Tom Verlaine, the frontman for the legendary art-punk band Television, was known for being a lover of literature—by the time of his death in January, he had amassed a collection of more than 50,000 books.
Now, two bookstores are teaming up to sell the books he left behind.
Brooklyn bookseller Better Read Than Dead announced on its Instagram account that it is joining forces with Washington, D.C., retailer Capitol Hill Books to sell Verlaine’s collection at a series of garage sales.
Verlaine was a noted book lover who loved to browse the outdoor stalls at the Strand, the New York bookstore where he once worked. In a memorial for Literary Hub, Colin Groundwater wrote that, “Verlaine kept the peace and cultivated the vibe” of the store’s “dollar carts.”
The books he accumulated throughout the years will be up for grabs starting on Aug. 26 and 27 at 539 Greene Ave. in Brooklyn, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
“Prices will be LOW and discounts HEAVY for those looking to wheel away books by the box,” Better Read Than Dead said in its Instagram post. “There will be much more of this collection to follow, and hopefully Tom’s books will populate many of our fellow bookstore’s shelves as well as ours soon—stay tuned for more announcements and events as we whittle away at this mountainous collection.”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
