Quill & Brush

Interview with Beth Fisher of Quill & Brush

When did you get started in bookselling?

When my kids were young and I needed to earn a little extra money, I’d work evenings with my sister, who was also looking for an excuse to take a break from her kids.

What drew you to bookselling?

My parents started the business when I was just getting out of high school and I can remember thinking that the absolute last thing I wanted to do was to work for myself. Here I am some 40+ years later doing just that.

Did you have any mentors in becoming a bookseller?

My parents, Pat and Allen Ahearn. As my father used to joke, Quill & Brush was the “employer of last resort” (at least I think he was joking.) And in a way, it was. My parents did something not everyone can do – they welcomed me into their world and let me find my own way. They showed me the ropes, so to speak, but also the way in which books, thoughts on books, uses for books, are open for interpretation, and that a business like ours, as staid as it might sometimes seem, grows, changes and is ever evolving. It was the greatest gift; I couldn’t ask for a better job. If only it were more lucrative.

What are your specialties as a dealer?

Q&B has always maintained a stock of modern first editions and will continue to do so. Like everything else, our stock is constantly evolving. I find myself looking at the same books I’ve seen over and over in a different light. It may not be a specialty but it’s what I do – look at books in my own way.

What's the most amazing book you've ever sold?

Hands down a leaf from the Gutenberg Bible. It is hard to express the impact of holding a leaf from the Gutenberg in your hands.

What is your favorite part of being a bookseller?

That moment when a book that I have spent time getting to know and appreciate is purchased by someone who has a special love for it. The joy of that moment is, to me, immeasurable.

Do you have an open storefront or have you in the past?

I’ve never worked in an open shop myself. My parents did for years. They started out in the mid to late 1970s in a barn converted to small shops in a small town not too far from where I grew up. A few years after that, they moved to a boutique mall on the outskirts of D.C. where they sold books and local art. They moved the shop home like so many others do because the rent became too high. This would have been in the early 1990s. (Note to future booksellers – if you want to keep an open store, buy property).

What is the funniest / strangest / scariest thing that ever happened in your store?

Okay, this is not really answering the question, but the funniest, strangest, scariest thing that ever happens is when I go look for a book and can't find it and look high and low – sometimes off and on for days, mind you – only to go right back to where I started and find it sitting right where it was supposed to be. That is funny / strange / scary on so many levels to me.

What is your favorite bookshop (other than your own)?

I grew up in a house filled with books and have surrounded myself with books ever since. I’m not actually sure how a lot of them even got here. They seem to just appear. I know this may seem odd but I think perhaps because of my background, I tend to focus more on books in people's homes than in shops. Or maybe it's because so many bookshops are, at this point, located in people's homes.

What do you personally like to read? Collect?

I find the older I get, the less I read. A trend I hope reverses at some point. I don’t have a favorite genre. I like to read well-written books. Or, more accurately, books that I think are well written. I’m sometimes paying more attention to the words and phrases than to the actual story. Reading is like listening to music for me. It's transporting and soothing and soul satisfying.

What's your favorite book you personally own? Would you sell it, if the price were right?

Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. I read it on the cusp of 13, the exact right time, and have read it several times since. (I’m always afraid the next read will be the one when it doesn’t hold up. It hasn’t disappointed yet.) No. There’s nothing particularly valuable about my copy other than it is a first edition and it is mine.

What one book would you buy if price were no object?

A Leaf from the Gutenberg Bible. I’ve never even read the bible, so a single leaf would be enough.

If you were stranded on a desert island and could bring three books, what would they be?

I might give a different answer tomorrow or even an hour from now. Like most people who like to read, I imagine. Right this second I’d say, Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, and Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping.