Peter B. Howard, owner of Serendipity Books in Berkeley, California, died yesterday, March 31, 2011. We hadn't seen him for a couple of years, couldn't get out to the West Coast lately, but our string of annual visits there shaped our thinking, our business, and most of all, what we learned to reach for as we built the collections of Kingdom Books.
I wish I'd taken his photo, but you can see some good ones, along with great tributes, on the Web. Dave especially recommends the video interview done in February with Peter, easily found at the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers website, which also provides this set of text tributes.
At Fine Books & Collections, you can read another good piece on Peter, written by Nicholas Basbanes.
We offer our sympathy to Peter's family, friends, and most of all colleagues, at Serendipity and beyond. This absence is enormous, poignant, and never to be filled. But let's keep honoring and celebrating who he was, and what he has done for those to seek and treasure books.
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