New Blood in an Old Trade: Elizabeth Svendsen

To prepare for the transition she attended courses at the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar, the Rare Book School affiliated with the University of Virginia and the California Rare Book School (Links to 2013 offerings at the end) She found the experience worthwhile and pointed out that all of them offer scholarships.

She credits these experiences with helping to shape her specialty and meet future colleagues and associates. As for the ABAA membership, though for some the organization seems a bit formidable, Svendsen claims it is friendlier than you may have heard on the grapevine and the vetting process for membership not so daunting and it might at first appear.

When she changed from a local used book store to an antiquarian specialist, she noted her stock went from about 6,000 books to only a few hundred. Now she’s spending to build an inventory and is up to about 1,600 titles. She’s also been exhibiting widely. In 2012 she participated in shows in Florida, the NYC “shadow” show, Akron, Buffalo and the Twin Cities. “I drove to all of them,” she said.

Seattle, however, was her first time to fly both herself and her books to an event, which turned out to be among her favorites, with the right blend of congenial colleagues and interested and interesting customers.