Edward Halpern, a manufacturer of bed pillows, and wife Dianne are a suburban couple who share a passion for books. He describes himself as ”an antiquarian and used-books collector.
”Books are wonderful,” he adds. ”I have a list of books I`m always looking for,” Halpern says. ”Dickens is a guy I`m always looking for.
”I go to all different places, library sales, book sales, auctions.
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”Library sales are a very good source,” he advises, referring to libraries of different communities that have annual sales. ”My wife and I belong to 35 to 50 libraries in the metropolitan area, as a Friend of the Library. They send us announcements of sales.
”I look for books that are in fairly decent condition, all excellent or very good, but I have certain hard-to-find books rebound. There are some excellent binderies in Chicago.
”I have a good collection of leather-bounds, unusual color-illustrateds, a lot of travel-series things. I collect a lot of subjects. Chicago is one of my subjects. Author Ernest Thompson Seton is another.
”My wife has one of the largest collections of health, fitness and exercise books. She`s been teaching exercise classes for 15 years. She has at least 500 books, some very old.”
To hold the collections, Halpern had a formal library built: 16 by 25 feet with custom-made shelves.
”We have books all over the house. No, not on the floors; they`re in cases. For instance, we have certain types of books in the bedrooms, children`s books, certain books on nature. They`re set up by category.
”From time to time I sort them out and weed them out,” he says when asked if he ever thinks he has too many.
”You can always sell them,” he says, as another way to get rid of unwanted books. ”There`s always a market for them. You can take them to dealers. Many antiquarian and used-book dealers will be happy to buy them from you, if they`re in good condition.”
What is the appeal of books? ”There is a thirst and a yen for knowledge for people to find out about certain things that interest them, whether handyman things, Shakespeare or whatever,” Halpern says. –