A long shelf life

Michael Dawson, third-generation owner, curator and primary book buyer of Dawson’s Bookshop in Larchmont Village, opened wide his shop’s doors Sunday to about 200 well-wishers who had come to help celebrate the store’s 100th anniversary.

First set up in downtown Los Angeles in 1905, Dawson’s claims to be “the oldest continuously operating bookshop in the city.” After three moves downtown, Dawson’s family finally settled on Larchmont Boulevard in the Hollywood/Hancock Park area in 1968. It specializes in buying and selling rare and antique books on subjects such as California history, Western Americana, photography and fine arts. Dawson’s also operates a small publishing press. Over the years, it has earned the recognition and respect of its customers, who consist mostly of private collectors, institutions, museums and other members of the trade.

Talking to The Times a day before the event, Dawson said the celebration gives his family and customers a chance to look back and see how far the business has come since his grandfather, Ernest Dawson, opened it. By year’s end, he plans to publish a book of essays -- written by him, his uncle and his father -- on the shop’s history.

Dawson, who took over the family business in 1995, said that the rise of the big bookstores and the Internet has created a new set of challenges for small stores like his, but he believes his and similar shops have the distinct advantage of having in-depth knowledge on particular subjects, which the big chains don’t, keeping customers devoted. In fact, he said, rare book dealers have to become even more specialized as the knowledge base of antiquarian bookshops has become “more democratic as opposed to being proprietary in the past.”

Setting up the Michael Dawson Gallery in 2000 was one such attempt on his part to attract younger collectors “who are more visual-oriented than text-oriented,” he says.

On Sunday, enthusiasts -- most of whom had ties to the bookshop stretching back years -- filled the small two-story shop, viewing the gallery’s photo exhibit of the Dawson family and the business from its earliest days to the present. Francis J. Weber of the San Fernando Mission first visited the store in 1959 and has remained a regular, publishing several of his own works through Dawson’s. “It’s the premier antiquarian bookshop on the West Coast,” he said. “They have kept alive the whole notion of antiquarian book trade.”

The bookshop is a “wonderful cultural hub of Los Angeles,” said Victoria Steele, head of special collections at the UCLA library. Dawson’s, she said, is a place with “a personality informed by aesthetic and cultural sense,” and serves well someone in her position who needs to see new materials to be collected.

Also present on the occasion and later to address the audience was 92-year-old Glenn Dawson, Michael Dawson’s uncle. In a lighthearted introductory speech, he counted the number of people present who have had some connection with the bookshop. Most of them were in their 40s, 50s or 60s. It was not a young audience.

This is what concerns rare book collector Victoria Dailey of Beverly Hills. Dailey said the future of the rare book business appears confusing at the moment because there aren’t that many young people opening shops, even though they have a presence on the Internet.

Leonard Bernstein, owner of the 50-year-old Caravan Bookstore on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, the same street where Dawson’s first opened 100 years ago, was less concerned. There is always going to be a place for the “personal service and individual attention” that the big bookstore chains lack, he said.

Pointing out the need for more shops like Dawson’s, Bernstein said they reflect a “give and take” relationship between the booksellers and their customers, each learning something from the other.

Carol Sandberj, owner of Michael Thompson Books on 3rd Street, has known of Dawson’s for more than 30 years. She pointed out that Los Angeles has a long history of buying and selling old and rare books.

“I hope our generation is as confident to make it continue for our future generations,” Sandberj said.

In a speech, fifth-generation rare book seller Bernard Rosenthal of Berkeley talked of how the rare book trade has grown in Southern California. He also talked about his regular discussions with Michael Dawson on what it means to be a third-generation seller. “Who knows, Michael,” he said, “the next generation may just be waiting in the wings.”

As for Dawson, he’s happy just to have made it this far.

“My father and uncle wanted to make it to 100 years, and we made it. Beyond that, I’m just trying to work hard as long as I can,” he said.