The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap (33 page)

The UVA-Wise CABs: Margie (this book’s godmother), Cyndi, Ann (the academic’s best friend and secret weapon), and Michael.

The Grammar Guerrilla Girls: You know who you are (in every sense of those words); you know how important what you do is; and you know how much we mean to each other.

The Needlework Night Babes: may your stitches never ravel and your needles point only to the truth.

The Big Stone Gap Writing Group: you saw it first (and pretty much last, and at every stage in between. Are you as sick of me as I am?!).

Pamela and Louise Malpas at Harold Ober: from the first phone call in that parking lot to the last edit, thank you! And to Michelle Montalbano: thank you for, among other things, the epigraph research and the Melville backup.

Nichole Argyres (let’s not talk about
Meany
) and Laura Chasen at St. Martin’s Press: thank you for making this book better every time you touched it and every time we talked. And thank you for liking it so much. You were right, Nichole; this was fun, fun, fun (mostly because you were so much fun to work with).

Team Emert: we see way too much of each other, but thanks for keeping the smiles going anyway.

The people of Coalfields Appalachia: we get the hype end of the media, the short end of the funding stick, the stereotypes, the extraction without infrastructure, and the platitudes. And we still belong to ourselves and to God’s Country. The mountains hold things in, and they also keep things out. Here’s to us!

Cassie, Kim, and the rest of the workaholics at SMP: thank you for thinking of the stuff no one else thinks of, with a style and panache that makes everyone else glad you thought of it.

Kathy Still: I think it’s ironic that you’re behind the scenes making it all better in this book, as you do in real life for so many.

Jessica Ketron and Elissa Powers: your combined genius crafted an author head shot I didn’t want to burn.

Cami Ostman: all the years of “your turn/my turn” have been good. Here’s to many more!

Carolyn Jourdan: for numerous wisdom swaps, online and off.

Tony and Anne and the congregation of BSG Presbyterian, plus the Quakers who meet in our bookstore: y’all are bastions of sanity and good manners, no matter what.

The booksellers we met and the friends we met up with on the “Booking Down the Road Trip”: Brave, hardworking, always quirky, and usually right; that about sums you up.

My parents and sister: Yes, you are funny!

The owners and operators of mom-and-pop stores everywhere: Hang in there! We are the collective reason civilization hasn’t self-destructed yet!

PAWS, In His Hands, and the rest of the rescuers who find homes for shelter animals: You do good, and you do right. (And please, world, spay and neuter your pets!)

The day jobbers: Diane, Keith, Gary and Millie, Susan, Norma, and Libz (and Chelsie the Twitter tutor).

The theatricals: Jerry Lou and Jimmy, Erin, Harry, Jenny, and the gang.

And Jack: it seems superfluous to thank you here because you were such a part of it all. Every day with you is a good one.

A
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR

Wendy Welch and her husband, Scottish folksinger Jack Beck, own and operate Tales of the Lonesome Pine Used Books in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. Wendy has a Ph.D. in ethnography, fosters shelter animals, and is one of the world’s fastest crocheters. This is a good thing because it means she is able to sneak in some crafting time between teaching college courses on culture and public health, running special events at the shop, writing about stuff, and chasing kittens out of roads. Enjoy her blog at
www.wendywelchbigstonegap.wordpress.com
.

THE LITTLE BOOKSTORE OF BIG STONE GAP.
Copyright © 2012 by Wendy Welch All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.stmartins.com

Cover design by David Baldeosingh Rotstein

Cover illustration by Kristine A. Lombardi

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Welch, Wendy.

The little bookstore of big Stone Gap: a memoir of friendship, community, and the uncommon pleasure of a good book / Wendy Welch.—1st ed.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-250-01063-6 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-250-01064-3 (e-book)

1. Bookstores—Virginia. 2. Antiquarian booksellers—Virginia. 3. Married people—Employment. 4. Book collectors. I. Title.

Z478.3.V57.W45 2012

381'.45002025755—dc23