Community Building in the Washington, DC area!!

SFP Editor: How did you become an antique book dealer? Paul M. Dowling: The same way you pursue anything, really. You fall in love with something that you find meaningful and then you sacrifice all of your available time to it. The payoff is that, even after a frustrating day (and I have them, believe me), you still have the most amazing job. Just try saying "I'm an antiquarian bookseller" next time someone at happy hour asks you what you do for work.

SFP Editor:Why did you move to Washington, DC?

Paul M. Dowling: I moved to Washington D.C. from New York City last August. My initial reason for moving was to escape from New York (like Kurt Russell) but when I discovered DC (I'd never even visited in my 31 years) I really fell in love with the place. I can't get enough of the green spaces, the architecture, the weather, the people. I've been here a year now and I still feel like I'm on vacation.

SFP Editor: How far have you traveled to obtain a book and why?

Paul M. Dowling: Queens. No, Germany, actually. I say Germany and not Italy because I don't speak German so it was like going an extra distance. I went because I couldn't get reliable descriptions of some 15th and 16th century books and I didn't want to risk missing out on them. It ended up being quite a successful trip and not at all lonely. I managed to bump into a few dealers whom I had met previously in other parts of the world. These guys were from Bologna, Largo di Garda, and Amsterdam; so it was nice to see them all in Germany. I know, "How international!".

SFP Editor: What kind of antique books do you collect?

Paul M. Dowling: It changes all the time. My inventory changes constantly so it's like having a virtual library: the shelves are always full but the books are different, like water in the stream. At the moment, it is 'Historia Naturalis', printed in 1635, by Juan Eusebio Nieremberg, a Spanish Jesuit. It is considered the first natural history book of the Americas and is loaded with amazing woodcuts of North and South American animals and plants: rattlesnakes, raccoons, sloths, South American monkeys, etc.. Just imagine living in Europe in 1635 and getting your hands on this book. Remember, there was no National Geographic. Another interesting thing to think about is the fact that Spain had been busy colonizing the Americas for over a hundred years by the time this book was printed. By contrast, England had only a few tiny colonies in the 'New World' in 1635. Fascinating stuff.

SFP Editor: What about antique books do you find intriguing?

Paul M. Dowling: There are a number of things. Books are an amazingly durable technology. If I were to give you a book from 1471 and a punch card from an early computer, you would, without hesitation, open the book and start to read. The punch card would be impenetrable without the computer that was designed to read it for you. It's true of most technologies designed to store information. Next, when we consider the physical objects themselves, these are artifacts of culture. Have you ever looked at the way paper was made in the fifteenth-century? Have you ever held a sixteenth-century binding made out of pigskin and wood? These physical aspects are important to our understanding of the way people read these books. Lastly, these texts are our collective cultural and intellectual heritage. I have a book written in 1610 with images of the Moon's surface and charts showing the moons of Jupiter. The author had improved a device (the telescope) that allowed him to see these realities for the first time. The author was Galileo.

SFP Editor: What did you do before becoming an antique book dealer?

Paul M. Dowling: I studied to become a classicist. I studied Greek and Latin and the cultures, art, and literature of Greece and Rome. I then managed a company owned by a very good friend. When he offered me half of the company, I had to make a decision about my future.

SFP Editor: What tips do you have for an antique book collector?

Paul M. Dowling: Don't make rigid decisions about what you are going to collect. I have met people who have killed the excitement and potential beauty of developing a collection by deciding, before they had even a clue about what is out there, exactly what they were going to accumulate. Where did the joy of discovery go? It's like deciding exactly what you are going to see when going to a foreign country. Also, don't decide that you can't have what you really want. I've seen people waste money on junky 19th century books because they convinced themselves that they couldn't have something really wonderful.

SFP Editor: Are you a typical book dealer?

Paul M. Dowling: If you are referring to the stereotype, I don't have a moustache, potbelly, American flag suspenders, or cats.

SFP Editor: Have you ever found a book you intended to sell but kept it for yourself?

Paul M. Dowling: I have three books, each of them purchased before I started the business, and I don't intend to ever sell them. As corny as this will sound, I get more satisfaction out of finding these books new homes. I often use the analogy of a dating service. These books are dream dates: beautiful, exotic, intelligent, wonderful. When people discover these books, they feel like they've found something that they never knew that they needed.

SFP Editor: What is the most challenging goal you have undertaken?

Paul M. Dowling: In the context of the business, I'd say communicating the importance of these books to others. That’s an uphill battle and I wage it (happily) every day.