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Harvey Jason was sitting in his trailer with Steven Spielberg in 1996, within the midst of filming The Lost World: Jurassic Park, when he turned to the director and declared he was quitting the enterprise. “I said, ‘Steven, you know what? When we wrap this film, I’m going to go into the first-edition book business with my son Louis.’”
Jason was deep right into a profitable Hollywood profession on the time. “Steven couldn’t believe it!” says Jason, now 84. “‘What are you talking about? You’re an actor!’” But two years later, true to his phrase, Jason and his son Louis opened Mystery Pier Books in a picturesque cottage on a passageway off LA’s Sunset Strip. “I have been obsessed with books my whole life,” he says. “My mother would read to me constantly. She was in love with books and I inherited her passion.”
Today, 1000’s of works of literature line the partitions of Mystery Pier’s three rooms. A 2,000-strong assortment spans a whole bunch of years, from the seventeenth century to Harry Potter, with the books stacked throughout a jumble of tables and previous canvas director’s chairs. The in-house cat, Booksie, can usually be discovered dozing in entrance of the plant-filled hearth. Original movie scripts and framed pictures adorn the partitions, together with the earliest image ever taken of the Beatles, signed by John, Paul, George and Pete Best. In delight of place is a photograph of the Pope with The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola by the eponymous Sixteenth-century theologian. “We sold him that!” Jason declares proudly. “It’s one of his favourite books.”
Jason loves sharing his treasures with guests. He pulls out a 1734 version of 5 of Shakespeare’s performs (together with Hamlet and The Tempest, $12,000), one of many first separate printings of the works (within the early days, they printed small groupings versus the collected editions that grew to become extra frequent). And inside a glass cupboard I can see Walt Whitman’s The Leaves of Grass (numbered 37 of 600, priced at $25,000), signed by the creator. “How’s this for political incorrectness?” he asks as he reaches for The History of the Communist Party, which, he reveals, has been signed by Stalin and Molotov ($35,000).
His private favourites embody Charles Dickens’ Little Dorrit ($7,500). “I loved it as a child!” And he enormously regrets promoting a Dutch first version of The Diary of Anne Frank, of which simply over 3,000 copies had been printed. He has one other painful case of vendor’s regret for The Discovery of DNA, signed by Watson and Crick. “It was a fluke to find it and such a rarity to have something signed by those two men. I know I’m here to sell books, but sometimes they mean so much to me.”
Such books aren’t straightforward to come back by. “We do extensive research,” he says. They belong to the worldwide ebook associations and keep relationships with particular person collectors. “It’s fascinating. We go all over the world sourcing treasures.”
Jason’s beady-eyed knack for purchasing is in excessive demand with individuals trying to construct their very own collections. “We built a library for someone in Pennsylvania several years ago who wanted to collect all the great books, from Ulysses to Orwell, Fitzgerald to Dickens,” he remembers. “We found them, every one a first edition, most of them signed.” Another shopper got here in wanting “quite dishevelled, holding two large shopping bags full of empty cans. She asked for Dickens and Shakespeare.” It turned out she was wildly rich and have become one in all their greatest shoppers. “You really can never judge a book by its cover!”
Having been round showbusiness his complete life, Jason is delightfully unphased by his A-list clientele. Hunter S Thompson as soon as threw up on the premises. Guillermo del Toro, he says, is “walking sunshine with a fabulous library of collectable literature”. Ben Affleck stopped by earlier that week. “He bought a lot of books for his 17-year-old daughter,” says Jason. “I see a lot of creatives come through the door, but it’s what they are looking for that really interests me.” He’s additionally dedicated to Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers who has been an everyday shopper from the get-go. He credit him with having “tremendous intellectual tastes”. And lately Jason and Louis had been despatched an image of Dakota Johnson carrying a Mystery Pier Books tote bag. “We had so many requests for those bags it was unbelievable,” he says.
Jason could have left a profitable appearing profession however the love he has for his books and the chance to spend daily sharing his ardour together with his son trumps any award-winning efficiency. “I have my books, I work with my son,” he says. “I believe I have everything that a man could wish for in life.”
8826 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90069, mysterypierbooks.com
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