Researching ‘what is found where’ for the new www.literarytourist.com website (yes, members are, and will be, treated to an ever growing list of rare book libraries complete with the names of those authors whose papers and early editions are found within) and I learned that the Toronto Public Reference Library on Yonge Street has a whole room not only dedicated…but furnished to look like the Baker Street study of, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle..and Sherlock Holmes. In fact, the library holds "one of the world’s foremost collections of library materials devoted to the life and work of Arthur Conan Doyle."  The Arthur Conan Doyle Room is located on the 5th floor at 789 Yonge Street. Hours are 2-4 pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and by appointment. For more information on this wonderful find, contact Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection.

Last week in Toronto I had the pleasure of interviewing Stan Bevington, founder of Coach House Press. The focus of our conversation was on collecting, specifically,  volumes from Coach House’s stable that might appeal to those of us who love and desire to possess well-made, well-designed books. Early on in the discussion Stan mentioned that Glenn Goluska had worked as a designer at Coach House. After our interview I strolled in the heat over to Ten Editions, a nearby used bookstore on Spadina Avenue, in search of Coach House output. I came across and bought a copy of BP Nichols’ Journal. Wouldn’t you know, it was designed by Goluska. And wouldn’t you know some more: it won an AIGA Award for Book Design…

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Banville on Black on Charlie Rose (from which: writing is like dreaming; the goal is to write novels that share the density of poems, and demand the same attention; James M. Cain wrote The Postman Always Rings Twice in one weekend; and Georges Simenon as an important influence on Black (as is Henry James on Banville) who wrote some ‘classic’ works), and in The Guardian. 

James Keeline  liked to take apart radios as a young boy. He was also Interested in space technology and computers. While in school he worked for a used bookstore. He ended up managing the place and running its web site and computer network. He also started researching and writing about children’s series books. His particular interest and expertise is the Stratemeyer Syndicate and its founder Edward Stratemeyer. I met James recently in San Antonio to talk about collecting the Tom Swift series of books. Please listen here:

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John Keilman in the Chicago Tribune:
 

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Enquiring Minds. Richard Weintraub (left) and Paul Keeton.

Socrates believed ‘philosophy’ to be an intimate, collaborative affair best encountered in small groups where participants debate and question each other on morally charged topics in hopes that each, as a result, would discover some truth or greater understanding.

This in fact is exactly what happended last week at something called Toronto Pursuits. Brainchild of Ann Kirkland, who runs a literary tour company called Classical Pursuits, the event, now in its 13th year, brings together several hundred literature/art/travel lovers,   for a stimulating week of reading, discussion, theatre, film and art.

There were about half a dozen differently themed seminars to choose from; I went for ‘ literary influences on the operas of Benjamin Britten,’ largely because Ann herself was in it and I wanted to get to know her a bit better. The reading list included: Crabbe’s Peter Grimes, The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James. Billy Budd, by Herman Melville and Death in Venice by Thomas Mann. Stay tuned for my take on what pulls these works together. In the meantime, check out Classical Pursuits’ website, and consider going to Toronto next year, or failing that, taking one of the company’s literary tours. If you have an enquiring mind, and a love of literature, I can guarantee you’ll be rewarded by the experience. You might even get a few ideas on how better to live your life. The 14th annual Toronto Pursuits will take place from July 15-20, 2012.

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Quotes on books, authors, writing, found in Books by Gerald Donaldson.

"For  several days after my first book was published I carried it about in my pocket, and took surreptitious peeps at it to make sure that the ink had not faded." James Barrie

"Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written." Thoreau

"Tis the good reader that make the good book." Emerson

"There are books of which the backs are covered are far the best parts." Charles Dickens

"How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book" Thoreau

" Man builds no structure which outlives a book." Eugene Fitch Ware

"The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes." Agatha Christie

" It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give up because by that time I was too famous"  Robert Benchley

"Authors in general are not good listeners." William Hazlitt

"Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book." Shakespeare

"When I am dead, I hope it may be said: His sins were scarlet, but his books were read." Hilaire Belloc

"I’ve had it with these cheap sons of bitches who claim they love poetry but never buy a book." Kenneth Rexroth

"As for you, little envious Prigs, snarling, bastard, puny Criticks, you’ll soon have railed you last: Go hang yourselves" Rabelais

"The life of writing men has always been…a bitter business. It is notoriously accompanied, for those who write well, by poverty an dcontempt’ or by fatuity and wealth for those who write ill." Hilaire Belloc

" I see no point in reading." Louis XlV

" I hate books; they only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about."  Rousseau

" Come, and take a choice of all my library; And so beguile thy sorrow." Shakespeare.

" Books are hindrances to persisting stupidity." Spanish Proverb

"This never be a civilized country until we expend more money for books than we do for chewing gum." Elbert Hubbard

"If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all." Oscar Wilde.

"Never read anything until not to have read it has bothered you for some time." Samuel Butler.

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Whilst in the Lone Star state recently, I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Kathy Doyle Thomas, Executive Vice President at Half Price Books in Dallas. The company has been in business now for almost 40 years and has enjoyed considerable success, some say at the expense of independent used bookstores. I met with Doyle, who, incidentally serves as Chairman of the Retail Advertising Marketing Association (RAMA), a division of the National Retail Federation, about this and other topics of interest to those who sell used and rare books. Please listen here:

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Christopher Hitchens on The News of the World: