Death of a Bookseller : In the End, Grumpy Gunnar Had Lots of Friends

Gunnar Gustin’s life spoke volumes about the eccentric world of rare booksellers.

The 20,000 works in his hole-in-the-wall shop in Pasadena’s oldest business district were usually overpriced. And the grumpy, blunt-spoken Gustin discouraged browsing among his handmade pine shelves and sturdy antique oak display tables.

“I really have problems with lookie-loos . . . ,” he would say. “I like collectors, not readers.”

Sometimes he didn’t seem all that fond of the dozen or so other used-book dealers in Pasadena, either. He could test their patience with an independent streak as wide as a shelf of encyclopedias.

But on Wednesday, as the 58-year-old Gustin lay dying of cancer, his competitors gathered at his shop at 56 E. Colorado Blvd. to help their rival close his 15-year-old store with dignity.

More than a dozen of them volunteered to shutter their own stores and work for free this week to dispose of Gustin’s collection. With his approval, the books are being sold at half-price. That will drop to $1 per book on Sunday, the shop’s final day.

The rival booksellers also did something equally unheard of in their highly competitive business. They combined their individual customer mailing lists to advertise the sale.

“After Gunnar got sick, his store was such a worry and a weight on him. We wanted to help him,” said competing shop owner Alice Lee. “He had no family here.”

Book dealer Scott Harrison said customers and competitors alike eventually came to see through Gustin’s tough exterior.

“He’d be gruff. He’d seem ornery on the outside. But he was warm on the inside,” Harrison said.

Said book seller Jerry Parmer, who traveled from San Diego to work two shifts in Gustin’s shop: “He could be a monster. But he was an angel. He was kind of like an affable bear.”

Another volunteer, Claremont book dealer Charles A. Goldsmid, said Gustin was often cynical and impatient. But when he felt he was dealing with a true book lover, he had “tremendous enthusiasm . . . he was very cultured, even though he never went to college.”

Until stricken with pancreatic cancer late last year, Gustin lived in a tiny alcove above his shop. He slept in a corner surrounded by shelves filled with his most prized books--an unusual, 600-volume collection on the Arctic.

Gustin was full of surprises, said Los Angeles rare book dealer George Houle, another volunteer at the sale.

“He did a lot for other people. For five years he went every week to visit a customer who had been permanently disabled in a motorcycle accident.”

Longtime customers who squeezed into Gustin’s 15-foot-wide shop on Wednesday were gratified that his competitors were standing by him in the end.

“I congratulated them for gathering around to give help,” said Robert G. Fiedler of Altadena.

Added Ian Hunter of Pasadena: “It surprises me to see this. Gustin could be kind of cranky, that’s the word.”

And opinionated. Obstinate. Outspoken.

“In short, a curmudgeon,” Goldsmid said.

Each year when Pasadena booksellers chipped in to print a directory of local bookshops, Gustin would stash his copies under the counter and out of customers’ sight, Lee said.

“He’d say, ‘If they ask for it, I’ll give ‘em one.’ ”

Lee recalled that when she visited Gustin’s shop for the first time and discovered a long-sought book on his shelf, Gustin “was very rude and indifferent.”

“I was so pleased with what I’d found that I wanted to hug him. But he didn’t want to talk. He just wanted my money. He thought I was a reader.”

Gustin could also be abrupt with neighboring Old Pasadena shopkeepers, said Lance Vasquez, whose clothing store is down the street from the bookstore.

“The first time I met Gunnar I was talking about a merchants’ improvement association, and he didn’t want to be bothered,” said Vasquez, who stopped in Wednesday to leave Gustin a note of condolence. “Once he made up his mind, he stuck with it. But he became a good friend.”

Lee said Gustin broke down in tears when a rival bookseller he had previously clashed with telephoned to wish him well.

And she said Gustin was grateful when other competitors rented a small apartment near the bookshop for him to use between hospital visits. They carefully furnished it for the man who was fond of saying that “there is something comforting being surrounded by books.”

It was there, surrounded by his beloved Arctic books, that Gunnar Gustin died early Wednesday evening.