Aphrodite's Cup

Mr. Duthie: This is a letter of protest! As a guardian of Public Morals you have a responsibility to the people at large & when someone of your stature publicly displays two testicles & a penis over the entrance of your shop, I believe we have a right to protest...
—from a spoof commenting on Duthie’s logo, designed by Bob Reid and still used today



Binky Marks in the paperback cellar was reputed to have a vast private collection of erotica. Aphrodite’s Cup, a collection of erotic woodblocks by George Kuthan, was an early instance of the sexual freedom of the sixties and fine press printing in Vancouver.

Notable books from the first decade

The 1958 catalogue announced “ 4 important new Canadian books. The most successful (here in BC) was British Columbia: A Centennial Anthology. The second is Margaret Ormsby’s British Columbia, A History, $4.75, which is a large and readable account of this province through its first century. The third is Mackenzie King: A Political Biography, by R. MacGregor Dawson, $7.50, which is the long-awaited first volume of the official biography. And the fourth: A.R.M. Lower’s Canadians in the Making, $7.50, which is a long and wonderful social history of the Canadian people”.

In 1960: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Rabbit Run by John Updike, William L. Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner by Alan Silitoe, and in Canada: The Letters and Journals of Simon Fraser. Brian Moore won the Governor General’s Award for The Luck of Ginger Coffey.

In 1961: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger, and Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. Alan Morley chronicled Vancouver: From Milltown to Metropolis, and Malcolm Lowry won the Governor General’s Award for Hear Us O Lord from Heaven Thy Dwelling Place.

In 1962 Marshall McLuhan won a Governor General’s Award for The Gutenberg Galaxy. George Woodcock published his Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements. George Nicholson’s Vancouver Island’s West Coast, 1762-1962 was the year’s big B.C. history book and Katherine Anne Porter’s Ship of Fools topped the bestseller lists.

Hugh Garner won the 1963 Governor General’s Award for his Best Stories. Barbara Tuchman won a Pulitzer for The Guns of August. And it was an important year for books that were soon to be staples of the counterculture: J.D. Salinger’s Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters, Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, and James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time.

Early bookmark by Takao Tanabe

Canadian Books in Print

[Bill] was absolutely thrilled because I knew Canadian authors. He said it was important to give Canadian books a high profile because he had a hunch that they educated people.

When The Stone Angel came out, Bill said that it was the most significant novel of the year. That was the only time he ever told us that if somebody asked us for something to read, we should tell them about this particular book, above all others.

—Jane Flick, who joined Duthie’s in 1964



Bill and Basil Stuart-Stubbs, then UBC’s chief librarian, worked together on a Centennial project to create the first full catalogue of Canadian books in print.

"Unfortunately, the records of our collaboration on Canadian Books in Print are incomplete, to say the least, because most of our planning and plotting was done in the El Beau Room of the Devonshire Hotel, usually over lunch on Saturdays." Basil Stuart-Stubbs


"It is likely that by now the selling of Canadian books provides at least thirty per cent of a bookseller’s volume, and perhaps more. Fifteen years ago the figure was closer to ten per cent.… Bill Duthie (1965)

Last Exit to Brooklyn

"Fine work, Finnegan... in the past week you’ve arrested thirty-seven books and sixty-two bottles."
Len Norris, Vancouver Sun

In 1965 the Vancouver police seized a copy of Last Exit to Brooklyn, by Hubert Selby Jr., from the Paperback Cellar. On December 2, the book was ruled obscene. With the support of Grove Press, the Canadian Booksellers Association, the Canadian Library Association, and many individuals, Bill Duthie decided to appeal the judgement, but they lost the appeal, too. In 1966 John Mortimer (of Rumpole fame) defended the book in England and won.

The police came into the store, and they wanted to know who was in charge. We all said, “No one,” very truthfully.
—Carol Dale

Original Duthie Books Cellar

Some of Duthie’s varied and lively staff in the early days were: Binky Marks, Ivy Mickelson, Carol Dale, Jane Flick, Uncle David Duthie, Gloria Kavanaugh, Angela Nevar, Don Lewis, David Kerfoot, Greg Dexter, Dennis Barrett, Louise Hager, Brian Mitchell, David Hutchison, and many others. Some came for a short time; some stayed on for 20 and 30 years. Duthies was a congenial and stimulating place to work and Bill was a famously forgiving man.

Several of them went on to open bookstores of their own - Ivy’s (in Victoria) Hagers, Laughing Oyster (Courtenay), Butte Booksellers (Butte Montana) and Granville Book Company, Women in Print and Sophia Books.

Memories from the 50's

My earliest memories of the bookstore are of building forts of empty boxes with my brother David in the basement of the old store - underneath the purple bottle glass of the sidewalk; and helping my mother alphabetize the invoices on the living room floor .

On Saturdays in 1958 -9 I used to go on the early bus with my Dad and have breakfast with him at the Captain’s Locker at the old Ritz Hotel and then go to art classes in the basement of the original Vancouver Art Gallery . After the class I would make my own way several blocks to the store - first heady sensations of independence - and Dad would ask Ivy (Mickelson) to take me for lunch and sometimes a movie.

Celia Duthie

First Decade of Duthies

In 1997 Duthie Books celebrated 40 years of bookselling in Vancouver. A book of images, graphics and anecdotes of forty years at Duthie Books was in the works to be published to mark the anniversary. It was assembled and written by Valerie Frith and Celia Duthie. Unfortunately, the book was delayed and shortly after the celebrations things began to go awry and the book was put aside.

Now, February, 2010, the last Duthie bookstore at 4th Ave is closing, so here, before it is too far forgotten, is a record of sorts of the times and people and accomplishments of five decades of Duthie Books, cobbled together from the 1997 book and from memories of family, staff, customers, publishers and writers.

We have had 53 (mostly) happy years of book selling in Vancouver. We have offered friendly recommendations and stocked good books. For 53 years Duthies has provided a good book service to the city, championed BC and Canadian books, encouraged the public to read local writers, and helped to create a knowledgeable reading public. The book culture of Vancouver and BC has grown up around Duthies and we are proud to have been a part of it.