Serendipity! The NewSouth Bookstore

Serendipity! The NewSouth Bookstore

Note from the editor:

I want to thank Carolyn for sharing so many stories of her time with her dear friend Eugene Walter with me on her back porch, after the horses are fed and cocktails are poured. Those stories are what caused me to hound her to put pen to paper. I also want to thank Sue, and Saundra for a fantastic article and for sharing some of their stories with WELL READ.

As they were getting everything finalized, I happened upon a social media post from The NewSouth Bookstore in Montgomery, Alabama that almost knocked me off my seat! Just that day, they had finished creating a beautiful display in the store with a donation of several Eugene Walter items. Talk about serendipity. I reached out to the co-founder, Suzanne La Rosa, to find out the story behind the story of the display. Here’s what she says…

“I received a call from Mary Lakin out of the blue asking if The NewSouth Bookstore had interest in a donation of items from Eugene Walter’s estate. I understood that her husband, who was executor of Walter’s estate, had recently died, and she was eager to handle the rest of the business associated with the estate. The items she had to give us were books and posters and various other print things. Of course, I was interested. Our bookstore sells new and used books, and we receive donations of books all the time, but this was different. Books coming directly from Eugene Walter’s estate would be special. My initial instinct was to arrange some kind of book program which would honor Walter in connection with the gift; our bookstore very actively hosts book and other events, as you’ll note in our email newsletter. We have LOTS of programs. But when I talked to Lakin about this, it was more than she could think about at the time. She just wanted to get the items into our hands, and so they were delivered.

I was emotional going through the contents of the several boxes that came to us. The books fairly vibrated with his spirit! It took a fair amount of time to organize the items, to determine which were signed or not, to assess the condition and value of each. But the work was completed, and in handling I began to envision a little display for the bookstore acknowledging the gift. Our bookstore is small and crammed with books (makes for great browsing, by the way!), but we gave over a large table at the front register area for the display. It seemed appropriate to put the display up on Mardi Gras — Walter is, after all, the Renaissance Man of Mobile. It will remain up until Easter.

The display features poster-size signage with a brief introduction to the work and life of Walter and explains the nature of the items on display. We priced the items very attractively, in part because we wanted others to have the opportunity to own these special things that once had belonged to Walter. I’m pleased with the way the display table looks. It’s festive and very inviting. But the main thing is that I feel it properly acknowledges the special talents and personality of the man who was Eugene Walter. You cannot browse the items we received from his hands, as it were, and not feel closer to him.” Suzanne.

If you would like to have something of Eugene Walter’s, please get up (or down, or over) to The NewSouth Bookstore at 105 South Court Street, in Montgomery, AL as soon as you can. Or you can find them online.