My Father's Books
Destiny Fulfilled
Broadway Woman Opens Online Bookstore
By Heather Bowser, Daily News-Record. October 23, 2006
Photo by Thomas J. Turney
Marianne Frederick, shown here in her office at her home in Broadway, has opened an online bookstore. Frederick, the daughter of a New Jersey bookseller, grew up surrounded by stacks of leather-bound bestsellers. The early exposure to books and famous authors sparked a lifelong love of reading — and the dream of owning a bookstore. For Marianne Frederick, collecting books is more than a hobby — it’s an obsession, a calling, even, a love affair.
As the young daughter of a New Jersey bookseller, Frederick’s home often swarmed with famous authors and truckloads of leather-bound bestsellers.
And as the pages of her life’s book turned, her passion for books grew. Frederick moved around the East Coast and traveled the world, deepening her passion for books, one novel at a time.
By the turn of the century, Frederick and her 2,000 books lived comfortably in Broadway. But the love story doesn’t stop here.
On Friday, Frederick, now 57, booted up her first online bookstore, myfathersbooks.net. Her obsession, her "calling," she says, is to continue to circulate and share her rare and collectable books with the world.
"My destiny is fulfilled," Frederick said. "I’ve come home."
Chapter One: Her Father
Frederick’s love story begins not with her love of books, but her father’s — hence the name of the Web site.
Merle Frederick grew up on a farm in the Midwest during the Depression — a time, Frederick says, when "good, hard-cover books were hard to come by."
In time, Merle left his family’s farm, came east and became a bookseller for the Garden City Publishing Company, in Long Island, NY. For more than four decades, Merle worked for big name publishers Doubleday and Random House.
Authors regularly marched through the Frederick’s New Jersey home, mingling with the bookseller and his young daughter. Dr Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel), poet Rod McCune and Truman Capote — to name a few — all visited the Frederick home regularly.
"I met a lot of great people, a lot of unusual people who I never would have met otherwise," Frederick said.
Now flip ahead several pages and 30 years.
Frederick is grown and has become a seasoned linguist. French, German and even Hungarian books are among her internationally flavored literature diet. But as an administrative assistant for political hot shots in Washington, time for her love affair dwindled.
Merle grew older and could no longer manage his expansive library. But like a good salesmen, Merle didn’t give his daughter his books, he sold them to her.
"At first, I was a little put out, but then I realized that he wanted me to appreciate the books for their value," Frederick said. "I used to tease [my father] about the amount of time he spent working with books or reading, and he would say, ‘My books are my friends.’"
But more importantly, the purchase, she says, catapulted her into a love for book collecting. From then on, she regularly visited old bookstores, book fairs and antique shops.
"This is really, really fun for me," she said.
Chapter Two: Growth
Unfortunately, the road to her "really fun time" hasn’t been totally romantic.
In 1987, Frederick moved to the Valley. What she didn’t know, was that shortly after arriving in Broadway, Frederick would come face to face with the antithesis of her love — illiteracy.
One day in the grocery store, an elderly woman asked Frederick to point out the sour cream and onion potato chips. But after Frederick pointed to the general direction of the chips, the woman asked for more help.
"She said, ‘No, I mean, which ones is they?’" Frederick recalled. "It became obvious to me in an instant that she could not read. I had to hold back the tears … I couldn't get over it."
So Frederick began another chapter of her life, this one a battle against illiteracy. She studied up on illiteracy rates in Virginia and soon became involved in tutoring efforts with the Career Enhancement Program at local poultry plants, where she worked as an administrative assistant.
"Everyone, I mean 99 percent of the people where I grew up — even if they just got off the boat — was encouraged and taught to read," she said. "Encouraging literacy has dogged me most of my life."
Now, with computers as her weapon, Frederick says she will continue her work against the scourge of illiteracy.
Although her new Web site is primarily used as a bookstore, she also posts literacy news and links to other English as a Second Language (ESL) sites.
"It’s all kind of coming together for me," Frederick said. "Literacy, ESL, libraries, books — it’s all one glorious bag."
For now, Frederick says she’s fulfilling her dream. She’s selling books, promoting literacy and having a great time doing it.
"I wanted to do this for years but I was afraid. With the Internet I can do what I never could have afforded to do before," she said. "In some ways, I think there’s a hand up there pushing me… For me, books have always been a love relationship and I think they always will."
Copyright © 2006, Byrd Newspapers, All Rights Reserved.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
