Chrismill Lane, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina , U.S.A. Phone: +1 (843) Fax: +1 (843)

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1 Biographical Letter While I always read books as a child and my bookshelf was always full, my interest in collecting rare books developed later. During Christmas 2002, I found in my stocking a scroll of papers packaged in a tube that tennis balls would usually come in. This package contained the beginnings of Books Tell You Why, which was at that point the smallest bookstore in the world. Little did I know that this Christmas present, a bookstore, would change the rest of my life. Over the past years, we have certainly grown and are no longer the smallest bookstore in the world we currently have a total of 40,000 volumes for sale with 14,000 of those being listed online. I coordinate all of the marketing efforts at Books Tell You Why. This includes designing and updating print advertisements, helping with newsletters, supporting social media activities on Google Plus, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as organizing six book fairs we currently exhibit at each year. As of July 2013, I was given accountability of our finances as Chief Financial Officer. Whether traveling to book fairs and seeing new places, or cataloguing a pile of books, I am always learning something new and I am constantly exposed to interesting literature and interesting people. There are so many great people in the trade, booksellers and collectors alike; I have seen exciting collections, and the people who built these are fascinating. I personally curate our The Night before Christmas collection, Charles van Sandwyk books, as well as our children s books and Newbery Medal and Caldecott Award winners. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday of the year by far. When I started collecting books and wanted to collect something I enjoyed, I knew it would have to be The Night before Christmas books. Of course, as collecting doesn't come without having the right bibliography, Nancy Marshall's The Night before Christmas: A Descriptive Bibliography is sitting on my shelf.

2 I also collect Charles van Sandwyk books, which I started after visiting the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair one year, and maintain his presence in our book inventory. Van Sandwyk, an author and illustrator who divides his time between Canada and Fiji, adorns his hand-sewn works with whimsical fairies and woodland scenes that are reminiscent of Arthur Rackham's work. I fell in love with his works and enjoy selling them since they are so charming and magical. He has a great publisher whom I enjoy working with. Furthermore, I am always on the lookout for Newbery Medal and Caldecott Award winners, for which I started to create a bibliography. When cataloguing books, I examine every aspect of the title including, but not limited to, edition and printing, condition, scarcity in the market, and demand of the title. While I have not done an official appraisal in my years of bookselling, I price books during everyday cataloguing of acquisitions, which does involve value assessment and the understanding of the factors that affect the value of a book. I studied abroad at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland for one year, and I currently attend the Honors College at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. While I am a still student, I have developed a passion for antiquarian books and play a large role in the everyday life of Books Tell You Why, be it cataloging a new acquisition, interacting with customers, or creating print advertisements, and I look forward to further developing our presence as antiquarian booksellers over the years. As a member of the ABAA, I hope to make further connections with booksellers and collectors alike, while gaining insight, advice and knowledge from the best of the best in the trade. While having more than one ABAA member is an important element to our bookstore s succession planning, many booksellers seem to neglect this, my full ABAA membership would also be a tremendous asset for me and my development in the trade.

3 My top two personal reasons are as follows: I would like to take a more active leadership role in the association as well as helping to grow and develop future members through coaching and sponsorship. While I am here to learn, particularly outside of my focus areas, I believe that I can also start to contribute in growing areas such as social media and marketing. I have loved being the youngest, for the time being, Associate Member of the ABAA, and am very much looking forward to becoming a Full Member. Applicant s Essay How to evaluate the value of a collection My current key focus and areas of strength include children s books, specifically Caldecott Award and Newbery Medal winners, Christmas books centered on The Night before Christmas titles, as well as the works of Charles van Sandwyk. My first step in evaluating a collection of these books would be to evaluate each book individually. This would include verifying the edition/printing of books and matching dust-jackets where issued with the help of existing bibliographies. For The Night before Christmas, I consult Nancy H. Marshall s bibliography, The Night Before Christmas, A Descriptive Bibliography Of Clement Clarke Moore's Immortal Poem With Editions From 1823 Through 2000 and a reliable bibliography for children s books called Children's And Illustrated Books by Lee Baumgarten. For the Charles van Sandwyk titles, the author s personal bibliography titled Charles Van Sandwyk: An Interim Bibliography 1983 To 2000 is certainly the most reliable. Furthermore, we keep bibliographical records of books we have acquired previously. The books and their dust-jackets would need to be evaluated for condition and completeness. Once a full assessment of the books has been made, a list of prices of the same book in similar condition

4 will be compiled. Prices of currently available titles can often be obtained on websites, such as Abebooks, the ABAA or ILAB site, Biblio, etc. Where applicable, auction records are also being consulted. Books Tell You Why has a subscription to American Book Prices Current, whose records are often very valuable when pricing books. With a rather narrow focus area, I will be able to consult past sales records of our company to see the value of the same, or similar, books that we have sold previously. To price a book that is not seen on any listing platforms or in auction records, after verifying authenticity, I would first consider the prices of titles written by the same author or in the same genre to understand the potential demand of this particular title. I would then consider the pricing premium or discount based on the condition or binding. For example, having a book rebound can sometimes increase the value of a book, but the original binding in pristine condition would certainly make a book more valuable. The provenance/relevance of a book can also be very important in determining its value; a book that has a signature or was previously owned by a significant person can add to its value. Furthermore, if a book has significance within a time period or during an author s life, this can increase the value of a book, especially if it is the first or last book by an author, if the book describes an important discovery, etc. Each of these factors would allow me to get an initial idea from similar books, which would then be influenced by positive factors and negative factors, such as demand, condition, and rebind. After examining each book individually, the books need to be evaluated as a collection to determine their value as a whole collection. A complete, well-balanced collection of Newbery Medal and Caldecott Award books, for example, will likely be valued higher than the individual titles. While independent from the actual value of a collection, consideration should be given by the recipient to the sales model and the sense of urgency for turning books into money, e.g. as

5 booksellers look to sell books at market price (the appraised value), they would obviously be paying less for an acquisition, while consignment models take the longest time to receive funding but typically yield the highest return for the owner. Depending on the type of collection, making books available for auction can also be an attractive option.