Hey all you cool cats and… wait, what platform is this again?
Just kidding. We know this has been a stressful month (or more) in many of our lives. Things look so very different today than we ever imagined they would, and so very different than they looked just a few short months ago. We are doing our part by staying home and distancing ourselves from others – and we know you are too! (Especially because you’re reading this blog.) We thought we’d do a quick Q&A with our master and commander, Vic Zoschak, on how life has changed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. No fear mongering, no obsessing… just good old-fashioned bibliophiles talking about life.
Q: So Vic, times are kind of crazy right now. What is personally keeping you sane during this pandemic and quarantine? Is it books? Is it being able to still go into the shop, lonely as it may be occasionally? Or… is it Netflix and manhattans? 🙂
You got it Ms P! Which is to say, for now, I’m able to head into the shop 5 days out of 7, which goes a long way towards combating going the ’stir crazy’ tendency at home. Samm & I are staggering shifts, as it were, so as to adhere to the social distancing guidelines, but nevertheless I’m able to continue working, albeit fewer hours in a given day. Those other hours are, indeed, spent at home, so there’s been a jump in Netflix time as well. Now into NCIS season 13. lol
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Q: Vic, based on everything I’ve seen on our social media sites, bibliophiles seem to not know how coronavirus might be affecting the book world. It is hard for outsiders to know what kind of effect it is having on our (book) community at large. Other stores can be a bit more obviously impacted. What have you witnessed?
Well, for me, as a bookseller who emphasized primarily on-line sales, it’s not been so much of a change in terms of how things operate, vis-a-vis my colleagues who depended on walk-in traffic for their livelihood. However, the sales side has been negatively affected to some degree, which, I believe, reflects the ’stay at home’ mandate in place across the country, which has caused massive unemployment.
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Q: Have you experienced surges or losses in sales over the last month or two, or have things remained much the same? Personally, I think being stuck at home is a great opportunity to research and buy some antiquarian books, but then again I have also purchased several bathing suits while in quarantine. For non-existent beach life! I simply can’t be trusted.
Not surges in sales, nor precipitous drops, but rather a gradual drop-off… see comment above.
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Q: How has this pandemic influenced book fairs in the United States? Which have been cancelled, what has that done to people’s livelihoods, and also the most important question… do you see the fairs being rescheduled once this has passed, or do you think it will last long enough to make rescheduling redundant?
Here in California, the local Sacramento Book Fair, scheduled for March 28th, was cancelled. Paris, this month, has been [imo, optimistically] rescheduled for the fall. Melbourne, this July, was cancelled. In other words, book fairs across the globe are being postponed or cancelled. With some infectious disease experts saying it might be 2021 before large gatherings are again ‘doable’, I’m wondering whether book fairs will happen again this year. I hope I’m wrong, for I would love to attend the Boston fair this coming fall, but I’m not buying my plane ticket just yet. But with large gatherings questionable, in response, the ABAA and IOBA are investigating a virtual book fair. Time will tell is this is a viable substitute.
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Q: We imagine that as late president of the ABAA you are still involved in some of their important discussions. Anything you can share with us on the ABAA’s feelings about this virus and its effect on the book world?
Actually Ms P, it’s my experience, both as President, and immediate Past President, prior individuals in the job are not as involved as you imagine.. past presidents have a couple responsibilities, such as serving a trustee on the ABBF, but once the torch is passed, we past presidents are little involved in the day-to-day of ABAA administration. As to the ABAA’s stance, it’s my view that they are very concerned about the pandemic’s affect on the trade, an example of which is their effort to host a virtual book fair.
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Q: What advice might you have for bibliophiles stuck at home with some down time during this quarantine? Have you been reading anything good? Is it time to start a collection? Or time to sell a collection? Or… is it time for us to finally read Bleak House?
That’s a good question. Presuming one has time on one’s hands, and some available discretionary funds, I say its a good time for developing one’s collection, for you can spend time searching out those elusive titles that one needs to fill the gaps. And, of course, one can now spend some reading those volumes that have sat on the bedside table for oh-so-long!
A young illness affecting her spine and movement led to Elizabeth being given (and then continuously taking) laudanum, morphine and opium as a child for pain. Being addicted to these somewhat serious drugs and taking them throughout her lifetime is generally acknowledged to both have helped and hindered her in life. Her constant frail health was negatively affected by these chemicals, but they also may have contributed to her originality and imagination when writing her poetry.
In 1841 Elizabeth’s life seemed to begin to turn itself around. She was struck with a few years of intense creativity, which led to the publication of several of her greatest works. Her 1842 poem “The Cry of the Children” published in a Blackwoods magazine helped bring about child labor law reform. In 1844 she published not one but two volumes of poetry, which were immediate successes. She was suddenly a household name. It was her poetry that inspired one Robert Browning to write to her and tell her of his love for her writing. They met and instantly became ardent devotees of the other. Both Browning and Barrett’s works improved (despite their work already being popular with the public). After meeting Browning, Barrett published her most famous works Aurora Leigh and Sonnets from the Portuguese. The marriage between Browning and Barrett was carried out in secrecy, and once found out Barretts father disinherited her (as he funnily enough did to all his children who married). They made their permanent residence in Italy, where they raised their son, Pen, and befriended many influential writers and artists of the day.
The two attended the University of Marburg together, where they tried to study law. I say “tried”, because here the brothers once again met adversity due to their reduced social status. Treated as outcasts, without the benefit of receiving financial aid or stipends as some of the wealthier students received (explain THAT one, if you can), the brothers once again turned to each other for comfort and worked hard in their studies. It was at the University of Marburg that the pair first became interested in medieval German literature and more simplistic, romantic ways of writing that the modern day seemed to have forgotten. This interest in folklore and poetry and traditional “German” culture influenced the brothers for the rest of their lives. They wished to see the unification of the over 200 principalities into a single, unified state, and spent much of their time with their inspiring law professor Friedrich von Savigny and his friends. It was through these romantics that the Grimm brothers were introduced to the literary beliefs of Johann Gottfried Herder – a German philosopher who felt that literature of the area should revert back to simplicity, and focus more on nature, humanity and beauty. The boys credited their devotion to their studies in Germanic literature and culture as a saving grace in a dark time – outcasts amongst their peers. Wilhelm himself wrote, “the ardor with which we studied Old German helped us overcome the spiritual depression of those days.”
The brothers did not immediately turn to transcribing Germanic folklore for the masses. As they were solely responsible, as the oldest boys (primarily Jacob) of the family, for their sibling and mother’s livelihood (because that’s what they needed… more stress), Jacob accepted a job in Paris as assistant to his once-professor (von Savigny). On his return to Marburg he gave this post up to take a job with the Hessian War Commission. Their circumstances remained dire – as it seemed almost impossible for Jacob to support them all on his own. Food was often scarce and the brothers suffered emotionally. In 1808, Jacob found a more appropriate (to his interests) job as the librarian to the King of Westphalia, and soon after went on to become the librarian in Kassel, where the two boys had attended their gymnasium (high school, for all intents and purposes). Jacob supported his siblings once their mother passed away, and he even paid for Wilhelm to receive medical attention that year to seek treatment for respiratory problems. After Wilhelm’s recovery, he joined his brother as a librarian in Kassel. 
After being slighted for a job promotion, the brothers eventually moved to Göttingen where they became professors of German studies at the University (Jacob also as head librarian), and continued to write and publish works on Germanic folklore, mythology and country tales for a few years. The brothers moved to Berlin in their later years, working at the University of Berlin and also editing their German Dictionary, which would become one of their most prominent works. 
Yes, over the years, I’ve often been referred to as “Mr Tavistock”, but the name actually, rather than being my surname, has a [small] Dickens connection…