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Knowledgeable: John Wronoski is an important dealer in the book world.

I found the Lame Duck Bookstore when I wasn’t looking for it. Searching for Raven, a popular used bookstore in Harvard Square, Cambridge, I found myself before the Lame Duck. The sign said, “Rare, Out of Print and Antiquarian Books”. I had never been inside a proper antiquarian bookstore before — had not dared to because I was certain I could never afford a really rare book.

But now I couldn’t resist a peek, and pushed open the door, ready to flee if the staff made me out as a cheap customer. I was greeted affably by a young man at a desk who asked me to feel free to ask him where what was. I asked if they carried modern first editions and he replied that the store was full of nothing but modern first editions, especially in philosophy, poetry and fiction.

An hour more of poking around and talking to Tom Mattos, the gracious, literate and kindly bibliophile at the desk, I discovered I was in no ordinary rare bookstore but in one of the most significant antiquarian bookstores in the world. Lame Duck Books are “internationally known specialists buying and selling important modern books and manuscripts”. They feature the “most significant selection of 19th and 20th century Spanish language literature in the world, as well as important holdings of 17th and 18th century English poetry”. It’s owner, John Wronoski (whom I caught a quick glimpse of) is considered one of the most important book dealers in the world. Reading their catalogues that Tom handed me, I saw how detailed, knowledgeable and passionate Wronoski was in describing each item there.

Since Lame Duck Books, I have been inside many rare books stores but what is so singular and marvellous about the Lame Duck is how even very rare books, often signed and inscribed copies or association copies, are to be found strewn all over the floor in piles, waiting to be priced or sorted.

The very first time I spoke to Tom was when I brought over a first edition of Bernard Malamud’s The Assistant to ask him, in a hesitant fashion, if they perhaps also had a first edition of his A New Life? ‘Hmmmm’, he said, “Not at the moment but if Malamud is your man, we have something else that might interest you.” He stepped over a small pile of books on the floor, swept them up in his arms and off loaded them into mine. “These all came from the library of a close friend of the Malamuds’ — many of these books have Malamud’s handwriting in them.”

Just like that — books that were once owned and touched and used by Malamud were now sitting in my hand. Of course, each of these books was priced at over 100 dollars, so I had to put them back down.

An hour or so later, in another part of the bookstore, I came across a book — in a pile of unsorted books — Bernard Malamud’s own copy of a book on literary style that he had heavily underlined and scribbled marginalia in. A very rare and precious book priced at $150. More than fair in dollars but converted to rupees, forbidding — at least for me.

However, the real excitement at the Lame Duck was yet to come. It was by sheer chance that I brought up the name of Salinger in some context and Tom, after a pause, said: “The only really interesting thing we have by Salinger is a letter by him to his daughter.”

I couldn’t believe it. Anything written and signed by J.D. Salinger is truly rare, what the book trade calls ‘a high spot’ in literary ephemera. “Would you like to see it?’ he asked. It would be a privilege, I said, if it would not be putting him to too much trouble. “My pleasure,” he said and disappeared into the office to get it out of the safe.

Tom knew well enough by now that I could never really afford their books, but he was still kind enough to entertain me. He let me hold the letter and read it for myself. It was placed in a clear acetate cover to protect it. It was priced $17,500.

Let me quote from their catalogue to accurately describe what I was holding in my hands that day.

“One page typed letter, signed, 7x 10 on yellow paper, undated, but circa 1960, addressed to his daughter Peggy. Salinger encloses a couple letters for his daughter, which he ironically describes as exciting. The rest of the letter alludes to a decision his daughter must make on her own, and which he is confident she will manage well, as ‘she is not gaga, and never ha(ve) been, and that in any crisis or near-crisis you’re pretty detached and (hurray) self-protective’. Signed, Daddy in Salinger’s distinctive block script. An affecting document which we’d love to return to its author as a gesture of solidarity, though we see no means of nor higher rationale for doing so. Near fine. $US17500.”

I could never hope that I would ever again in any bookstore get a chance to hold a letter by J.D. Salinger. Only three known letters exist, and, suddenly on that afternoon, I was privy to one of them. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Lame Duck Books, John Wronoski and Tom Mattos for making this possible. It was at that moment that I realised that I was standing inside a very special antiquarian bookstore, staffed by very special people.

Lame Duck is full of first editions of Proust, Kafka, Kierkegaard, Sartre, Rilke ( I actually pulled out of the shelf a first ed in German of the Sonnets of Orpheus!) Mann, Nietzsche, Eliot, and Kafka. Lame Duck has the only known manuscript of several of Jorge Louis Borges’ most important work. I had seen several photographs, sketches and even a fascinating installation of Borges all over the store.

Tom then informed me that Borges was the Lame Duck’s patron saint. And then it made sense why I was so happy and wonderstruck browsing inside the Lame Duck. Because it is Borges who said, “I don’t know why I believe that a book brings us the possibility of happiness, but I am truly grateful for that modest miracle.”

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