The Death of a Second Hand Bookseller

On our honeymoon in Maine, in July, 1982, my wife Lorraine and I noticed a large building on Route 1 in Wells, with a sign out front that said Douglas N. Harding Books Maps Prints. We stopped and made the acquaintance of Mr. Harding, and explored his collection of used books, which was large and of the highest quality. We left after about an hour, each with an armload of good books. Over the next 40 years, we would stop at Douglas N. Harding Books Maps Prints at least twice a year, when we were in Maine on day trips or vacationing in Kennebunkport. That would make around 80 visits. Sounds about right.

Douglas N. Harding died on June 11, 2026. He was 88 years old.

I don’t know how much of a reader he was himself, but he could distinguish good books from bad. There was little of the junk on his shelves that takes up so much space on the shelves in other second hand bookstores.

His demeanor was gruff and that scared some customers away. He was not all gruffness. I remember making my way through a crowd of mourners to talk to him at the memorial service for one of his former employees — a young woman whose job it had been to ensure that the books were in proper order on the shelves and that everything in the store was neat. She was charming but she was not the most reliable of employees; her periodic life crises led her to move out of state, and then to move back, and to ask Doug if she could have her old job back. He always took her on again. Anyway when I approached him at the memorial service, he made no sign of recognizing me. He was staring straight ahead. His eyes were filled with tears.

He traveled to find books, often driving across the country, stopping at estate sales, library book sales, and other spots where good second hand books were to be found. He knew where to look. He mailed the books back to Maine as he went along. His quest for books even took him to Newfoundland several times, where occasionally a professor at the university in St. John’s would die leaving a house full of books.

Running a second hand bookstore is hard work and the rewards — other than that of uniting readers with books — are uncertain. It is certain that people have been buying fewer books as the Age of the Internet wears on, and Douglas N. Harding Books Maps Prints became less profitable every year. It made for a sad end of a useful and honorable career, uniting people with the books that will delight, instruct, and inform them, for untold years to come. Requiescas in pace, Douglas N. Harding. You did well.