I Sat Down and Wept

In the 4th Avenue store dozens of small paintings of authors by Shirley Legate, Cathy’s mother-in-law, and atmospheric black and white photographs by Alex Waterhouse-Hayward of Brian Moore, Elizabeth Smart, William Gibson and others. The store was designed and well-lighted by Bruce Haden, (winner of the Governor General’s Award 2008), whose architectural hand was present in 10 different Duthie bookstores over 17 years. Frank Brzek of FB Interiors built and rebuilt bookstores over 30 years with Duthies and constructed kilometers of bookshelves. When the books were all gone, the fixtures looked in pretty good shape after 16 years of use. They’re going to a 2nd hand bookstore in West Vancouver and to Oscars and other stores. Everything will be gone by the end of this month. The staff at 4th at the end: Cathy Legate, Michael Varty, Ria Bluemer, Nick, Alex, Jane, Susan, are all going somewhere else too. Good-bye and good luck to everyone.

Elizabeth Smart, author of By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, photograph by Alex Waterhouse-Hayward