G.S. MacManus Co.

Last month, while spending the holidays in Pennsylvania with my family, I was able to visit G.S. MacManus Co. bookstore. Founded in the 1940's by George S. MacManus, his company has grown to be the premier bookstore in southeastern Pennsylvania. Their collection consists of over "45,000 cataloged titles focuses on primarily 18th and 19th century Americana with specialties such as Voyages and Travels, Local Histories, Indians and the West and the Civil War. Also included in our collection are English and American literary first editions, Limited Edition Club selections and Books about Books". Today it is owned by George MacManus' partner's son (that's a mouth full), Clarence Wolf. Over the last few years of book buying Clarence has become not only a supplier of high quality rare and antiquarian books but also a mentor in book collecting. He's sold me some of my best pieces including a leather, signed copy of 'Genealogy of the Smedley Family'; 1870 H.W. Hopkins, 'Atlas of Delaware County'; 1909 Frank H.M. Klinge, 'Atlas of Delaware County' and has put many other hard-to-find family and local histories on my library's shelves.

To understand my excitement in visiting this store, you have to consider the situation I am in... I collect Pennsylvania books with a focus on Delaware and Chester County family and local histories. Living in the middle of Utah, there aren't many bookstores to shop. So all of my collecting thus far has been done online. I realize we live in a global age where commerce is conducted easily over the internet, however, purchasing rare books online is difficult. It often involves requesting detailed photos, asking questions, getting more photos, negotiating prices then waiting for the books to arrive. Not bad... but to be able to walk the aisles of a bookstore filled with thousands of books that pertain to my collection... well... that's a dream.

I had a high expectation for Clarence's store, I've spent hours searching his online lists and he's sent me dozens of photos of books. Even with a basic understanding of his content, I wasn't prepared for what I was going to find. His shop consists of floor to ceiling shelves, often times 12+ feet tall, of every kind of book imaginable. His section of Pennsylvania, family and local histories had nearly every book on my wish list and even a few that I had never heard of. He had multiple copies of nearly every book, giving you the choice of modern prints, modern re-backings, original cloth, leather - every combination and option.

One book that I was specifically going to see was his copy of 'Genealogy of the Sharpless Family', 1887 by Gilbert Cope. This book has been in my top ten list of books I couldn't find and here he had 4 copies (he probably needs to work on updating his inventory system or he's masterfully controlling the prices). All in all, I exercised some self constraint and only came away with four books (pictured) - Genealogy of the Sharpless Family by Gilbert Copy, 1887; Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Chester and Delaware Counties Pennsylvania by Henry Graham Ashmead, 1904; and History of Chester County, Pennsylvania by Gilbert Cope, 1881. I'm looking forward to my next trip to Pennsylvania and some more time to peruse G.S. MacManus' collections. I'm sure over the coming years, we'll build my collection into something great.