Lee Hadden writes: \” Yesterday\’s Wall Street Journal had an article by Susan Hauser, \”Out
of Print? Not Walter Powell: Some Say the Bookseller\’s Ghost Still
Circulates in the Stacks of the Store He Founded\” January 24, 2002, page
A16, that discusses the haunting of the Portland, Oregon, bookstore. This
is the world\’s largest independent new and used bookstore, and the founder,
Walter Powell, died in 1985.
\”A few marriages have been celebrated in the stacks, and at least one
loyal customer lies dead there, though well out of reach. His ashes are
interred, at his request, in the stylized pillar that graces the northwest
entrance to the store… On the four sides of the base of the pillar is
written in Latin the philosophy that drives Powell\’s: coeme librum, lege
librum, carpe librum, vende librum (Buy the book, read the book, enjoy the
book, sell the book).\”
Ghosts in the library or bookstore are a frequent topic of discussion
in hotel bars late at night at library conventions. I also tell my
non-library friends that we pre-dated the \”slasher\” movies. We have
\”Cutter\” stories. What\’s your Cutter number? Boo.
See: powells.com or WSJ.\”
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