emotionally charged poetry over poems that are strictly cerebral.

"I do go to poetry readings - not too often - just maybe 3 or 4 times a year. One of the reasons I go is that I enjoy being read to."

This is an intriguing enjoyment. We talked about other instances of being read to. One of them is tapes.

"I buy books, lots of books, probably too

many books, but I don't buy books on tape. I check those out of the library. The library is fabulous. You can get anything now. If it isn't in our local library, it's in the county system and our library gets it for you. It's an incredible resource."

Lehner was in a graduate program at Brown. John Hawkes was her professor there. "He was an amazing writer and also an incredible teacher. He put me in touch with people at New Directions. My first book was published there in 1983 and it's still in print. New Directions keeps an active backlist. It is one of their strengths.

"New Directions was started in the 1930s by a young guy, James Laughlin. He was at Harvard writing poetry. He started this great publishing company devoted to interesting poets and maverick writers. In the early days he put books in his car and drove them around the country. That was his early distribution system.

"Laughlin also put money into a Utah ski area, Alta. It's a throwback to a time when ski resorts weren't polished. Alta is a place for purist skiers. New Directions is a publisher for literary purists."

Time passed. Lehner raised children, read and did other things. It was a period Lehner referred to as a lacuna in her writing career. Almost 20 years later she was ready to publish her next book. By that time the people she knew at New Directions were no longer there.

"I was lucky enough to get a really nice agent. Amy Berkower is a senior agent at Writers House. She and I like each other and she liked my work as well. She had a delightful assistant at the time, Genevieve. She was sweet and smart, a lovely combination. Genevieve has gone back to school but Amy Berkower is still my agent and I feel really lucky to have her.

"Berkower placed my second book at Harcourt with Tina Pohlman. I liked Tina a lot and she was also a great editor. Unfortunately that was about the time of that big shake-up at Harcourt before it ended up purchased by Houghton Mifflin. I was fortunate to get a good review in the New York Times, but the Harcourt publicists were getting shuffled around and dropped. There wasn't the continuity to follow up book requests."

I wondered how much overlap there was in the responsibilities of agents and publisher's publicists.

"The agent 1.) sells the book, and 2.) negotiates the contract.

"The publicist 1.) sees that the book is reviewed, and 2.) gets copies out there. Publicists work in marketing and publicity although these are different and I've never quite understood the distinction between them."

Besides Dinesen, who are some of Lehner's favorite authors?

"Recently a friend recommended Jim Harrison. I'm hooked. I've been reading his fiction, poetry and his memoir. He is fantastic. He doesn't use many commas, so sometimes you have to read slowly or reread. It's a good thing though, because looking carefully you can really see the architecture of his sentences. So impressive."

For myself, I've been reading Christine Lehner - books and blogs. With great pleasure.

Books (all in print):

1983 - Expecting

2004 - What to Wear to See the Pope

2009 - Absent a Miracle

Christine Lehner's great Blog: http://sortquenchdump.blogspot.com/

Chritine Lehner's homepage

an extremely interesting Paris Review interview of Isak Dinesen that does remind one of C.L.

John Hawkes by Mark Hamstra

"A Brief History of New Directions"

Neil Golden redeems Clerihew Prize

2010-04-05T15:44:00.005-04:00

photo by Michael Stephens 4/5/10

Neil Golden of San Francisco won a Hastings on Hudson Literature Club Prize for his very fine clerihew:

R. Buckminster Fuller

Taken for a leg puller

Spake the truth we ignore:

1 + 1 = 4

Chris Stephens was most delighted to see the prize redeemed.

R. Buckminster Fuller Institute

Literature Club of Hastings on Hudson

H.B.C.P.S.

2010-03-31T10:09:00.003-04:00

Christopher Stephens at home entering books into the computer, and comfortably surrounded by books. Stephens' Conrad collection is in the glass shelves to his left. Chris admires Conrad tremendously.

bio Joseph Conrad

Forrest at the Poets' Corner

2010-03-30T20:25:00.007-04:00

Forrest Orick, of riverrun, went to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine to hear a friend sing.

Forrest was fascinated with architecture and history. At the Poets' Corner he memorized each quote.

The Poets' Corner was set up in the cathedral in 1984 and "Dedicated to American Literature". Important American poets and fiction writers are added as time goes on. There is also a Poets' Wall at the cathedral where all poetry offered is accepted and posted.

poets org on Poets' Corner

home page of the cathedral and schedules of cultural events it sponsors

a different kind of poets' corner with photos and info and more

Horace Greeley - publisher - editor

2010-03-29T17:01:00.006-04:00

Horace Greeley was a man of his century - the 19th. Westward expansion, slavery, American industrialization, reform and social idealism - these were the big issues of the times. These were Greeley's issues. He was for the first, against the second, watchful of the third, and a wholeheartedly active participant in the fourth and fifth.

Greeley came to NYC when he was 20 years old. He started several newspapers before he launched the enormously influential New York Tribune in 1841. The newspaper was his megaphone. His interests were far reaching and he had opinions to spare.

Greeley made a home for his family in Chappaqua. The town is bucolic still, 150 years later. Beautiful but apparently not a happy household for him. He called his home Castle Doleful and often stayed nights with his newspaper in the bustle of the city.

The country was young in Greeley's time. He and his New York Tribune helped to shape it.

biography from Tulane

breathtaking letter to Greeley from Lincoln - August 1862

biog of Greeley by Universalist/Unitarian

First Day Cover - Horace Greeley

2010-03-29T15:49:00.005-04:00

A first day of issue is the first day that a new stamp is released. Often a special stamp is released in a significant city before it is available in post offices around the country.

A first day cover is an envelope, like this one, celebrating the new stamp and postmarked on the first day of issue from the city where it is first released. Stamp collectors like first day covers. It's kind of like a first state first edition.

This first day cover with the new Horace Greeley stamp - released and postmarked on February 3, 1961 - was sent from Chappaqua because Greeley lived there with his wife and children in the mid 1800s.

King of Come

2010-03-25T23:07:00.004-04:00

His Majesty, Togbe Akati II Djidjilevo, King of Come, Benin and representing Watchi Royal Dynasty of Benin, Togo, and Ghana - shown here with LSS of riverrun bookstore

photo by Ange Ahoussougbemey 3-25-10

Located in West Africa, Benin is a country about the size of New York State. Strong cultural allegiances operate across country borders.

Benin and surrounding countries were part of the prosperous and powerful kingdom of Dahomey in the 1400s. European colonialism rearranged boundaries in the 19th century.

Benin became independent from France in 1960.

Benin is a republic. Elected representatives work to effect a productive government and a healthy, educated, and prosperous populace.

Many traditional leaders work for the same thing. King Togbe Akati II Djidjilevo belongs to the National Council of Kings and served as Secretary General of the Organization of Kings and Queens of Africa. He travels to promote peace organizations. He is an impressive blend of traditional and modern.

B & N, NYC

2010-03-25T18:11:00.008-04:00

Barnes & Noble on 5th Avenue between 45th and 46th is obscured by scaffolding. So is the dramatic French Building.

Inside, behind the scaffolding, the bookstore is just what you would have expected. This is what some people dislike about B & N and what others like most.

I always enjoy an hour or so browsing the books. True, it isn't the same as an independent bookstore, reflecting an individual's tastes and quirks. Nevertheless, it is a very good hour or so and I'm happy to know that there are Barnes & Nobles all over the place, and they continue to be just what I would expect, even behind scaffolding.

(The photos below also fit into the loosely defined riverrun blog theme as they were both taken near the lions on Fifth Avenue, from the NY Public Library steps.)

Fin at riverrun

2010-03-18T18:13:00.009-04:00

So often houses with lots of interesting books have lots of interesting other things as well. Chris and Michael visited such a house recently. They brought cartons of good books back to riverrun. They also brought back a splendid ostrich-feather hat.

This elegant little hat, made during a time when it was still considered okay to combine animal bits with high fashion, evokes the innocent grandeur of that period.

Fin Stephens models this hat for us here at riverrun, enhancing the store with a sheen of glamour heretofore missing.

Fin is the latest addition to the Stephens clan; to the riverrun family. She's great. Usually working without special headgear, Fin catalogues books, fills orders, hefts boxes, organizes shelves, arranges merchandise, and fields customer queries.

Fin and Michael Stephens moved here recently from California. They've been working hard at riverrun. They are revamping the store on the north side of the street.

We plan to have a Revamp Party soon. We want to celebrate Michael’s and Fin’s new visions for riverrun northside. Late spring maybe or early summer. Come join us. I'll post the date when we know it. We'll have wine and pretzels.

Fin might wear the ostrich-feather hat.

H.L.Mencken Playing his Piano

2010-03-11T19:26:00.010-05:00

The latin quote inscribed on the photo by Mencken means "Life is Short; Art endures". Or something like that.

10 + pages of Mencken quotes - some serious - most humorous, the biting kind

Keys

2010-03-06T09:29:00.016-05:00

Some time ago a friend asked me to close my eyes and imagine a certain scene.

"Suppose," she said, "that you are walking along somewhere and notice a key on the ground. You pick it up. You've never seen this key before but you recognize it at once as your own."

Rather an odd supposition.

"Study it."

I complied. I hefted the weight of the imaginary key in my mind. The friend asked me to describe it in detail. I told her about the metallic composition, the color, the design on the head; about the shaft and the teeth of the key. It was fun.

When I opened my eyes, she said, "You know the symbolism, don't you? You have just described your secret ambition."

I had a secret ambition? Who knew?

I do not like locking things up. I don't lock my house or car or diary or heart. Yet I do sort of like keys.

The other day I stopped into riverrun and made my way over to the blue chair. Right in front of the chair was a box full of keys. There were bundles and bundles of keys.

"Wow, where did you get these?"

"I always buy keys," said Chris.

I sorted happily through the treasure box, threading the best ones onto a piece of string.

As I was getting ready to leave both Michael and Chris rushed in to advice me against taking the string home. "You already have too much stuff at home."

True, but I'm disregarding their helpful advice anyway and this is why:

It is uncommonly satisfying to hold a handful of secret ambitions.

Happy Birthday General MacArthur

2010-03-03T10:11:00.013-05:00

Really General Douglas MacArthur's birthday was a couple of months ago - January 26. A family in this area - a family with lots of books and other good stuff recently transferred to riverrun bookstore - this family sent MacArthur birthday greetings during the 1950s. He sent back a gracious reply each time.

MacArthur was part of a distinguished military family. He was born on a base. Douglas, the third son, graduated from high school with awards for outstanding scholarship and deportment.

Young Douglas MacArthur's award for scholarship doesn't amaze me, but the one for deportment does. Slightly.

MacArthur went to West Point. Ulysses S. Grant III was a classmate. Both were offspring of famous generals and therefore, in some kind of twisted logic, both were victims of unusually brutal hazing by upper class men. They survived. (Not everyone did.) MacArthur graduated from West Point the same year my grandmother was born: 1903. He was sent to the Philippines.

MacArthur was not burdened with racial prejudices. In that time and in that place, he was one of the very few in the army not so burdened. Army policy and everyday social actions were shaped by it. MacArthur followed his own vision in this matter. In all matters. Although out of step with his peers and superiors in his attitude toward Filipinos, through other strengths and various heroic deeds, he was recognized with the Medal of Honor.

Douglas MacArthur spent some time serving in Japan under his father, General Arthur MacArthur. A little later he was assigned to the Army Engineer School in Washington DC as part of the training for promising officers. President Theodore Roosevelt requested his services as an aide in the White House from time to time.

In 1914 MacArthur was part of an advance guard scouting in Mexico for armaments possibly being shipped to Germany. He was assigned to help arrange transportation for U.S. soldiers, in case war broke out between Mexico and USA.

As far as transportation went, MacArthur found plenty of rail cars for the men, but insufficient locomotives to drag those cars down the track to wherever the action might be. He sniffed out a lead and followed it to adventure fraught with peril. In the end it was successful. He found 3 locomotives. He found trouble too, but with brilliant courage and impressive marksmanship, he escaped it whole.

Many thought Douglas MacArthur deserved more medals. The Big Brass Higher-Ups decided No. The single key fact that the adventure, however ultimately successful and valuable in the end, had been undertaken without permission from MacArthur's superior officer, was more than sufficient reason, they thought, to make official recognition a poor idea.

MacArthur distinguished himself with bravery, intelligence, dedication and independent thinking in World War I.

When that war was over, he served as the Superintendent of West Point. He devoted himself to widening the scope of the education the young officers received. He went back to Philippines. He served as president of the United States Olympic Committee for the Amsterdam Olympics of 1928. He continued to live a colorful and interesting life both in and out of the military.

MacArthur had been retired from the army when FDR recalled him to active service in 1941. He carried his trademark characteristics - cool hard intellect, fervent patriotism, exceptional abilities, and supreme confidence in his own perceptions and conclusions - into World War II. A famous highlight was his promise to return to Bataan in 1942 and the return itself in 1944.

In the end, General Douglas MacArthur was the United States representative to whom Japan surrendered in 1945.

MacArthur oversaw the occupation of Japan after the WWII and was on the spot during the Korean War. His continued extreme independence finally tangled up with the United States Constitution.

He disregarded President Truman's determination to limit the scope of the Korean War. Truman wished to avoid possible collisions with China or USSR. MacArthur was convinced Truman was making a mistake. Truman dismissed MacArthur.

Whatever the right or wrong of the strategy in Korea, I value civilian leadership of the military so much that I think MacArthur was in the wrong to challenge it. Many disagree.

During the last years of his life, there was an annual shin-dig at the Waldorf to celebrate his birthday. More to the point, hundreds or thousands of ordinary citizens sent him birthday cards.

To many Americans, MacArthur was a perfect hero.

riverrun is open

2010-02-26T08:39:00.003-05:00

What a lot of snow! Branches and trees are down everywhere. Electricity has been knocked out of our house and our wider neighborhood. But riverrun is open.

Streets are blocked by trees and yellow police tape. The snow plows - somewhat feeble in these conditions - have not even touched Washington Avenue. There is high gaiety in the street as kids sled down the steep hill and throw snowballs. The sidewalks aren't shoveled yet but riverrun is open.

Four different local Starbucks, where one might have indulged what is apparently a real addiction, are closed. All are located on major commercial streets which have had some of the snow pushed aside by the struggling plows. Yet, riverrun used and rare bookshop, on a sled-filled side street, is open.

It hardly makes sense given that the store still closes occasionally for lunch. Even when it is open and we're here, in various situations the store telephone rings unanswered. Customers are often left alone to browse in the store across the street. Yet despite the casual attitude in some aspects of business, Christopher Stephens - and now Michael Stephens too - take great pride in keeping the promise: riverrun is open 365 days a year.

Samuel R. Delany - Sci Fi author

2010-02-24T18:32:00.011-05:00

Samuel R. (Chip) Delany

photo by Christopher Stephens 1979

Chip Delany has been nominated for award after award. He won 4 Nebula Awards and 2 Hugo Awards for excellence in science fiction writing. Delany is a giant in the science fiction community. Delany's editor and friend, David Hartwell, is another giant. The two of them are extra tall at conventions and award ceremonies and in the hearts of fans.

One day in the 1970s Chris Stephens was visiting David Hartwell at Arbor House. Chris browsed the upcoming Arbor House list for especially attractive titles and found The Bridge of Lost Desires. Hartwell talked up the book.

Stephens arranged with sub-rights at Arbor House for Ultramarine Press to bring out a simultaneous, special, beautifully bound, limited, first edition. Delany liked the idea too. He asked that it include illustrations by a friend, Greg Frux. So it did. Frux did 7 pen and inks that were bound into the Ultramarine edition.

Later Ultramarine put out another special edition of Delany's Hugo Award winning autobiography, The Motion of Light and Water. In this book there was an original signed Greg Frux frontispiece in each copy.

These books and others sold well and were widely read. Samuel R. Delany was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2002.

interview of Samuel Delany

Samuel R. Delany information - very complete

home page - brief biographical notes + partial bibliography

Some Science Fiction Awards and Organizations

2010-02-21T11:46:00.009-05:00

The Hugo Award is given annually in several categories. The award is presented at the WorldCon by the World Science Fiction Society - WSFS. WSFS is a group loosely organized to sponsor annual conventions and the prestigious award, named for Hugo Gernbsback of Amazing Stories fame.

Prize selection is done in an interesting way. WSFS is a grassroots organization. Nominations for the Hugo come from members all over the world. Nominations are tabulated and the 5 most oft nominees are returned to the general membership for a second-round vote.

Hugo Awards homepage

World Science Fiction Society homepage lists world conventions

Nebula Awards winners are nominated and selected through vote by members of the Science Fiction Writers of America, SFWA.

Nebula Awards homepage

SFWA homepage

An impressive array of authors make up the Grand Masters award list. When Damon Knight died in 2002 this award was renamed in his honor. The Damon Knight Grand Masters Award is presented at the Nebula Awards Dinner by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

Damon Knight Grand Masters Award

Locus Magazine is a trade magazine for the science fiction community

Locus Magazine homepage

Great information about almost 50 awards on a Locus website

Locus Magazine Index of awards by Mark Kelly

Love, Pearl Bailey

2010-02-20T23:23:00.008-05:00

This signed snap shot, from a houseful of books and other interesting things, is purported to be Pearl Bailey. Maybe. This doesn't resemble the woman in careful studio shots - most notably the photo (below) when she was 15 years old - but candid photos do reveal something different.

When Pearl Bailey was a teenager, she entertained in Scranton where Frank Scioscia, a teenager at the same time, was busy reading books and playing cowboys.

Bailey lived a full life. She married 3 times - the last time for life. She won awards and acclaim as a singer, dancer, actress, and television personality. She was interested in cooking, in the United Nations, in politics. President Nixon named her "Ambassador of Love". Bailey campaigned for Gerald Ford. (interesting youtube of her talking about Ford below).

Pearl Bailey's father was a minister and she went back to school, herself, in her 60s and got a degree in theology from Georgetown University.

Pearl Bailey wrote 6 books:

The Raw Pearl

Talking to Myself

Pearl's Kitchen

Duey's Tale

Hurry Up, America, and Spit

Between You and Me

32 photos of P.B. at FanPix.net

photo of Bailey and her husband, Louis Bellson

filmography, recordings list, and personal appearances

brief bio at Mystic Games

YouTube of Bailey talking on behalf of Gerald Ford's continued presidency in 1976

black classic movies.com

at 15 in Pensylvania

a great YouTube video of Pearl's brother, Bill Bailey, tapping

Bethany Beach Bookstore

2010-02-19T18:03:00.009-05:00

Bethany Beach Bookstore sells new books just steps from the sand on the beautiful Delaware seashore. Waves crash nearby. Gulls swoop. And readers stop by.

They have a very nice inventory. Some of it is oriented toward the fast-read/light-read vacationers, because after all, when you're on vacation at least part of your reading consciousness is distracted by the surf. There are plenty of good books for kids.

I like to think of children taking a break from frolicking on the sand to do a bit of reading.

Perhaps because this area is so close to Washington D.C., there is a very solid political science section.

In the summertime the bookstore is surrounded by the bright gaiety of beach merchandise spilling out onto the sidewalks from the many boardwalk shops. In February those stores are closed.

"How do you stay open all year?" I asked the pleasant woman behind the counter. "Well, there's plenty to do to get ready for the big crush of summer readers. And we keep like to keep up to date with the NY Times best sellers. There are active readers living in the area - a lot of retirees. And two book clubs meet in the store. And we mail out telephone orders to loyal summer customers."

Several customers came into the store while I was there, looking through the appealing shelves. Above the shelves there are about 40 framed pictures of different authors giving readings at the store. It's gratifying to know that summer resort customers and reading locals can keep a serious bookstore open year around.

The pleasant sales lady told me that Bethany Beach Bookstore belongs to the Independent Booksellers Association and also carries their recommended books. I like to put in a plug for independent book dealers. Although frankly, I also like to put in a plug for Amazon and for gigantic chains as well as my own beloved favorites - the used bookstores of the world.

Here's what I think: wherever you are buying a book, you are doing a good thing.

New York Times Bestsellers

Independent Bookseller site

ABA American Booksellers Association

UPS

2010-02-03T13:39:00.005-05:00

Otto brings book packages and takes book packages. Transportation is an important part of the book business nowadays.

Monroe Wheeler - Publisher

2010-02-01T19:06:00.012-05:00

photo by Christopher Stephens 1979

Monroe Wheeler walked into Canfield & Stephens Rare Books too late. The store was closed. The books had been sent to auction. Chris Stephens was dismantling bookshelves.

Wheeler looked around. "What's going on here? Are you remodeling?"

"I have some books."

He certainly did! He pulled 6 books out of a battered leather briefcase that didn't go with his sharp suit, white shirt and nice tie. The books were beautiful ones from Harrison of Paris Press.

Monroe Wheeler and Barbara Harrison published Harrison of Paris books from 1930 to 1934.

Some of the books Wheeler pulled out of the briefcase were limiteds or super limiteds. Chris wanted them. Monroe wanted to sell them. For cash.

Stephens explained the situation. Canfield & Stephens was disbanded and he didn't have sufficient personal cash in his pocket. Wheeler agreed to accept Chris' personal check "this once".

"I have lots more books in my apartment," said Wheeler. Monroe Wheeler lived with Glenway Wescott in an apartment on 51st between 2nd and 3rd Avenues - just around the corner from the closed Canfield & Stephens. There were handsome glass-covered bookshelves in the apartment and they were handsomely filled. There was one copy of each state of each Harrison of Paris publications on the shelves but there were plenty more tucked around the apartment. There were stacks of books in manilla envelopes or wrapped in brown paper and tied with string.

Again and again Chris Stephens put cash in his pockets and visited the book paradise. Stephens bought multiple copies of Venus and Adonis and The Typographical Commonplace Book and Hacienda and The Wild West and others.

Aesop's Fables was illustrated by Alexander Calder. Harrison of Paris did a special edition of 50, each with an original Calder drawing slipped in. After Chris had purchased several of these, he came to realize that the drawings were not put into a book until it was purchased. Wescott and Wheeler had a big folder thick with Calder drawings. Eventually Chris was allowed to select his drawing each time he bought another Fables. He thought it quite a grand thing to browse through that folder of Calder drawings.

Monroe Wheeler was old when Chris Stephens met him, but he was lively and sharp. He could remember details about the books and the people involved. He remembered, for instance, about H.T. Lowe-Porter's shabby translation of Thomas Mann's A Sketch of My Life.

Monroe and Wescott were appalled. The translation was sloppy and graceless. What could they do?

They could translate. The two of them worked on it together. They kept the respected Lowe-Porter name as the translator, but not the translation that they didn't respect. They used their own.

Harrison of Paris press list

Frognall Dibdin's book blog

biographical notes on Monroe Wheeler

1988 NY Times obituary for Wheeler

1987 NY Times obit for Glenway Wescott

Glenway Wescott Personally a biography - book

Alexander Calder web site

Anne McCaffrey - Dragonlady

2010-01-28T21:54:00.007-05:00

McCaffrey calls herself "Dragonlady" because of her enormously popular dragons of Pern books. That's not how I think of her though. To me, Anne McCaffrey is the Reigning Queen of Science Fiction/Fantasy.

When White Dragon was being remaindered, Chris Stephens wanted to keep it in print. He got in touch with Virginia Kidd, McCaffrey's agent. Kidd got in touch with McCaffrey and McCaffrey agreed to help finance the purchase of all 4000 copies of this very good book. Chris would distribute them.

The arrangement worked out well for everyone involved

Fantastic Fiction- short interesting bio notes and complete list of work with book photos

site devoted to A.M. includes biographical info+ photos + discussion

review of McCaffrey on Starstore Blog

Masters School

2010-01-26T23:22:00.003-05:00

October 1988

Louisa and Isabel co managing the Masters book and gift store at the school in Dobbs Ferry.

A Conversation With Steve, Michael and Fin

2010-01-25T17:54:00.010-05:00

Stefan Kanfer came in to help identify some of the characters in old riverrun photos.

Michael and Fin were in the store. Steve was enthused to see the young people taking a hand in bringing riverrun more fully back into the community. Michael and Fin will have reorganized 7 Washington before summer. Maybe well before. They want to begin having riverrun readings again in the late spring.

"riverrun is a welcoming place," said Steve. "People will come. You can get people to help you with readings and music like this." Steve waved the photos of musicians at riverrun. He gave advice on how to make more room and how to get authors to come into the store.

"And there are so many local authors," said Fin.

She's not kidding. So many in this area. Steve told how the library held an event for local authors. "Eight four authors came." Steve talked about authors and artists and publishers and cartoonists and agents and editors. He knows people in all fields of publishing. Maybe he knows everyone. He had interesting things to say about lots of people, but my favorite comment was about Ed Young.

"You know that you have a world class artist living right here in Hastings. Ed Young can illustrate anything. He can paint Persian miniatures. He can paste up bright collages. He can draw. He can..." Steve stopped his list. "Ed Young might actually have too much talent."

Steve advised Michael and Fin. "You have to get the word out about riverrun. It's the best used bookstore - in the world. You can say that. In the world."

Kanfer has been a friend and advocate for riverrun bookshop since the beginning. He gave help and support to Frank Scioscia, the original proprietor, and to Chris Stephens, the present proprietor. He's happy to be encouraging Frank's grandson, Michael Stephens, and Michael's wife, Fin.

Music at riverrun - 2

2010-01-24T15:49:00.006-05:00

unknown photographer

1978 or 1979

Stefan Kanfer on saw

Ethan Kanfer on wash tub, Steve Kanfer on harmonica, Steve Taylor on guitar

Music at riverrrun - 1

2010-01-24T13:35:00.004-05:00

Many evenings in the late 1970s and the 1980s riverrun rollicked with music. Steve Kanfer was the ringleader. He played the saw, the washboard, and the spoons with gusto. His buoyant enthusiasms drew in plenty of other musicians.

Large Format Camera

2010-01-20T10:58:00.010-05:00

Look at what a very fine piece of engineering came in the door of riverrun. A large format camera! The back folds down and locks into place to extend the tracks for the bellows to fully open. The shutter is crafted with such masterly elegance that really, it’s no wonder after all that the human race has been able to construct machines that travel to the moon and beyond. Far beyond. In back of the shutter is a collapsible circle to vary the amount of light let in. The plane of the shutter, as well as the plane of the plate in back, can be tilted up to about 12 degrees.

Anyone would like to putter around with this camera. I love being able to. I not taking pictures with it though. Don’t know how. Yet. I might learn how to operate this camera some day, just like I might learn how to operate a camera at the other end of the time spectrum – the one that is allegedly built into my cell phone.

Photography is in riverrun’s neighborhood. The house where John William Draper and his son, Henry Draper, lived is in the next block of Washington Avenue, just up the hill. Henry Draper built an observatory and photographed the sky.

******

George Eastman House - Technology Timeline

http://www.geh.org/fm/timeline-cameras/htmlsrc/timeline_idx00001.html

Field Cameras of the United States: 1879 - 1930

http://piercevaubel.com/cam/index.htm

other Eastman cameras

http://piercevaubel.com/cam/ekc.htm

Henry Draper first photographer of the moon

http://www.naic.edu/~gibson/draper/

Draper the scientist

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/D/Draper_Henry.html

George Jellinek 1919 - 2010

2010-01-17T11:20:00.010-05:00

George Jellenick

New York Times Obituary

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/arts/music/20jellinek.html

a 2007 article

audio, in several parts, of Jellenick interviewing Virginia Zeani

excerpt of a Jellenick article on Zinka Milanov in Opera Quarterly

http://oq.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/pdf_extract/7/1/111

autograph album

2010-01-16T16:57:00.008-05:00

Today, exactly 121 years ago, W.R. Rame inscribed this lovely pen and ink drawing in someone's autograph album.

Perhaps Rame was a young man and the autograph album owner was a young woman. I can imagine him laboring, absorbed, over this detailed sketch and her smiling as she watches him.

John Socia - Old York Book Store

2010-01-05T19:54:00.007-05:00

unknown photographer

John Socia opened the Old York Book Store in New Brunswick New Jersey after he’d retired from Sears. It was 1968. John was 65. He loved that bookstore just as he’d loved books all his life. Old York meant infinitely more to him than Sears and Roebuck did but he’d grown up in the depression and was grateful for steady work.

“I could never have quit a paying job,” he said. He laughed ruefully about the mark the depression made on him. He was 16 in 1929 when the stock market crashed and the economy quaked. There were younger mouths to feed. He left home.

In later years John recognized an early photograph of himself in a book about the depression. He was in a field picking peas with others who also rode the rails around the country looking for work.

John Socia was the second of 12 children. His parents were Italian immigrants. John was born with clubfeet. In a way, this turned out to be a good thing. It meant that he and his father made many trips to doctors and hospitals in New York and in Philadelphia. The examinations and operations were grueling but there were always trips to the big-city bookstores afterwards. The club-footed kid and the immigrant father spent many happy hours together in bookstores.

Many years later when his feet were fixed and his father was long gone, John Socia finally opened his own bookstore. Old York was near Rutgers University. It drew readers and collectors and dealers from a much wider circle. All sorts of people liked coming into his shop to discuss James Joyce or political philosophy or anything. John Socia of Old York Bookstore certainly did know his books. And he certainly was a fine man.

One time Socia told me he’d worried about his younger brother, Frankie. “He’s so innocent,” John said. “Unworldly, like an angel. He’s so good that he can’t imagine anyone being bad. ” Actually that is how I think of John himself. He was so trustworthy himself that it didn’t occur to him to be wary of whom he trusted.

Old York was open for 15 years. During that time Socia bought and sold many books. During that time he made many friends and admirers.

*****

Socia is mentioned in two, of the many fascinating articles by Stuart Mitchner - first paragraph http://www.towntopics.com/apr0109/book.php

An article about used bookstores and book dealers. Socia is described in the 3rd paragraph labeled “Ideal Book Dealers”. http://www.towntopics.com/nov0106/book.html

Change

2010-01-05T18:55:00.005-05:00

Change is coming. Michael and Fin Stephens are driving a big U-Haul across the country from Santa Cruz to Hastings on Hudson. They're bringing their wordly* possessions, including quite a number of boxes of books.

More importantly they're bringing their enthusiasm and energy to riverrun. They'll revamp the store on the north side of the street - clean it up, build more shelves, organize the books, stay open late, maybe have some poetry readings or other events. Christopher Stephens will remain proprietor, book buyer and general book expert and wizard. Chris will continue to preside over riverrun on the south side of the street. Michael and Fin will revive riverrun on north side of the street.

It's going to be exciting. Change always is.

* originally a typo, but it makes sense this way too

Sixty Photographs - Alfred A. Knopf Sr & Jr

2010-01-03T04:29:00.009-05:00

Alfred Knopf took photos of many of the intriguing people he and his wife, Blanche, had as friends and associates. Sixty of these photographs were selected to publish in the book, Sixty Photographs, which commemorated the sixtieth anniversary of Alfred A. Knopf, Publisher. The book was published in 1975.

Knopf started his publishing company in 1915. He and Blanche, ran it as a family business until 1959 when their son left Knopf Publishing to to start Atheneum. At that time Knopf blended in, quite happily, with Random House.

I love this book. The front cover of Sixty Photographs shows A.A.K. himself, as a young man, seated comfortably in a meadow a few years before he founded his publishing company. The back cover shows him as an old man seated comfortably in a similar meadow. On the pages in between, Knopf gives us a treat. The photographs have the unstudied charm of the enthusiastic amateur photographer. Unpolished, they're more intimate. Knopf includes anecdotes to accompany each picture. They read like a conversation. You and he are flipping through the photos and he's recollecting the people and the circumstances. Sixty Photographs is a heartening glimpse of a mid-20th century world of literature and art and music and publishing and friendship.

This book is readily available. You can get one easily at your local bookstore or over the internet. We got ours from Pat Knopf.

In the late 1970s Alfred A. Knopf, Jr invited Christopher P. Stephens up to his house in Connecticut to look at books. Of course Chris went. There were lots of books, nicely arranged on handsome shelves. Chris expressed interest in buying a beautifully inscribed author collection. "Oh no," said Pat. "Those are going to my daughter." Chris ended up with 3 or 4 cartons of good books that weren't going to Knopf's daughters or son. He brought them back to Canfield Stephens Books.

Pat Knopf was friendly and easy to talk to, says Chris. They talked books. They talked publishing. Knopf had been in publishing since his infancy. Chris expected him to have tons of ephemera tucked away in boxes and drawers. Chris expected piles of papers on the floors and desk tops and bursting forth from cupboards. There was no evidence of any of this.

"Don't you have any junky stuff around somewhere?" he asked.

Pat was bewildered. "What do you mean?"

"You know," Chris coaxed him. "Galleys. Proofs. Letters from authors. Production correspondance."

Knopf dismissed it all with a wave of the hand. "I don't keep any of that. I throw it all out when I'm through with it."

Although Pat Knopf threw out much that Stephens would have liked to buy, Chris still left happy. He had some very fine books. He brought Sixty Photographs home for our personal bookshelves.

That volume had to get used to quite a different environment. At our house we do have a lot of junky stuff around.

Alfred A. Knopf 1892 - 1984

Pat Knopf 1918 - 2009

A brief biography of Alfred Abraham Knopf, Sr. by Columbia University

The Alfred A. and Blanch Knopf Collection at University of Texas at Austin

NY Times Obituary for Alfred A. Knopf, Jr.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/16/books/16knopf.html

James Welch and Riding the Earthboy 40

2010-01-02T21:21:00.017-05:00

jacket photo by Lee Nye

The first edition of Riding the Earthboy 40 by James Welch is scarce. Once it wasn’t though. In the early 1970s Chris Stephens and Frank Scioscia knew where there were about 1500 copies.

Welch’s success as a poet and novelist comes in spite of some bad breaks in the book business. Earthboy was his first book publication. The World Publishing Company went out of business shortly after his book came out, so the it wasn’t well distributed. World remaindered Earthboy. Ancorp took them on.

Ancorp was a major distributor in the city. They had hundreds of thousands of books. Unfortunately Ancorp also went under. During their last days in business they offered more and more dramatic discounts off their stock. At first it was 70% off list, then 80% off, then 90% off, and finally all hard covers were 50 cents each.

Scioscia and Stephens had been frequenting the sale. riverrun didn’t exist yet, but the men were stocking up anyway. They couldn’t help themselves. There were a couple of shrink-wrapped skids of Riding the Earthboy 40 at Ancorp. Scioscia & Stephens asked about a special price for all the copies. Ancorp management said no, 50 cents was their bottom price. The men could take as many as they wanted at 50 cents.

Well, how many is that? It was a promising book. In the end Chris only bought 20 copies and Frank 60. Probably the rest were ground up.

James Welch went on writing and publishing and getting reprinted:

Poetry - Riding the Earthboy 40

Novels - Winter in the Blood

The Death of Jim Loney

Fools Crow

The Indian Lawyer

The Heartsong of Charging Elk

Nonfiction- James Welch

Killing Custer: The battle of Little Bighorn and the Fate of the Plains Indian

James Welch 1940 - 2003

interview by Cindy Heidemann

http://www.pnba.org/welch.htm

an interesting discussion of James Welch's novels and poetry as well as commentary on other writers who are American Indians

http://www.dancingbadger.com/james_welch.htm

1999 interview by Owen Perkins

http://www.csindy.com/colorado/james-welch/Content?oid=1106464

Lakeside Classics

2010-01-01T03:43:00.004-05:00

Lakeside Classics are printed - one per year - by the R.R. Donnelley Company, printers. Richard Robert Donnelley founded the company in the 1864. His son started the Lakeside Classic Christmas book tradition 39 years later. The books are given away to clients and employees as Christmas presents. They are nicely designed and beautifully printed using the most modern printing technology.

Each year, each book reaffirms "the objective set forth by Mr. T.E. Donnelley who, as president of our company in 1903, wanted an example of a book which in taste and workmanship met the exacting requirements of the book lover, but which was printed on machines built primarily for the reduction of cost."

The Lakeside Classics fit the bill. They feel good in the hands. They are pleasing to look at. The paper is good. The print is clear. Indeed, the taste and workmanship of Lakeside Classics does entirely meet the exacting requirements of this book lover. What's more, the content quite delights!

Lakeside Classics tell the story of the American Old West, usually in the voice of someone who lived there and then. The series specializes in personal narratives of the American frontier.

For instance, Edward Abbott "Teddy Blue" lived a colorful cowboy life just after the Civil War. He and a lady journalist wrote We Pointed Them North: Recollections of a Cow Puncher. Teddy Blue ridicules the movies' fascination with two-gun cowboy gunslingers. "I punched cows from '71 on, and I never yet saw a cowboy with two guns. I mean two six-shooters. Wild Bill carried two guns and so did some of those other city marshals, like Bat Masterson, but they were professional gunmen themselves, not cow punchers."

There weren't many woman in Teddy Blue's territory. A certain preacher's daughter might have had an exaggerated religious influence because of her gender. Later she bragged to a neighbor about reforming Teddy Blue. "Ted?" asked the neighbor. "Why he's the wildest cow puncher in all Montana." Subsequent events demonstrated that the neighbor was more right than the preacher's daughter.

In Narrative of my Captivity Among the Sioux Indians, Fanny Kelly relates how she tried to save her daughter by coaching her to slide off the pony and crawl back to camp. Much later Fanny meets an Indian with her daughter's scalp tied to his belt.

Harriet Bishop McConkey was never abducted herself, but she lived through the Indian Massacres of 1862 and 63 in Minnesota. She was a careful observer. Dakota War Whoop tells the story.

I became quite attached to Billy Breakenridge reading his Helldorado. Billy worked on the railroads. He labored in a livery stable, fought in Tombstone, panned for gold and gambled. He rode cattle, joined the calvary, and served as a page in the winter of 1863 when the territorial legislature was in session. He took a job hauling liquor for a saloon owner through dangerous country where Indians and French renegades were looking to interrupt his deliveries. Breakenridge tells an entirely different version of the Chivington Massacre from those I've read elsewhere.

The content, as well as the craftsmanship, of the Lakeside Classics is remarkable. I was telling a bunch of literary pals about these books. They liked what they heard. Christine Lehner wanted to know if I'd read them all.

Read them all? Last month R.R. Donnelley Company distributed the 107th title. I've read 6 or 7 of them.

It's an intriguing idea though. It sounds like the making of a New Year's Resolution. Sure it wouldn't have the onerous component so critical to most New Year's Resolutions. It would, instead, be pure pleasure. Besides, it would take me 5 years, not just one because I'm a slow reader and I want to read a lot of other stuff too, for work and for fun. Nevertheless it is exactly my kind of resolution. I'm making it now: I resolve to begin a half-decade project of reading all the Lakeside Classics.

Want to join me?

R.R. Donnelley Company describes Lakeside Classics: http://www.rrd.com/wwwRRD1/AboutUs/LakesideClassics/LakesideClassics.asp

riverrun sells Lakeside Classics: http://www.riverrunbookshop.com

Besides asking questions, Christine Lehner writes a very entertaining blog. I recommend it:

http://sortquenchdump.blogspot.com/

interesting history of the companies leading up to RR Donnelley and Sons Company:

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2840800225.html

Chris Stephens' Lakeside Classics Checklist with bibliographic information but no content annotations. That's what I should add in 5 years.

Goodnight riverrun

2009-12-31T21:49:00.006-05:00

It's been a very good day, good year, good decade and more. Enticing prospects lie ahead for riverrun. Stay tuned to this station.

Books beneath the Tree

2009-12-25T23:22:00.003-05:00

Just what everyone wants most.

Shel Silverstein thanks FAS

2009-12-22T17:21:00.009-05:00

Shel Silverstein spent time in riverrun. He came up to the house too. He was comfortable with Frank Scioscia.

Silverstein signed lots of books to Frank. This - Now here's my Plan - has one of Chris Stephens all-time favorite cartoons on the cover.

google images for Shel Silverstein

americanpoems.com

song writer legacy recordings

famous poets and poems.com

reading at riverrun

2009-12-21T15:53:00.001-05:00

November 1988

Michael and Isabel Stephens at riverrun

Ralph Fasanella, Artist

2009-12-16T02:29:00.011-05:00

Ralph Fasanella used to enjoy hanging around riverrun and chatting with Frank Scioscia. The men were both sons of Italian immigrants. Both were sympathetic to unions and mistrustful of management. Fasanella was as tickled as Scioscia that riverrun bookstore was in the old Anaconda union hall.

Fasanella died a few years after Scioscia did but, in a way, they're both still there. Even now there's a New York Times article about Fasanella pinned up on the bookshelf, just where Scioscia put it some years ago.

Chris Stephens found some Fasanella posters for sale shortly after he took over the bookstore. He liked them. He bought them all. Ralph was happy to sign each of the posters over relaxed, pleasant conversation with Chris.

Ralph was still coming into the store to talk art, talk books, talk politics, talk unions, talk memories.

Fasanella art images

NY Times article on Fasanella

Art work for sale on artnet

River View

2009-12-14T03:50:00.011-05:00

The Anaconda Copper Company operated on the Hudson River.

During WWII machine guns were mounted on the factory rooftops to deter enemy ships from sneaking up-river to West Point.

In the 1960s, management responded to a local wildcat strike by closing down the Hastings on Hudson plant. The machinery was quiet. The buildings were empty.

riverrun has connections to Anaconda. The bookstore is housed in the old union hall. One can almost hear echoes of rousing speeches mixed in with the voices of all the books here.

Steve Kanfer made a beautiful decoupage-topped table for riverrun out of one of the giant wooden spools Anaconda used for copper wire. That table is still here.

For a few years Chris Stephens warehoused books in a section of one of the old Anaconda buildings. We had to bring cartons of books upstairs in a huge freight elevator. Not everyone likes elevators. I don't. This one was slow and it creaked and finally the lights went out. We had to take books up and down in a scary elevator in the dark.

For decades toxic residue from copper smelting and the mostly empty buildings were a blight on this otherwise charming town. Abandoned Anaconda blocked the river view from Washington Ave.

Now that's all changed. Come to the bookstore. See the river.

Hastings Historical Society article on Anaconda Copper Company

Marian Ferrer - Poet and Potter

2009-12-13T21:17:00.007-05:00

Marian Ferrer's pottery shop is lively and welcoming.
Shelves are filled with interesting and useful shapes in appealing earth tones. "That's what I like best for pottery," Marian tells a fellow potter. "I use red clay. I always have. And I like rich greens and browns over that dark clay." The pots are beautiful. I particularly like a huge one with an abstract leaf pattern.

Ferrer's two books are displayed in a corner. Blue Sapphire is poetry. Allow the Possibility is a mixture of memoir, essay on artistic exploration, and philosophy of life. Ferrer appreciates the importance of laughter to the process of creativity.

Marian Ferrer's bright and joyful paintings are on the wall and leaning against one another on the floor. Her creative expression on canvas contrasts with her expressions in clay.

"In painting, I prefer vibrant colors against the white background. Painting feels different than handling clay and my response to it is different too.

"I first started making pottery in my early 20s. I was working at American Field Service and, at the time, just wanted some interesting activity after work. I have been a potter ever since."

Marian teaches classes at her pottery studio. "I always learn from my students. I like seeing them work out projects from their own perspectives. It's fascinating. My students have so much creativity!"

Marian's students, as well as Marian's customers, are friends. A man came in who had worked at Lame Duck Bookstore in Philadelphia. Marian and the man from Lame Duck and I and an enthusiastic young potter who'd come in with me all chatted comfortably in Marian's studio/store.

There are some clay "rocks" in the window. The two potters talk about what a natural it is for potters to make "rocks". "The clay is from the earth," says Marian. "You bring out, shape it with your hands, leave your mark on it, and give it back to the earth. I've been making clay rocks almost as long as I've been working with clay.

"They're worked from the inside out. They're hollow. And that isn't glaze on them. That is oil paint and then they're waxed. I write on them. I made a whole lot of rocks that said 'Peace'. I tuck them into likely places in NYC. I took a whole lot of peace rocks to Israel too. I just lay them down for someone else to pick up. Sometimes I write 'joy' on them.

I feel grounded when I make the peace rocks. I like to leave them around for strangers to pick up and handle and read. All those suggestions of peace."

Marian Ferrer's work is in galleries. She's had many exhibitions. And her peace rocks are lying on the ground all over the world. Look for one.

Dobbs Ferry Pottery - 86 Main Street, Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522 - 914 674 8203

Enjoying Work

2009-12-12T17:12:00.006-05:00

Cold Day - Warm Anticipation

2009-12-11T22:16:00.008-05:00

Chris Stephens bought boxes of fascinating books from a local Nobel Laureate. He's been in his element sorting through the books back in riverrun.

There was also an intriguing collection of Oceanic art in the Laureate's house. Chris read up on Oceanic art. (Reading up on various subjects is Stephens' second-favorite part of the bookstore business.)

He invited two colleagues to come back to the house with him and look through the art. Anticipation ran high.

Awake Again After Long Slumber

2009-12-11T15:08:00.003-05:00

This first-in-a-long-time entry is dedicated to Lenny and Judy. Here's why. Lenny called Chris to ask why the heck I hadn't posted anything since October. And why the heck haven't I? It's a good question without a reasonable answer.

But the doors to the riverrun blog are wide open again

A Conversation With Paul Golden

2009-10-17T14:24:00.002-04:00

Paul came by the bookstore today. He told some lively anecdotes. Wyatt Day happened in also. He, Chris, and Paul chatted animatedly. I enjoyed being a fly on the wall. I'll share what they said as soon as Golden has had a chance to read it first.

Family Business - 4th Generation

2009-10-03T19:59:00.003-04:00

Forrest and Andrea work at riverrun when they have time. They are the original proprietor's great grandchildren. There are 5 great grandchildren. Lia might walk down the hill and work when she's a little older. Holly and Bilbo live in England. They'd come in and help wrap packages if they were 3000 miles closer.

Frank and Mary's great grandchildren are all readers.

Bocce in the Window

2009-09-25T22:41:00.005-04:00

Marian Ferrer opened her pottery studio/shop in Dobbs Ferry a couple of years before Frank Scioscia opened his pre-riverrun bookstore. The Dobbs Ferry Bookstore was less than a block from Dobbs Ferry Pottery. The proprietors became friends.

There was a nice bocce court down the hill from both shops. Frank Scioscia was an enthusiastic player. He had been since childhood.

Marian fashioned some bocce players from clay. She gave them to Frank. They've been at riverrun ever since.

Bits of Conversation with Sol Stein - publisher Stein and Day

2009-09-19T20:12:00.010-04:00

Sol Stein came into riverrun with a whole string of compliments for Frank Scioscia and riverrun.

A whole string of compliments is also appropriate for Stein himself.

He told me tantalizing bits of lots of stories. He told of Stein and Day, where he was publisher and editor-in-chief for almost 30 years. He talked about WWII, where Stein was an insider - even winning a bet with Dwight D. Eisenhower. He told stories of authors and great book collections. He talked about political leaders and about his grandchildren.

Unfortunately time was short. He promised more details at the next visit. I'm looking forward to it.

Ultramarine Disch

2009-09-10T22:36:00.007-04:00

Tom Disch was an interesting conversationalist as well as an interesting writer. Chris Stephens especially enjoyed talking with Tom. "He was lively. He was ready to discuss any subject. He knew lots and you never knew what line he was going to take," said Chris.

Back when I was young, I was slightly intimidated by Disch's intellectual intensity. I was more comfortable with the gentler soul of Charles Naylor.

Disch and Naylor had what was essentially a long and happy marriage, just like Chris and I have. Unlike Chris and I though, their partnership was unrecognized legally and spousal benefits accrued to neither. For instance, during all those years that Naylor taught in the public school system, Disch was not covered under Naylor's medical benefits. Later, when Naylor died first, Disch had no legal rights to stay in the rent-controlled apartment he'd lived in for years with Charles. This is a societal injustice. It could be easily remedied.

Disch's book, M.D.: A Horror Story, is one of the Ultramarine Press limited editions signed by Thomas Disch. It came out in 1991, simultaneously with the Knopf first trade edition. Denis Gouey bound the limitation. There were 12 beautiful full leather copies and 38 half leather with marble boards.

In the early 1980s Ultramarine Press put Neighboring Lives, by Tom Disch and Charles Naylor, in print. Chris Stephens had purchased the entire remaining stock from Scribners.

Amazon customer reviews of The M.D. Horror Story

Tom Disch - Poet & Writer

2009-09-08T20:10:00.008-04:00

In the 1970s Tom Disch lived on Union Square in Manhattan with Charles Naylor. There were books in most of the rooms and long metal shelves filled with boxes of books all the way down the long hall.

Chris Stephens bought books from Tom. At first he bought review copies of books Disch had been sent to review. Later they became friends and Chris bought copies of books that Disch had authored. Tom would heave down a couple of boxes and he and Chris would go through them. Tom wanted to be sure he kept one copy of everything he'd written. Chris had to find another copy to reassure Tom that his last one wasn't walking out the door.

One time they were looking through books, Chris noticed a paperback by Victor Hastings packed in with copies of Disch's books. Chris picked it up. "Tom," he said. "Did you write this one?" Disch abashedly 'fessed up.

Another time Disch volunteered the history of how The House That Fear Built came to be.

Someone from Paperback Library, probably Hy Steirman, called Disch.

Quick, Tom, I need a Gothic mystery by Friday.

I don't know Gothic mysteries, Tom said, I've never written anything like that.

You're a writer aren't you. If you're a writer you can write and I need you to write me a Gothic mystery by Friday. I'm paying $300.

This exchange took place when $300 would cover a couple of rents and then some. Besides, Tom Disch relished a challenge. He accepted the commission. In the 1960s Disch was living with John Sladek. John watched Tom write through Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. On Wednesday Tom bogged down. He was totally blocked. He couldn't move the plot forward.

Give it to me, said John. Why don't I write on it for a little while? So they passed it back and forth and finished it by Friday. It was published under a Paperback Library house name, Cassandra Knye, but it was really a couple of guys taking turns at it writing through a week.

Hy Steirman was right though. Tom Disch was a writer. He could write. He settled into science fiction and later horror. He also wrote mainstream fiction, criticism, and of course he wrote poetry.

Above all, Tom Disch was a poet. He kept a 3x5 card with details of every poetry publication. There were thousands of them.

Once when I was teaching English to a bunch of hoodlums, I found a Tom Disch poem reprinted in their literature textbook. I told my students that the poet lived around the corner and that he was a big, strong fellow with tattoos, who would snarl most menacingly - and worse - if annoyed. The description was so much counter to their impression of poets that Disch got their attention. They listened to the poem with interest.

Many people read Tom Disch with interest. His poetry, stories, novels and criticism have a forcefully provocative edge that keeps that interest keen.

Thomas Michel Disch 1940 - 2008

Tom Disch's live journal

Dana Gioia remembers Tom Disch

A Conversation With Patricia Lowy - Graphic Designer & Artist

2009-08-30T21:13:00.013-04:00

"I started working at William Morrow as a production assistant. Every week I had to type up a production report. And I didn't really know how to type. I was supposed to file all this stuff - manuscripts, cover art, production galleys, bound galleys, individual pages.

"It was totally boring but I had to support myself while I was in school."

Where was she going to school?

"Pratt had a special graduate program in graphic design. All the teachers were professionals in the field, so the courses were conducted in the evenings and weekends. It sounded great but many of these professionals had considerably more talent as artists than as teachers.

"There are professional artists that are also good teachers. They're rare. Milton Glaser is one example. I took a course from him at School of Visual Arts. He's an amazing graphic designer and he's an amazing teacher. A really great teacher. The Pratt program didn't have teachers like that.

"A better opportunity to learn came my way. Cynthia Basil, art director of Morrow Junior Books, took me on. I became her assistant and she taught me everything. She was great.

"Cynthia was quite a character. She chain-smoked Camels. She collected toys - all these old tin toys with moving parts. Her apartment was full of them. She never married. In a way, she never grew up. Maybe you need that Peter Pan characteristic to excel in junior books.

"In publishing, at that time anyway, you had to change publishers to get much of a salary increase. I moved to E.P. Dutton. Riki Levinson was a very talented art director at Dutton. Later I went Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. There I designed for adult as well as children's books."

What does designing books without illustrations entail?

"The designer makes decisions about the title page, the chapter openings, the whole way a book looks. The layouts are designed in pencil on tissue paper. Everything is ruled carefully. There weren't computers at this time. All work was long hand.

"In the 1970s and 80s publishers spent a lot of money getting type set. Now that's done more easily on computers. It's a big change. Then they hired retouchers. Now they use photo shop."

Patricia moved to McGraw Hill where she was the design supervisor. She worked on text books, which required quite a bit of design attention. "I earned more money but the work was dry.

"I left and became a free lance design consultant. Much more fun. My studio was above Shakespeare & Company. It was a convenient location. Dan and I lived nearby. Every publisher I'd worked for gave me work.

"One project was for William Morrow. I was designing a book by Charles Silverstein. My 5th grade teacher was named Charles Silverstein. He was a great teacher - memorable because you have so few really great teachers as you grow up. I wondered if it was the same person. It was! I telephoned. He wasn't phased in the least - he was thrilled to hear from one of his former 5th graders. He'd left teaching. He'd become a psychologist and had written several books, one of which I designed."

Patricia Lowy closed down her studio and her consultancy to devote more time to her sons. She remains a graphic designer and artist. Often her artwork blends unexpected combinations of paper and subject matter, or of emotional impact and technique. Some are drawn from an unusual physical perspective. All, even the ones of inanimate objects, burst off the page with bold vitality.

I especially admire her charcoal drawing that's behind Lowy in the photos. The decorative floral pattern, sort of like wallpaper, is a soothing screen you see at first glance. At second glance you see the body bags.

Patricia Lowy is always interesting to talk with. I might have badgered her too relentlessly for this particular conversation about her work in publishing. I appreciate this conversation though. I appreciate all of them.

NYTimes article by Vivien Raynor - Ms Raynor has a keen sense of self-importance but as an art critic she still has a distance to go. read paragraphs 5 and 6

William Faulkner

2009-08-29T23:32:00.004-04:00

William Faulkner first fell in love with Estelle when they were in high school. What with one thing and another, she married some other guy. Her parents felt quite strongly that this other guy had a more promising future than Faulkner (or Falkner as it was spelled at the time).

The parents might have misjudged. Estelle's first marriage didn't work out well. She divorced the other guy and Faulkner got to marry her after all. It's a romantic story.

William and Estelle look good in this photo, striding confidently into their future together.

A Conversation with Dominique Bohr - Editor, Book Dealer

2009-08-26T20:56:00.010-04:00

"Nothing changed my life more than computers," says Dominique Bohr. "With a computer and the internet, you are plugged into the world's greatest library - that is the best thing."

When Dom's son was in second grade, he wrote report on his father. "My father," Benji wrote "is mainly interested in knowledge."

"That's right," says Dom. "Anything. It doesn't even have to have any relevance to my life.

"When I was young, I worked, following knowledge, for Elsevier Publishing Company. Elsevier put out a good Dutch language encyclopedia. It's widely read in The Netherlands. Sixty or seventy percent of Dutch households would have that encyclopedia on their bookshelves at home.

"I was one of about 10 editors revising the encyclopedia. Elsevier had very strict rules about the format for the articles and how to handle issues like country of origin. You know, in Europe people are always being born in countries that don't exist anymore.

"My responsibilities were to research and revise entries at the end of G and all of H. That included gravity. We had a renowned physicist writing an entirely new article on gravity but I knew a little physics myself. Not much, but I was young enough to be really arrogant. As editor, I was basically proof reading the physicist's article. Somewhere though - probably in my science fiction reading - I thought I'd heard about something called a graviton. I wrote to the renowned physicist. I said 'your article is pretty good but why didn't you mention anything about gravitons?' "

Dom laughed heartily. He couldn't get over the fact that a kid who reads science fiction was given the editorial authority to challenge a mature scholar who has devoted his life to physics. Did the physicist respond?

"Yes," exclaimed Dom. "He apologized! He added a bit about gravitons to the encyclopedia article!"

Dom did plenty of other interesting things following, accumulating, and organizing knowledge. Now he's a book dealer. He says he was headed for that pleasure from the earliest times.

"In The Netherlands family and friends often give money for birthdays and other occasions. When I was seven or eight years old, I measured that money in pocket book buying power. One pocket book cost 25 gulden. That was my measure.

"The quantity of money that could purchase of one book was my basic unit of currency."

Chris' Attitude About Book Ownership, in a nutshell

2009-08-23T22:50:00.005-04:00

"If you've read every book you have, then you don't have enough books."

Baskets and Books

2009-08-22T23:03:00.005-04:00

The woman who brought in these baskets had other things too. These baskets were woven in Ecuador near the border with Bolivia. Her brother spent years there as an anthropologist.

She first came into riverrun with the baskets. Chris liked them.

"What else do you have?" Chris asked her.

"Oh, I don't think anything else you'd want."

"Do you have an attic at home?"

"No. No attic. Although there is a barn. There's a loft in the barn. My great uncle brought big trunk from Finland in 1905. That trunk's in that loft"

A trunk in a loft in a barn sounded great to Chris. As it turned out the things from Finland were long gone but other treasures were tucked in the trunk. There were 20th century postcards and old toys and clothing from the 1930s. Mice had made nests of the clothes, but left the postcards and toys intact. Chris was delighted.

Ernest Hemingway

2009-08-21T21:34:00.005-04:00

A story about Ernest Hemingway made a big impression on me. It may not be a true story, but maybe it doesn't matter whether or not it's true.

In the story, Hemingway is working as a journalist in Europe. He writes fiction on the side but it hasn't been published. E.H. brings a couple of promising stories to an agent or a publisher, in Paris I think. The agent or publisher LOVES the stories. He's crazy about them. He finds out Hemingway has more at home.

"More manuscripts? Like these? You're kidding!" say the agent or publisher.

"Boxes full," says Hemingway.

"By god, Man, can you get them to me right away? Jumping Jehosophat! I need to see everything you have. I'll publish it all! This stuff is dynamite!"

Hemingway was understandably eager to accommodate the guy. He called his wife, one of the early ones, and told her to pack up all of his writing. "Bring everything," he told her. "Put all my stories into a suitcase, that big one. Bring it to me here. Yes! Now. Get the train to Paris." He spoke too loudly because he was so nearly overcome. Then his voice dropped. "This is the Big Break," he told her.

Whichever wife it was, probably Elizabeth, obediently gathered up everything. Drafts. Masterpieces. Copies. Discards. She put every single thing Ernest had written into a satchel. She boarded the train with satchel in tow, got off the train in Paris and hurried to the office where the men were eagerly waiting.

No manuscripts. In all the excitement she'd forgotten the satchel on the train.

That satchel was never recovered. All was lost.

Later Hemingway divorced that woman. If the story is true, then no wonder.

The part that impresses me is this: Ernest Hemingway continued to write after the disaster. He didn't yield to discouragement. He kept on writing.

links to Ernest Hemingway material

Still Images of Ernest Hemingway

videos of E.H.

A Conversation with Amlin Gray, Playwright and Dramaturg

2009-08-16T15:30:00.012-04:00

“A dramaturg oversees the literary integrity of the play,” Amlin Gray told me. “Dramaturgs do historical research to place the lines of the play in context. They do more than that. They make adaptations to the play. Often they are translators.

"As a dramaturg, I do a lot of translation and adaptation as well as historical and literary research.”
I’d never heard of a dramaturg. Amlin Gray opened a window to behind the scenes at the theater. I wondered if the research was mostly to help costume designers.
“No,” he said. “ Or partly. Costume and scene designers are usually very good researchers on their own. Primarily though, a dramaturg assists the actors and the director with background material, context, and literary flow”.

As a dramaturg, it helps to have experience as a playwright. Amlin Gray is a playwright. He downplayed it in our conversation, not even mentioning that he’d won the prestigious Obie Award for exceptional achievement. He won that award for his play, How I Got That Story, about a war correspondent in Vietnam.
Gray did talk some about his plays when we chatted about Joyce Carol Oates.

“She’s amazing,” said Gray. “She still teaches and she writes about a book a week!

"I worked on a play with her once,” said Gray. “Not exactly with her. Nagle Jackson was the artistic director at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton. He adapted the Tragical History of Dr. Faustus for production as Faustus in Hell. Of course, that’s a tale that has been told and retold. Christopher Marlowe in the 16th century. Goethe in the 18th century. As opera, as symphony, as novel, poetry, plays.
“For Faust in Hell, Nagle Jackson commissioned 7 playwrights, each to write a short piece for one of the 7 sins. I wrote for Greed. Oates wrote for Lust.”
The other sins? The other playwrights?
“Edward Albee was Envy. His piece was great. Jean-Claude Vanitallie wrote Pride. Rommulus Linney – Rage. Christopher Durang – Sloth. John Guare – Gluttony. It was a great line-up of playwrights.”
Gray told me which piece he liked best of the seven. “It was brilliant, really brilliant,” he said, but I’ve irresponsibly forgotten which sin, which playwright. I do remember his admiration for everyone though, and his pleasure at meeting with them. “We were all brought together at the last to fine-tune before the production.”

From what languages does Gray translate?

“Spanish, German, French.”
Did he say Greek also, or did I just read that somewhere? I asked him later. “I don’t think I said Greek because I don’t have the same command of Greek I have of the other languages. One time though, I was asked to translate and adapt Sophocles. I used a dictionary and a grammar, but I was surprised at how much Greek I remembered from college.”

Amlin Gray talked enthusiastically about a few of his projects - being playwright in residence at Milwaukie Repertory Theater and his adaptation there of Don Quixote for young people, his interest in covert plots within the ostensible plot, teaching at Sarah Lawrence, his specialty in Shakespeare. He told how Shakespeare’s fairies, “in A Midsummer’s Night Dream, for instance, are a little more sinister, have a little more edge to them then generally recognized today.”
Although Amlin Gray specializes in Shakespeare, his interests are broad ranging.
“I adore Japanese theater. Kabuki is just so extravagant and then on the other hand, Noh plays are so austere.”

Gray enjoys much. He reads widely and deeply. His enthusiasms are contagious. Now I want to see all his plays. We talked in riverrun, so of course we talked about books too.

“I buy too many books,” said Gray.

How well I know (and admire) this characteristic! riverrun salutes all of us who buy too many books, and offers a special salute to Amlin Gray.

synopses, production history, and purchase information for these Amlin Gray plays:
Founding Fathers, How I Got That Story, Kingdom Come, Monkey's Teeth, Pirates, Villanous Company, Bindle Stiff, The Dream Chain, The Fantod, Outlanders, Wormwood

Sarah Lawrence faculty bio (alphabetical, skip down to Gray)

commentary on the 2004 revival of How I Got That Story

Summer in riverrun

2009-08-12T22:37:00.005-04:00

Irene Zenolli and Forrest Orick

New Windows

2009-08-10T21:58:00.004-04:00

New windows and door were put into old riverrun this summer. They had to be. The insurance company wouldn't renew the contract for our landlady without the modern replacements even though the old ones served well.

Fond sentiments are so intense about riverrun that some felt badly to see the old paint-peeled doors and windows go. "But where is the old door now?" asked Michael. "Is it something I could have?"

H.B.G.P.S.

2009-08-09T11:24:00.000-04:00

Greg at riverrun

winter 2008/09

Signs

2009-08-06T22:21:00.005-04:00

Steve Kanfer made the two RIVERRUN signs in the window on the north side of the street - 7 Washington. Kanfer brought them into riverrun in the 1980s. He brought plenty of books, plenty of customers, and plenty of music into riverrun as well. Steve Kanfer accompanied fiddlers and guitar players on his saw or his washboard.

Vincent Marchetti, a sign painter turned real estate agent, and a neighbor of Frank Scioscia's, painted the now faded BOOKSTORE sign as a gift. Marchetti enjoyed coming into riverrun from time to time. Kanfer enjoyed coming into riverrun all the time.

Center for Book Arts

2009-08-05T22:48:00.004-04:00

Richard Minsky ran the Center for Book Arts. It was on Bleeker Street in NYC during the 1970s. Now it is a bigger more comprehensive operation on 27th Street with hundreds of inviting classes in the many aspects of making books.

In 1975 I took a wonderful class in letter press hand printing from Minsky on Bleeker. There were just a few of us n the class. Richard was an enthusiastic teacher. He was also enthusiastic about his own creative binding projects. While I was there he had just finished a binding that included an actual bird as part of the book.

One night Richard let me stay late to work on one of my broadsides - a heart shaped poem by Piero Heliczer. It was cold in the studio. Most of the lights were off. Alone there, it felt like I was back n time. Newspaper editors at the old west might have worked in the cold, in the dark, alone at night to put together a front page for frontier readers. I put together a few broadsides.

1.) Marvin Cohen 2.) announcement for a Richard Kostelanetz party 3.) lyrics of a country western song by Bruce Holvenstot, a friend of mine from Marvin Cohen's writing class at CCNY, and 4.) the Piero Heliczer poem of Auswich

These broadsides made up the entire output of my Moondragon Press.

The Book Arts of Richard Minsky

Minsky's resume

Center for Book Arts

Edward Gorey

2009-08-04T10:19:00.009-04:00

photo by Christopher P. Stephens about 1978

Edward Gorey has a distinctive, idiosyncratic art style that intrigues many. His adults are unsmiling. His children are somber - their pale, drawn faces clearly expecting the very worst from life. Which is largely what they get.

The detailed pen and ink drawings look like etchings. He illustrates a joyless world. Unless you count the fiendish delight one almost can't help feeling at the deliciously dark pictures of catastrophic episodes happening, or about to happen, or ominously threatened.

Edward Gorey illustrated in Boston. When he came to New York City, he met Andy Brown of Gotham Book Mart. The two became great friends. Andy promoted Gorey's work through the store.

Chris took this candid picture of Gorey at the New York is Book Country book fair one year. Gorey's glasses were rose colored, but you wouldn't know it from his drawing subject matter.

I didn't know Gorey, but I knew someone who did. In 1982 I took a couple of classes at School of Visual Art. In a superb color class, I made some friends. I was 33. They were younger. One night a couple of them made the long trek from 23rd Street up past the GW Bridge to my house for dinner. Barbara Ellmann came and so did a good looking young man. I think his name was Tom. This picture was hanging in our living room. They hadn't been here long before Tom stopped short, gawking at it.

"Where did you get this picture of Ted?"

"It's Edward Gorey."

"Yes. I knew him as Ted."

They'd travelled together for a year, the young man said. We didn't talk of it, but the young man kept looking up at the photo. He was thinking of it even in another room while we ate.

So, though I never even met Edward Gorey, he was sort of a fifth person at my dinner.

Edward St. John Gorey: 1925 - 2000

goreyography - includes an interesting account by Alison Lurie

images with many links to Gorey connections

Gorey documentary

Photos

2009-08-03T16:03:00.003-04:00

This girl, dressed so perfectly, grew up to be this young woman. But then what happened? Did she marry and have children and grandchildren? And why don't they have these pictures?

Abandoned Memories

2009-08-02T10:48:00.011-04:00

Someone must have treasured this album once. In the late 1800s someone carefully put cabinet cards and visiting cards into the thick guilt pages.

Then what happened? Probably the original owner bequeathed it lovingly to to a son or daughter. Maybe it made its way through several generations.

Chris bought the album in a house, but the seller hadn't descended from the first owner. He'd picked up the album at a garage sale in Connecticut, for pete's sake.

Who are these people? What became of them?

Margie Cohn - House of Books

2009-08-01T14:32:00.007-04:00

photo by Christopher P. Stephens 1981 or 1982

Margie Cohn was Grande Dame of the Book business.

When Chris Stephens first met her in the late 1960s, she had already been establishing her expertise for almost 40 years. Margie and her husband, Louis, opened House of Books in 1930, the year they married.

Louis was proprietor. He had assembled an extensive Hemingway collection. He gave it to Margie as a wedding present. The two of them continued to build the collection. Louis became Ernest Hemingway's enthusiastic bibliographer. Hemingway cooperated. The author sent the book collector manuscripts and proof copies and various editions of his work. Hemingway designed a book plate for Cohn. It said: From the Works of Ernest Hemingway in the Library of Louis Henry Cohn. Hemingway wrote a note reminding himself to "give him the works".

The working relationship between Cohn and Hemingway - bibliographer and author - developed into a lasting friendship.

The Cohn's published other friends' poetry in their Crown Octavos Series. T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Stephens Vincent Benet, Marianne Moore are some of those poets. They also published W. Somerset Maugham, Thomas Wolfe, Cyril Connolly and Tom Stoppard. Because Margie and Louis were both born collectors, they kept files of all the correspondence with these authors and poets.

Louis Cohn died in 1953. The House of Books did not. Margie stepped forward and ran the operation. Some, who knew them both, say that Margie did a remarkably better job than Louis had. She continued to carry 20th century work. She specialized in the authors and poets she knew personally.

Margie Cohn had a brusque, no nonsense manner that Chris always enjoyed. She knew a lot. Margie continued to develop existing contacts with librarians, collectors, and writers. She ran House of Books in the pre-internet period. Book dealing was knowledge intensive. She guarded her knowledge of points for collectable editions. She also guarded her contacts. If a book collector dropped by when a young book dealer, like Chris, was visiting - for example - Margie made the collector wait in the anteroom while she shooed the book dealer out another door.

Chris did visit Margie often. He was tremendously fond of her. He admired her knowledge.

Margie lived to be almost 100. A few years before she died Chris saw her at a book fair. She was looking intently at some books. She was so immersed in what she was thinking that she didn't know Chris took a photo. Then she saw him.

"Don't you dare take a picture of me, Chris Stephens!"

Chris coaxed. He wanted more shots.

"If you take a picture of me, I will cut you off. I will not sell you anything. I will not buy anything. You may never again come to visit."

That was pretty clear. Chris smiled, laid down his camera and never mentioned to the one he'd taken. The one he'd taken of the great book lady for whom he had such high regard.

Margie: Marguerite Arnold Cohn 1887 - 1984

Louis Henry Cohn 1888 - 1953

A Bibliography of the works of Ernest Hemingway by Louis Henry Cohn

The Cohn Ernest Hemingway Collection at the University if Delaware

Paris Review interview of T.S. Eliot that took place at Margie Cohn's apartment

interesting anecdotal essay by Jack W.C. Hagstrom about Robert Frost, mentions Margie toward the end. Hagstrom sponsored her for membership in the Grolier Club.

a brief mention of the Cohns in a preview of what looks like a very interesting book: A Gentle Madness by Nicholas Basbanes

Home Again

2009-07-31T21:41:00.005-04:00

Came home a couple a couple of hours ago. Hobbling along nicely toward full recovery.

Incidentally, I was dead wrong about the physical and occupational therapists. My new heros, they combine push, patience, encouragement, and humor in exactly the perfect proportions. I take back the grumpy things I said about them.

Very glad to be back.

Temporary Suspension

2009-07-19T10:55:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow morning I go in for elective surgery so the blog will be quiet for awhile.

I am only going to be in the hospital for a few days but then I check into one of those Physical Therapy sanatoria where they contort and exhort in a medically approved regime of torture. I've never been, so I don't really know. I suppose. I have my impressions though:

These places are run by bouncy, fit bullies who admonish if you whimper and applaud only when you sweat and tremble with painful physical effort.

I'm going for the physical effort but I intend to be peevish about it. Peevishness is not the ideal mindset for blogging. Besides I won't have a computer.

My plan is to resume writing on August 4, but secretly I'm hoping to come back a little before that target date.

A Conversation With Bob McPhillips - Literary Critic

2009-07-18T15:41:00.012-04:00

Bob visited riverrun. We chatted. How did he get interested in reading, I wondered.

"I always read," said Bob. "But just the ordinary books that everyone was reading. Then when I was in high school, Them [Joyce Carol Oates] came out in paperback. It was about the time it won the National Book Award. Them changed my reading life.

"Oates was prolific so there quite a bit of her work already in print. I went back and read it all. It affected me so much that I wrote to her."

Bob must have been just a kid then. Did she write back?

"Yes, I was in 10th or 11th grade. Fifteen or sixteen. And yes, she wrote back. I thought she was in Windsor, Ontario. Actually she was in England but my letter got to her and she sent me a postcard from London. It had a reproduction of Botticelli's Venus. The one on the half shell from the Tate Museum. I still have it."

Oates' writing awakened Bob's critical reading interest.

"I read Philip Roth, John Updike, John Cheever.

"John Cheever came to my high school in Ossining while I was there. He gave a mini course. We met up in a corner of the balcony over the auditorium. It was open to anyone but there were just a few of us. I was actually reading Cheever's short stories at the time but I didn't like the idea of bringing his book to the class. I brought short stories by Oates instead.

"At one point another student asked John Cheever to recommend some writers. 'Saul Bellow,' said Cheever. 'Philip Roth. John Updike.' Then Cheever looked over at my book. 'And, ah well, yes, I always say, straight away, start your day with a bowl of Joyce Carol Oates and bananas.'

"When I quoted this to Oates, she said, 'Cheever has always been an unpredictable soul.' "

John Cheever lived in this area and he went to a local AA. "Each AA member is assigned a mentor. Do you know who was Cheever's mentor?"

I did, but I thought it was supposed to be a secret. Bob assured me it was no secret. Both Cheever and the mentor had been outed in a recent biography of John Cheever. Already outed or not, I prefer to say just that the mentor was a book dealer that both Bob and I knew.

Bob McPhillips read good and interesting books from his last years of high school on. He went to Colgate and majored in English, of course. He took his graduate studies at University of Minnesota where he was admitted with a teaching assistantship. By this time McPhillips already had a well established relationship with the Birth of Venus post card sender. He wrote his PhD thesis on Joyce Carol Oates.

"It took me a long time to finish that dissertation. Each of her sentences took me off into an area I wanted to discuss. Some people say that Oates overwrites. Too many words. I think this may have been one of the things that drew me to her. I might use too many words too; might pursue too many paths. There was no one there telling me to tighten my focus and I wanted to examine everything."

Before the dissertation was finished McPhillips was writing literary criticism.

"Did you know I was Joyce Carol Oates' official literary biographer for a little while?"

I didn't. How did that come about and why was it just for a little while?

"I met Elizabeth Pochoda at a conference. She was the literary editor at the Nation magazine. Elizabeth invited me to the Nation to do some reviews. For instance, I reviewed Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler just before it got the Pulitzer Prize. I didn't give it a particularly good review. I enjoyed reviewing for The Nation.

"Phil Pochoda was Elizabeth's husband. He was in publishing but switched sides to become a literary agent. He and Elizabeth decided that a biography of Joyce Carol Oates would be desirable and marketable and a good way for Phil to begin his new career. They launched the project. I hadn't finished my dissertation but I'd written a lot about Oates. They asked me to author it. They were both very helpful with my proposal to Oates. She liked the idea and appointed me her official literary biographer.

"Probably the best approach would have been to go to Oates' editor, Billy Abrams at Dutton. Phil was an enthusiastic beginner though. He said we should be aggressive. He sent proposals to every important editor. 'We'll have it on their desks waiting when they get back from Nantucket, or wherever. Then in August, we'll have an auction.'

"It was an overplay though. It didn't work out well and I didn't want to pursue it. Greg Johnson had already written about Oates. He suggested that he write another about her personal life and I write one about her literary life. Both Elizabeth and Phil were warmly encouraging, but I bowed out."

How did that affect his relationship with Oates?

"Not at all, really. I concentrated on finishing my dissertation. I sent her a copy . She sent me a limited edition of her poetry. I continued to see her and her husband from time to time. I still feel very connected to Oates. Very fine writer."

At riverrun bookshop there are always stacks of marvelously good things piled precariously. It's hard to avoid knocking a stack over. Sure enough. Bossing Bob around about photo placement, I misdirected him right into one of these stacks. Over it went. Everything got reshuffled. The mishap exposed a lovely broadside of Snowfall by Oates. It must have been karma. Bob McPhillips and Joyce Carol Oates are indeed connected

Bob McPhillips' book on New Formalism B & N

book review of Them

profile of Elizabeth Pochoda

Bob McPhillips working at riverrun

2009-07-15T22:58:00.004-04:00

1995

Bob McPhillips was one of riverrun's very appealing assets.

McPhillips knows and loves books, especially modern poetry and prose.

Frank Scioscia leaves riverrun

2009-07-10T10:46:00.005-04:00

In the rose-filled June of 1993 Frank Scioscia enjoyed life. He argued politics, discussed new authors, played bocce with friends, and read Daniel Deronda aloud with his wife, Mary.
Scioscia was sparklingly engaged at riverrun. Anyone who saw him there could plainly see he would never leave riverrun as long as he had breath left to draw.
But that’s just it. He didn’t. On July 10, 1993 Frank Scioscia died.
Everyone found it hard to believe because he was so packed with vitality. When I told a customer acquaintance 2 weeks later, he argued with me.
“No,no. He couldn’t have. I just saw him Tuesday, I think it was Tuesday. He was playing bocce down by the railroad tracks.”
It was a lead, he thought. I was mistaken and could start my search at the railroad tracks. Don’t worry. He’d turn up.
Frank’s death pained many. One of the most moving reactions came to me from a stranger’s disembodied voice.
I’d gone down to riverrun and left a short note on the front door. I also put a message on the store answering machine. “riverrun bookstore is temporarily closed. The owner, Frank Scioscia, died on July 10 of a heart attack. The family will reopen and operate the store sometime soon.”
Later I listened to messages. One was a long silence followed by a shocked whisper not meant for me.

“Oh my god.” Click.

Andrea at riverrun

2009-07-09T21:11:00.007-04:00

Today was Andrea's second day of work at riverrun. Her grandfather gave her the reins.
On the first day she learned about packing orders. The packer is aiming for neat, secure packages - the kind I never quite mastered. The packer has to watch out too. Watch to be sure the books ordered go to the actual person who ordered them rather than someone else who ordered something different. Watch to be sure you don't slice yourself up with the very sharp cardboard cutter. Watch to be sure the packages are entered in the log.
Andrea did all that beautifully on the first day.
On the second day Andrea learned how to do a box list. This means you squeeze through narrow passageways and reach way up over your head for heavy boxes of books. You carry them elsewhere, open them up, and check the contents against a list of what is supposed to be the contents. You resolve discrepancies.
Andrea did that all beautifully on the second day.
The thing is though, that when you're given the reins, there are more than 2 days worth of lessons that you should know. She hadn't been shown the map of the store, so she couldn't help customers locate books. She knew there was a riverrun website, but not the address, so she couldn't satisfy an impatient telephone inquirey. (riverrunbookshop.com) She hadn't been shown how to work the cash register, so customers had to supply exact change, which she laid out neatly in front of the register.
Why did a 16 year old with 2 days' experience have the reins anyway?
Because Chris got an irresistable call from a house with a library available that day only. It was a library entirely in Hungarian and Chris does not actually read Hungarian.
"Andrea, there's a library that sounds promising. Do you mind holding down the fort for a couple of hours?" She didn't. Not even when it turned out to be for the whole day. I came down to help her close.
"So. Your grandfather didn't make it back," I said to her.
She laughed. "No. And he sounded ecstatic when he told me he was delayed."
Indeed that part of the book business - the part of going into houses and buying books - is his favorite. It the ecstatic part.

Moondragon - Marvin Cohen

2009-07-08T19:18:00.005-04:00

The Moondragon Press was born in 1975. That's the year I thought of it. That's the year I took typesetting and hand printing classes with Richard Minsky at The Center for Book Arts on Bleeker Street in New York City.

I didn't want to wait to acquire more skills before publishing my first broadside because I was intrigued with the idea of celebrating the 25th anniversary of my press in the numerically magical year of 2000. So far away, it seemed at the time. Nine years ago now.

I only printed 3 or 4 broadsides. No wonder I clean forgot to celebrate.

My first broadside was this poem of Marvin Cohen's. More stories of Marvin and of Moondragon are sure to follow in future posts.

Words

2009-07-07T10:11:00.012-04:00

Archie Goodwin, an appealing fictional character created by Rex Stout, spends a good part of one morning trying to work around his boss’s dictionary-burning project. The dictionary is Webster’s Unabridged International Dictionary – 3^rd edition. The boss sits before a fire. The heavy (but getting lighter) dictionary is on his lap.

With grim satisfaction Nero Wolfe systematically tears fistfuls of dictionary from the binding and tosses them into the fire. Wolfe hates the book for a million reasons. The one he mentions to their client is the sloppiness of allowing that “infer” and “imply” can be used interchangeably.

Fictional Nero Wollfe had plenty of real-life compatriots. The 3^rd edition came out in 1961. It was scornfully received. Newspaper editorials predicted the end of nuanced thinking. Scholars held tight to their old dictionaries. They tossed those 3^rd edition replacements into the fire. Figuratively at least. An appellate court dismissed a definition from the 3^rd, used in a case, in favor of a different definition found in the “classic” 2^nd edition.

What made these dictionary-users go berserk ?

The 3^rd edition added many new words. But so did every one of the many new editions since Webster’s first in 1809. Pictures and historical chronologies and addenda of various kinds were eliminated. But all the information eliminated was available elsewhere, perhaps more appropriately than in a dictionary.

The 3^rd edition tossed out archaic usages and spellings. This gets closer to the cause for outrage. The real crime was this: The editors made a philosophical departure. They moved away from the idea of a dictionary as a compendium of words for word-lovers. For word-lovers the tiniest distinctions in meaning are thrilling and enhance thought.

The editors published, instead, a book for the common guy who heaves out words willy-nilly in the careless confidence that they will be more or less understood as they were more or less intended. Editors of the 3^rd embraced the “living language”. They abdicated linguistic authority.

The dictionary annoyed Wolfe by conflating infer and imply. It annoyed others with this and many similar instances of dictionary-shabbiness, and by condoning casual slang like ain’t, and by refusing to hold up a standard.

Chris Stephens goes nuts at the common misuse of momentarily and of comprise. Even I cringe at the common misuse of decimate. The 3rd accepts misuse as an alternative definition.

My favorite piece about words is an essay written by Anne Fadiman. It first appeared in her Common Reader column for the Library of Congress publication, Civilization. I read it in her absolutely perfect collection of essays, Ex Libris.

In that essay Fadiman writes of the tickled delight that word-lovers feel at finding a word they don’t know. Another word, another treat.

Luckily for me, the Webster’s Unabridged International Dictionary – 2^nd edition – is on the dictionary stand in my living room. It was purchased in 1965 by book dealer Frank Scioscia, from book dealer Peter Howard, as a wedding present for book dealer Christopher Stephens.

essayist Anne Fadiman

scroll down to bit about Fadiman

Librarything on Ex Libris

a word post on Macro Micro and Vice Versa

Amazon customer reviews for Gambit by Rex Stout

Indians

2009-07-05T21:10:00.009-04:00

tribes represented in the photos: Sauk Fox, Warm Springs, Pinal Apache, Tawakoni

After a week at the beach - a great treat - Chris Stephens returned to riverrun to yet another great treat. In his absence a woman had come to riverrun with cabinet cards of American Indians. For more than one reason, Chris was thrilled.

Chris has been interested in American Indians since he was little. As a tyke he was a Quiz Kid. Indians were his specialty. In the green room the radio men talked to all the Kids about what they knew to put the youngsters at ease.

At show time Chris was so small he couldn't reach the radio microphone. The producers put telephone books on his chair so he'd be the right height. They asked a lot of questions. Chris knew answers but didn't care to raise his hand. It was radio though. The audience couldn't see whether hands were raised or clasped tightly to one's sides.

The announcer asked some questions about Indians, then lied smoothly into the microphone. "Ahh. I see young Chris Stephens has his hand up. Yes? Can you give us the answer?" He could. He did, but he didn't like the game.

He continued to like Indians though. He continued to read and research the tribes. The cabinet cards were a treasure for him.

NOTE: Can anyone help us locate the woman who brought in these interesting cards? She was cleaning out a relative's house and she brought the cards to riverrun last week while we were sunning. Chris Stephens wants to know the stories. He wants to know if there's anything else. And in any case, he wants to give her some more money.

Sauk & Fox Nation

Sauk & Fox history

Warm Springs Indians & other tribes of Columbia River

two videos of Warm Springs dancing

Pinal Apaches

Native News Apaches

Tawakoni Tribe

another Tawakoni article

Hudson River

2009-07-02T11:40:00.006-04:00

June 1984

Two book dealers, Frank Scioscia and Peter Howard, at the Hudson River.

Peter Howard

2009-07-01T15:58:00.007-04:00

August 1975

Peter Howard is shown here with his famous book mobile. In the 1970s Howard drove this volkswagen bus, stopping in bookstores at crossroads and out of the way corners as well as metropolitan centers all over the continent.

Peter Howard's bookstore, Serendipity, is a literary landmark in Berkeley California.

Serendipity homepage

The Berkeley Daily Planet review

Dobbs Ferry Bookstore

2009-06-30T00:22:00.007-04:00

December 1974

Frank Scioscia's first bookstore was called Dobbs Ferry Bookstore. Scioscia didn't know if he should open a store but his son, Charles, encouraged him. Charles found the storefront for rent.

"$110 per month," Charles says. We signed the lease in spring of 1974." Charles helped Frank build bookshelves. I painted the sign. "Dobbs Ferry Bookstore" Dark blue on white. The letters were a little lopsided even though I was theoretically plenty mature enough to make proper sign letters.

Frank had lots of fun with the store. In no time though, he needed more space. He moved to Washington Avenue in Hastings in 1978. His new store was named riverrun.

riverrun is a very good name for the store in a number of ways. FAS loved the majestic Hudson River that lay just on the other side of the railroad tracks from the new store. He liked the literary connection in this name too.

Frank Scioscia and Chris Stephens thought of the name together. Their ideas got so intermingled in the animated and hilarious naming discussions that each thought he'd come up with the name for the store.

riverrun. It's the first word, also uncapitalized, in Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce. Scioscia and Stephens were both Joyce enthusiasts. So was Frank's brother, John Socia of Old York Bookstore in New Brunswick NJ. The word fit perfectly. riverrun

CPS in riverrun

2009-06-28T13:17:00.006-04:00

1995

Chris Stephens early in his tenure as riverrun proprietor.

Chris was already a well established book dealer. He'd had several stores and assembled many scholarly collections of books for university libraries.

Chris took over riverrun early in 1994. He wasn't sure it would be his cup of tea, but by the time this picture was taken - long before actually - he'd realized that he and the store were perfect for each other.

Forrest Orick at riverrun

2009-06-25T14:14:00.009-04:00

Forrest visits the bookstore his great-grandfather founded and his grandfather now owns and runs.

Lunch

2009-06-24T15:14:00.002-04:00

A kind of ugly scene played itself out at riverrun today. It was after 12:30. Low blood sugar played a part.

Chris Stephens, riverrun proprietor, was locking the store door to go out for a much needed lunch break. This other guy, a potential customer, was getting out of his car in anticipation of a much needed book break. The men collided, metaphorically speaking.

The potential customer could not believe that Chris was denying access to the books.

Both men were driven to extremes of expression by their "much-neededs", but the potential customer had a point. If I were giving a course in retail 101, I would teach these lessons: Don't ever close the store during open hours, even briefly for lunch. Don't argue with potential customers.

Chris would fail that course. More to the point, Chris wouldn't sign up to take that course.

What do store proprietors owe their customers and potential customers?

Chris would say honest dealings. He'd probably also include owner expertise and an interesting inventory on a list of what the store owes. But strict adherence to posted hours wouldn't be there.

In spite of being closed occasionally and briefly for lunch, riverrun is great bookstore. It's open every single day of the year. Come visit. For sure you'll get honest dealings, a terrifically well-informed owner, and a mighty interesting stock.

Geri Rosenzweig reading at riverrun

2009-06-23T21:50:00.008-04:00

photo by Dan Wilcox
May 18, 1986

I wasn't at this reading. My youngest daughter had just been born. I'm sorry I missed it though.
All these years later, my daughter is 23 now and I've just begun to read Rosenzweig's poetry. I love it.

People who know more about this kind of thing will have smarter things to say about poetry, but this is what I think.

Prose is designed for broadcast. People with a wide range of experience and thinking patterns can connect with something written in prose. Poetry is tighter, like a laser, or more romantically, like an arrow. The poems responder-audience is far narrower. Sometimes poems that resonate brilliantly with one person entirely miss another.
Between the right kind of person and their right kind of poetry, the poem penetrates deeper. The arrow goes right to the heart.

I'm on target for Rosenzweig's poetry. Right to my heart.

As always, Dan Wilcox's poetry blog is a treat.

more resources for Geri Rosenzweig:

G. R.'s introduction, The Music of What Happens, to her book Under the Jasmine Moon
Two Poems
The Cortland Review
The Youngest Daughter published in Barnwood
Barnwood Rosenzweig bio
from the Annals of Modern Medicine
some poems

Alicia Ostriker

2009-06-23T14:00:00.009-04:00

3 photos by Dan Wilcox April 18, 1986

Alicia Ostriker read at riverrun s part of the Pomegranate Poetry Reading Series.

Dan Wilcox was there with his camera and observations.

Poetry Foundation Ostriker

Nude Descending

Poems For the Time

Three Poems

Dan Wilcox's blog - poetry, photos & commentary

W. S. Merwin at riverrun

2009-06-22T12:33:00.008-04:00

photo by Christopher P. Stephens May 1983

Wiliam Stanley Merwin read his poetry to an appreciative crowd at riverrun in 1983.

W.S. Merwin, poet, and F.A. Scioscia, riverrun proprietor, met at the reading, but they may have met unknowingly earlier. They overlapped. Merwin spent part of his childhood in Scranton Pennsylvania, where Scioscia spent his entire childhood.

Scranton is surrounded by ancient hills. When these men were children, and even later when I was a child, acres of slag from the coal mines lay in the outskirts of the city. Nothing grew on these slag heaps. Blue flames of slow combustion shimmered over them continually. The slag was on fire for decades.

Merwin and Scioscia had something else in common besides this coincidence of childhood location. The men had a similar characteristic manner, a similar largeness of connections. Some people called it an aura, some a gentleness of spirit.

Not me though. Aura or whatever, I think those were fierce spirits. They were forceful and swiftly moving, like mighty rivers.

Their spirits raged but each man interacted with others in a way that was disarmingly gentle. Maybe that combination is what makes poetry.

When Merwin read at riverrun, he already had quite a reputation as a prolific translator, a Literary Soldier against the U.S. war in Vietnam, an early environmentalist and, most importantly, a sterling poet.

Poetry.org Academy of American Poets

Modern American Poetry merwin

Steven Barclay Agency article on Merwin

19 minute audio interview

A Tribute to Six Important Fathers on Fathers' Day

2009-06-21T15:54:00.009-04:00

July 1988

FRANK SCIOSCIA - Father of riverrun bookstore

FAS is shown here with his 2 oldest grandchildren - themselves now the fathers of my very fine grandchildren.

GEORGE WASHINGTON - father of our country

CHRISTOPHER P. STEPHENS - Current proprietor of riverrun as well as the remarkable father of my remarkable children.

JOHANNES GUTENBERG - Father of Modern Printing