THE EIGHTY-FIRST PAGE

New England probably provides the best used book shopping outside New York City and Boston, and in some ways is better than the cities; the stock has a tendency to be more loosely organized and less picked over. A great first could leap up and bite you from any hidden corner. I had to keep telling myself, I was not in search of firsts, nor even continuing my lifelong quest for the nouveau Hardy Boys or Nancy Drews. This was the business of malice and mayhem.

Nevertheless, the besotted bibliophile cannot help looking for The Haunted Bookshop, the Parnassus on Wheels at home, as described by Christopher Morley in his books of those titles. These two novels are among the most-loved books of the century, revived and rediscovered about every ten minutes.

They are bookish romances of pursuit, purchase, and preservation of books. Lurking in the corner of the shop should be the smoke-shrouded Roger Mifflin, who promises to leave the customer alone, but is always available to share his Christopher Morleyish enthusiasms for just about every book ever written.

The ultimate search was for a haunted bookshop where one could find an old book, made new by a proprietor’s enthusiasm.