Tony Myers writes: In the summer of 1990, I was bumming around France with ambitions of becoming a writer. I had been told that George Whitman (obituary, 15 December) would allow “writers” to stay above the shop at Shakespeare and Company in Paris for free, in return for them helping out around the place.
Unfortunately for me, there had been a fire upstairs, so there were no rooms. But George asked me about myself, and within five minutes of my stepping through the door, had decided to leave me in charge of the shop while he went to the weekly jumble sale at the nearby American mission church. I tried to explain that I was clueless about selling books and my French was lousy, but he would hear nothing of it and promptly left, saying he would be back later.
I sat there for a while, wondering what to do, and in the meantime sold a couple of magazines. Then an American acquaintance of George’s walked in. He’s just popped out, I said, to the jumble sale. The guy looked at me and said: “He’ll be gone hours.”……
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2012/jan/06/george-whitman-obituary-letter
![THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES - SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE - ORIGINAL VERSION [INCLUDES BONUS ANNOTATIONS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FYmxbPcIL._SL75_.jpg "THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES - SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE - ORIGINAL VERSION [INCLUDES BONUS ANNOTATIONS]")
![THE SCARLET LETTER - ORIGINAL FIRST EDITION VERSION FOR KINDLE [ANNOTATED]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ENVZ9nYQL._SL75_.jpg "THE SCARLET LETTER - ORIGINAL FIRST EDITION VERSION FOR KINDLE [ANNOTATED]")
