The Scrivener: Two Part-Time Ladies And Beyond
…We became aware that one regular customer was whistling in the greetings card section. A young man was doing a sort of little hopping dance, waving a card in the air. He would occasionally buy cards and also little scriptural tracts and holy pictures.
One day, he found a box of plastic letters designed to teach children how to spell. He cleared a small table of its display and started putting letters on it, spelling out words, the while humming with joy. I went to see what he was doing. He had laid out the words, 'Praise the Lord' and ecstatically declared, 'Isn't it marvellous!'…
Brian Barratt brings us the first of a three-part series on his experiences while book selling in Africa.
For more of Brian’s wonderful words please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/the_scrivener/
And you are missing treat if you don’t visit his Web site The Brain Rummager www.alphalink.com.au/~umbidas/
Each year, a Christmas card arrives from Charles, one of my old bosses and a good friend. There's always a cheery and whimsical note, in clear handwriting. His lovely wife died some time ago. He is confined to a wheelchair. At the time I am writing these words, he is 92 years old.
Charles was the Book Steward (Manager) of the Methodist Bookroom in Harare, Zimbabwe (then known as Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia). In September 1956 I asked him if he had a vacancy. Yes, quoth he. Two part-time ladies were about to leave, and I took both of their jobs. They were ladies full-time, I hasten to add — just their jobs had been part-time.
In that era long before computers, there were two main reference books, updated annually, which listed all available books published in the United Kingdom and the United States. We referred to them simply as Bowker and Whitaker. If my memory serves me aright, about 350,000 titles were in print in the UK and about 500,000 in the USA. Annual supplementary volumes listed about 50,000 new titles.
Charles appointed me First Assistant and gave me my first wise lesson in bookselling: 'You don't have to know the answer to every question and enquiry, but you have to know where to find the answer.' Bowker and Whitaker provided most of those answers. Catalogues from overseas publishers and visits by local sales representatives provided the other answers.
When purchasing greetings cards, of which we kept a wide range in stock, he advised: 'Buy some which you like and some which you don't like at all.' A wise man indeed.
Bibles were, of course, important stock items. If I recall aright, the main publishers of the Authorised Version (AV) and the Revised Version (RV) were Eyre and Spottiswoode, William Collins, Cambridge University Press, and by far the largest, Oxford University Press. The AV is also known as the King James Version. The 1885 RV was then the preferred version for use in the Methodist Church. Taking a new Oxford Bible out of its box, unwrapping the tissue, and then feeling and smelling the fresh leather binding was a real pleasure to the senses. There were several modern translations, the most popular of which was the 1952 Revised Standard Version (RSV).
The three main one-volume Bible reference books were Hastings Dictionary of the Bible, Peake's Commentary on the Bible, and Cruden's Concordance. The retail price of those huge tomes was only about £2 each. But prices change. Our purchases in 1957–1958, for which Charles gave me responsibility, amounted to about £20,000. That could probably equate with over £500,000 now, as a Penguin book which then cost 3/6d (three shillings and sixpence) now costs around £10.
We had some strange requests. A customer asked for 'the original Bible'. Charles answered, very seriously, 'I'm afraid there aren't any original copies left, but we have some very good translations'. Another eager person asked for 'a photograph of the Lord', so I emulated Charles in my response, 'I'm afraid cameras hadn't been invented in the time of Jesus, but we have prints of some very good paintings'.
We became aware that one regular customer was whistling in the greetings card section. A young man was doing a sort of little hopping dance, waving a card in the air. He would occasionally buy cards and also little scriptural tracts and holy pictures.
One day, he found a box of plastic letters designed to teach children how to spell. He cleared a small table of its display and started putting letters on it, spelling out words, the while humming with joy. I went to see what he was doing. He had laid out the words, 'Praise the Lord' and ecstatically declared, 'Isn't it marvellous!'.
I gently asked him why he was buying all the different items. He took me out to his car, opened the boot, and produced a huge and somewhat tatty roll of brown paper. Unfolding it, he revealed that he was sticking all the pictures, tracts and cards onto it. This collection, he told me, was his Evangelical Campaign, to run alongside Billy Graham's.
Our young lady assistant complained to me that she didn't like the way he looked at her. I kept a close eye on him and his visits eventually ceased.
Charles returned to England and a new manager was appointed. He was a grand old fellow who genially insisted that he came from 'Cornwall, near England'. As he knew pretty well nothing about the Book Trade, I taught him his job. I also held the fort for a month while he was ill. By that stage, I had decided the time was ripe for me to seek a position with better prospects. In November 1960, I moved up to Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia) to become Manager of the USCL (United Society for Christian Literature) bookshop in Kitwe. That's another story.
© Copyright Brian Barratt 2009.
