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From The Vault Of Art Shay: Heading To Auction

By Art Shay in News on Oct 31, 2012 7:00PM

(Legendary Chicago-based photographer Art Shay has taken photos of kings, queens, celebrities and the common man in a 60-year career. This week, Art prepares for an auction of his wife's prized books.)

My wonderful, late wife Florence would have loved Leslie Hindman's auction catalogue of many of her rare books! There is the autographed Booker T. Washington; the two or three copies of Catch-22 autographed by her big fan—its author Joseph Heller—who admired Florence's writing style, as did many of the readers of her blog about being in the rare book business these past forty years.

Adolescent readers with book stars in their eyes and money saved up for their favorite Nancy Drew books— heads of libraries at Yale, Harvard and the Smithsonian, fellow rare book dealers—especially members of her beloved Caxton Club, whose magazine she often contributed to, adding irreverence to her apercus. All, all have sent me sad, joyous notes of appreciation for my 90 year old mate now two months past.

So it's come down to our auctioneer friend Leslie Hindman's sale of many of Florence's better books at high noon on Nov. 7 at 1338 W. Lake Street in Chicago: 39 pages of them.

Florence would not only have loved the catalogue's heft and design, but the fact that our acquaintances-the Charles Bentons—I shot a cover of the beautiful Marge Benton for North Shore magazine years back. The Bentons also have some rare books going on the block. Florence would have appreciated her full page picture and announcement on page 156-plugging the Dec. 6-9 final sale at her shop (1821 St. Johns Ave, Highland Park, Ill.).

The store closes on Dec. 31, outliving the lady who gave it life by a mere three months.

If you can't wait until this time every Wednesday to get your Art Shay fix, please check out the photographer's blog, which is updated regularly. Art Shay's book, Chicago's Nelson Algren, is also available at Amazon.