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Beyond Baroque has posted a Sept. 17 memorial gathering for Scott Wannberg, the poet who died on Friday in his recent hometown of Florence, Oregon. Los Angeles journalist and author Richard Rushfield posted a nice remembrance at his blog that wonders, with all the bookstores going, where would someone like Wannberg go? Sample:
Anyone who lived on the Westside of LA in the 80’s and 90’s and who read books knew Scott Wannberg. Dutton’s Brentwood then was the quintessential storybook bookstore, with narrow musty aisles cluttered with huge stacks of hardcover tomes, and obscure sections overflowing with obscure titles. In that quintessential storybook bookstore, Scott Wannberg was your quintessential storybook bookstore employee and for those who bought many of their formative works off those shelves, being guided by Scott was an indispensable part of the literary experience...In a store overflowing with books, Scott seemed to have read every single one and whether you were picking up a trashy new novel or a World War I history or some French symbolist poetry, he would have a few comments, pointing you no doubt to the author’s better work, before he stepped off the curb, some might say.
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Scott was a figure it is impossible to imagine anywhere but in a book store, and now that there are no book stores, I wonder where the Scotts of creation are to be found.
And at the Daily News' Friendly Fire blog, Jonathan Dobrer adds his own appreciation: "Many times I'd come to Dutton's Brentwood, as I had to their Studio City shop, without knowing what I wanted. I always knew that Scott would know exactly what I wanted."