M-332: Dunaway Bookseller Collection Finding Aid

Historical/Biographical Note

Reginald Patrick Dunaway operated a bookstore for thirty-seven years on Delmar Boulevard, in St. Louis, Missouri. At the beginning, his business was almost all mail order, but as time went on he increasingly came to rely on the in-store trade as well. Mr. Dunaway possessed file cabinets filled with index cards on which he recorded information regarding the sales of his books, the contact information of his clientele, and listing information for his catalogs. These cards make up the bulk of the Dunaway Books Collection.

Mr. Dunaway was born in Findlay, Illinois. He first came to St. Louis as a student at Washington University in 1945 where he enrolled for a semester before serving in active duty in the Navy in 1946 and 1947, and an additional eight years in the reserves. Mr. Dunaway graduated from the University of Missouri in 1951 with a major in classical language, which would serve him well as in his profession as a rare book dealer. Mr. Dunaway went to work for a used book store in the early 1960s and soon after started his own store, which he sold in 2002. Dunaway Books relocated to the “Grand South Grand” stretch of Grand Avenue, where it currently resides. Reginald Patrick Dunaway died on September 9th, 2004.

Scope and Content Note

The collection consists of 32 record boxes (32 linear feet) of file folders and index cards containing information regarding the sales, subjects and authors of books sold at Dunaway Books from the period approximately 1963 – 2000. There are 4 series in the collection; Sales Records, Subject File Cards, Author File Cards, and Contact Information Cards. Mr. Dunaway tended to order his records alphabetically, although some records would jump around a bit alphabetically, depending on the space available in Mr. Dunaway’s storage. The original order of the collection has been maintained, so in some cases there may be supplemental files, or boxes may contain alphabetical sorting but then start over at A with the next box, rather than an entire series being arranged from beginning to end alphabetically.

Series 1, Sales Records, is split into four subseries; Sales Files, Sales Cards, Subject Sales Cards, and Author Sales Cards.

Subseries 1, Sales Files, contains file folders listing information about sales of various types of books concluded with individuals or university departments. Information commonly contained in Subseries One includes receipts or purchase vouchers; correspondence to and/or from the purchaser; the titles, authors, publishers and prices of books purchased; the date of payment; and the mailing address of the person or persons purchasing books from Dunaway Books.

Subseries 2, Sales Cards, consists of index cards used to record information pertaining to the books and their sales sold at Dunaway Books. Bibliographic information on the cards includes a subject heading (e.g. Belles Lettres, Faulkner) in the upper left-hand corner. Below that, the name of the author or editor of the title is typed. The subseries is alphabetically arranged by author’s last name. The title of the work comes next, and if there is no author, the title is used for the alphabetical arrangement. Below the author and the title is typed other bibliographic information as needed; this can include place of publication, publisher, date of publication, page count, notes on edition or condition, and other notes regarding special features (e.g. “illustration” or “slipcase”). Sometimes a listing price is given as well. These cards also contain handwritten notes about the date of sales, the date of shipping, the price of sales, and the purchaser.

Subseries 3, Subject Sales Cards, consists of index cards used to record information pertaining to books related to specific subjects. The subject is located at the top of the card, and below that the author or editor of the work, both in red typeface. Below those entries, the author or editor of the work is listed, last name first. The subseries is alphabetically arranged by author’s last name. The title of the work comes next, and if there is no author, the title is used for the alphabetical arrangement. Below the author and the title is typed other bibliographic information as needed; this can include place of publication, publisher, date of publication, page count, notes on edition or condition, and other notes regarding special features (e.g. “illustration” or “slipcase”). Sometimes a listing price is given as well. Years of sale are recorded in red ink in the upper right-hand corner, and some cards contain hand- written notes about the date of sales, date of shipping and/or price of sales.

Subseries 4, Author Sales Cards, consists of index cards used to record information pertaining to authors of books sold by Mr. Dunaway. The cards are arranged alphabetically by author’s last name (e.g. Adams, Amy; Adams, Andy). Other information present on the cards include the title of the work by the author, and information about that work, such as date of publication, place of publication, publisher, and page count. Additional information could include information about illustrations, editions, print runs, etc.  Prices of the books are handwritten in the upper right-hand corner, and details of the sale (date of sale, amount, customer name) are handwritten at the bottom. Each work by an author is given a separate card, in the case of multiple works by an author being held by Dunaway Books.

Series 2, Subject File Cards, consists of index cards arranged alphabetically by subject. Below the subject are listings, by author last name and title, of works dealing with the subject of the card.

Series 3, Author File Cards, consists of index cards arranged alphabetically by author’s last name. Below the author’s name is additional information including, the title of a work and other bibliographic information when appropriate, including place of publication, year of publication, date of publication, sale price, and notes about annotations, editions, illustrations, etc. Different works by the same author get different index cards.

Series 4, Contact Information Cards, consists of mailing addresses and sales notations for customers of Dunaway Books. Note: due to the potentially sensitive nature of these records, this series is currently restricted.

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