Bookseller Profile
Abebooks' uniqueness is our network of independent booksellers who work with us to provide the most diverse selection of rare, used and out-of-print books on the Internet. Take a moment and meet our member booksellers from around the globe. It is these sellers, with their experience, commitment and love of the used and out-of-print book business who help all our buyers find that treasure they've been looking for.
 Italiata
Book Company
(Pictured Left: Susan Barile standing beside a branch of the Croton
River. "The river runs alongside our shop and customers must
cross a pedestrian bridge to enter.")
I opened Books at Croton River in April, 1996 with sixteen years of various bookselling experiences behind me, with the help of many good friends (booksellers and non) and with the inexhaustible support of my husband, John. (I am the "CEO", he is the labor!) The shop opened with approximately 3000-5000 scholarly and academic titles, mostly hurts purchased directly from university presses. Only a few dozen used and antiquarian volumes were mixed in at that time. Two years after we opened, we had the good fortune to purchase 12,000-14,000 titles culled from a major U.S. university library, and with those and many subsequent private library purchases - Books at Croton River is now a full-fledged used and antiquarian shop.
 While
we specialize in scholarly books (all of our new, unused books are
half-price or less), our stock includes good used and older titles
in most subjects - art, literature, history, the humanities and
social sciences. Subspecialties include Irish and Italian literature
(translated into English), including Italian-Americana, and books
by and about George Gissing.
Before I opened Books at Croton River (so named because the Croton
River, a branch of the Croton Watershed, runs alongside our turn-of-the-century
stone building - you must cross a pedestrian bridge to enter), I worked
as a bookseller in many capacities. I was a clerk in New York City's
first all-paperback store; I managed the Gotham Book Mart; I was a
sales-rep for Columbia University Press; I even wrote a book on booksellers
- The Bookworm's Big Apple: A Guide to the Booksellers of Manhattan,
which was published by Columbia in 1994 (a second, revised edition
is due in 2001). Bookselling, to me, is the most exciting way to continue
one's education. Every book and library I purchase opens a door to
new histories and new people.
 Personally,
my husband and I mostly collect books (and weeds on our front lawn),
although John has an incredible collection of foreign films on video,
and I collect Italian-American ephemera. I recently obtained a great
original photograph of Sacco leaving the Dedham courthouse surrounded
by his wife and prison guard. One of the rarest book items I was
able to purchase is an original copy of Gissing's scarce novel,
Isabel Clarendon, which completed my personal collection of all
of Gissing's books in their first editions.
As for shop pets, well, I'm particularly fond of penguins, but unfortunately
the river isn't quite cold enough, so we only have statues scattered
around the shop. I think Books at Croton River is not quite old enough
for legends, but we are open to serendipitous synchronicity - which
occurs quite often. As one of my favorite writers once said (paraphrased
of course) Books at Croton River is always open to the "unswerving
punctuality of chance!"
Thank you, ABE, for this profile, and for the service you provide
to booklovers everywhere!
- Susan Barile, Owner of Italiata Book Company
The views of the author, expressed above, are not necessarily those
of the Advanced Book Exchange
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