Group Panel: Treasure Hunt Stories

This March Brown Bag Lunch Series featured a panel discussion with veteran and young ABAA members. They shared their experiences with book scouting, memorable moments as a dealer in the trade, the ups and downs of a book dealer, and much more!

Moderator: Lizzy Young, Lizzyoung Bookseller (member since 2016)
Lizzyoung Bookseller sells Rare Books, Ephemera, and Manuscripts with a focus on Food & Drink History, Women's History, Cultural History, Children's Books, and anything else that makes her smile. A former pastry chef, Lizzy caught the bookselling bug when she started working for her father, Roy Young Bookseller. The rest is history.

Panelist: Jim Cummins, James Cummins, Bookseller (member since 1981)
A lifelong collector, Jim started James Cummins Bookseller in 1978 after running the rare book department at Brentano's. He is a prominent and well respected figure in the antiquarian book world and a fixture at auctions. His expertise is wide and is reflected in the breadth of stock at his namesake firm. You can see Jim in action in the 2019 documentary, The Booksellers.

Panelist: Megan Bell, Underground Books (member since 2024)
Megan Bell is the co-owner, along with Josh Niesse, of Underground Books, ABAA in Carrollton, Georgia. One of the newest members of the ABAA, Megan is also a proud alumna of the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar (CABS), Rare Book School at the University of Virginia, and the ABAA Women's Initiative Mentorship Program. In addition to a rare and collectible online bookstore at UndergroundBooks.net, she also helps run two open brick-and-mortar general bookshops in Carrollton and Serenbe. Megan is passionate about decorative publisher's cloth bindings; fairy tales, folklore, and mythology; popular science and natural history; the intersection of all of the above (as seen in her monthly rare book newsletter and her 2022 catalogue, The Fairy-Land of Science); and, most recently, fine press books (catalogue coming soon!).

Panelist: Greg Gibson, Ten Pound Book Company (member since 1986)
Greg Gibson received his BA from Swarthmore College in 1967. Greg enlisted in the United States Navy and worked as a shipfitter until 1971. After his discharge, he moved to Gloucester, Massachusetts, and was variously employed as a house painter, cab driver, and construction worker. In 1976, he opened Ten Pound Island Book Company and began his career as an antiquarian book dealer. Greg is also an author and has published several titles.

Panelist: Hélène Golay, Capitol Hill Books (member since 2021)
Hélène Golay started working with rare books at the Cushing Memorial Library & Archives at Texas A&M University in 2010. She transitioned to the trade two years later and has been a bookseller in Minnesota, New York, Virginia, and Washington, DC, where she is now the rare book specialist and co-owner of Capitol Hill Books, as well as a member of the ABAA.