This past August over 300,000 antiquarian books from Larry McMurtry’s Booked Up were sold at auction:
This is the story of those Books.
“I’d like for the American antiquarian book trade to stay vital and to stay energetic and pouring some books into it is a good way to help, it seems to me.” – Larry McMurtry
“There’s no froufrou with McMurtry. He’s blunt. He doesn’t waste time. But there’s something very noble behind the impatience.” – James L. Brooks via Schilling Interview – Entertainment Weekly
In August 2012, Larry McMurtry’s Booked Up Inc. auctioned over 300,000 antiquarian books shelved within the bookstore’s four large buildings in the small oil patch town of Archer City, Texas. This vast collection of American bookshops past, personally curated by Mr. McMurtry over more than forty years, held the acquisition of some twenty-six bookshops and more than two hundred personal libraries.
Despite the sweltering Texas heat, dealers, collectors, teachers, working-class citizens, lookers-on and local folks queued up outside Building Four with the hopes of being part of “The Last Book Sale”. As attendees stepped through the doors for the pre-auction viewing, they were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of books that greeted them: “Where do I even start?” they asked themselves.
VISIT BOOKS: A DOCUMENTARY
ON KICKSTARTER HERE
.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS …
Mathew and Sara Provost met in 2004, working on the set of Brokeback Mountain and have been together ever since. Mathew has worked in the film industry over the past 15 years across Canada and the United States. Sara graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2005 and started Studio Seven7 Films, a dynamic reality, scripted television, documentary and film production company based in Rhode Island with Mathew in 2011. Mathew and Sara now reside in Rhode Island, welcoming their first child, Sofia in 2011.
This past August, Larry McMurtry, author of Lonesome Dave, The Last Picture Show and Brokeback Mountain, sold over 300,000 antiquarian books from his legendary Booked Up bookshop at auction over two days. This film is the story of those Books. Filmmakers Mathew Provost and Sara Ossana of Studio Seven7 Films have launched a Kickstarter Campaign to help them complete a documentary about McMurtry, the auction, and the future of the American book trade.
