After several weeks of fine-tuning, I’ve finally got a logo. That means I can start working on the signs that will go on and around the building. Our graphic artist came up with a much better design than what I had in mind when I presented him with my rough idea. My wife and daughter went back and forth over colors and details and, I think, everybody is happy. We’ll see what it looks like four feet high.
As time passes, and word spreads of my existence, I am getting more calls from people who want to unload their books. I’ve seen a lot of worthless books over the past month. The hope that, at long last, someone might actually pay money for torn, wet or coverless books is a powerful incentive for some people to lug boxes downtown. Several times sellers with large boxes have told me they had some good books, but since I wasn’t the first store they visited, they’re gone now. This seems an odd admission for someone to make, if they want me to buy their books. But I suspect their desire to profit isn’t as great as the embarrassment they feel showing me such lousy books.
Today I visited Trenton, North Carolina, population 200. Judge Walter Henderson, a commercially unsuccessful novelist, passed away some months ago, and his nephew needs to liquidate the estate. I was called by a mutual friend, and after a three-hour drive, I spent a couple of hours in the judge’s library. It was located on the first floor of the old Trenton railway station which, after the station closed, was bought by the judge and moved out into the country where he made his home, overlooking the Trent River. The books were situated just by the ticket window, across from the freight entrance. My calculation was that an educated, well-to-do judge, with a literary background, was just the sort of person who might have a library full of signed William Faulkner books. This was not the case, however. He did love Faulkner, but most of his books were recent reprints. I took a few books, and agreed to pay the nephew fifty cents each for a couple hundred more, were he to bring them to Pittsboro. It was an interesting trip, nonetheless, and one I will keep making, if there seems a reasonable chance of finding something special.