Shelf Life

 My downsizing continues.  The new target is the release of some books I've been carrying around for decades.  Much of this cache comes from my college years in the late 1960s.  What better place to find a new home for some of this material than a small independent bookshop with the appropriate name of Revolution Books.  Actually, even though they have a good collection of political books and ephemera, some vinyl records, and an abundance of jigsaw puzzles, the store features a selective and eclectic selection of mostly used books.  

As you might surmise, this little store is an anomaly.  But it seems to be eeking out survival during this dark economic time.  The atmosphere of the store is welcoming, and the young couple that owns it are obviously living their dream.  

So I march in with 7 books in a paper grocery bag.  The woman is there; she gets excited about my books and quickly calls her husband.  He instructs her to photograph the books. She does.  After viewing the iPhone pic, he wants them all.  We strike a deal.  

Among the books, I sold was a rare little paperback from 1968.  Called Thoughts of the Young Radicals, it was on the reading list for a political philosophy class I took at UCLA that same year.  And what a year it was.  I've experienced nothing like it since, save 2020.  This little volume contained a series of essays originally published in the New Republic by the young radicals of the time.  Many of those folks, like Tom Hayden, and Stokley Carmichael are no longer alive, much less young. As I glanced through the book one more time before I placed it in the bag, I realized that it could be an invaluable resource for someone doing research on the period.  Included in that group of seven books was a book of letters written by draft resisters (not to be confused with draft dodgers) a book on Buddhism, and ...and...I can't recall the other 5.  That's a good thing because I'm trying hard not to hold onto books for the wrong reasons. 

After I got home, I thought of that class back in 1968.  The professor was interested in a term he coined, "radical liberal." He'd written a book by the same name, also on the reading list, and the discussion centered on how liberals must go one step further if any real change was to occur in American political institutions.  This was the year of two political assassinations, a stormy Democratic convention in Chicago, and the rise of the Black Panther Party.  I recalled how the final for that class was held on the same day as the California primary.  I'd written on the differences between Sen. Gene McCarthy and Sen. Robert Kennedy.  That night I watched in horror as Bobby was cut down shortly after winning the Democratic primary.  What a year.

I've got a feeling that I'll be making more trips to this little bookstore.  Not all my stuff will be sold, some will, no doubt, be donated.  The compensation is really knowing that my prized collection of now rare, aging,  well-traveled books found a good home.