A Man for All Seasons
- By Bruce McKinney
David Yount at Lees-MacRae College
A man now in winter looking forward to his seventy-eighth spring, many times retired and never retiring, David Yount now of Mashpee in Massachusetts is engaged in the career of bookselling and finding in the online community of booksellers, book buyers and binders, engagement, complexity and challenge, - elements essential for living long and well.
“I have had many careers, as a Methodist minister In Vermont tending to flocks, later teaching at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania and Bolles School in Jacksonville, then for eighteen years as history professor at Lees-MacRae College in Banner Elk, North Carolina near where I was raised. There I found my calling teaching students for whom literacy was sometimes more than words and ciphers, it was escape from generations of grinding poverty. In that role I made a difference and found purpose.“
“At 62 in 1996 cancer quieted and retired me. Two Christmases later I moved to New England to be near my son.” In this transition and recovery he took a course in bookbinding at Brown, became a binder and in time transitioned in to bookselling, his goals to earn and dispose, to be busy and useful – in much the same way people in the mountains of the Carolinas where he long lived have labored for generations to be self-sufficient and independent. “In books and working with them I found that which I had long sought to teach – the importance of self-renewing purpose. Today, at 77 I’m still busy being born, yet today a student in my own classroom.“
In this new life the search for fresh material, knowledge of importance and completeness, an eye for possibilities and the patience to execute carefully provide ever-adjusting challenges that lie at the heart of the dictum, to live long and well, stay busy. “I most appreciate books as objects and like nothing better than scanning shelves and sorting bins for gems to restore or simply sell.”
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A Man for All Seasons
- By Bruce McKinney
In harder times
In all this he remains, at heart, a son of the Appalachians. He grew up in Granite Falls, North Carolina, son of a shopkeeper in this mill town midway between Hickory and Lenore on Route 321, 261 miles west of Wilmington on the Atlantic and 353 miles east of Lexington, Kentucky. On the map it’s a stony elbow just below the sweep of green that covers the hardscrabble that carries all the way into New England. He would live in many places and always came back until with advancing age and medical uncertainty he settled north. The roots though have long since hardened into certainty and the man, his history, and values long embraced, are with him and sustain him in his new career, the man and his Appalachian heritage long since inseparable.
His section of the Carolinas is the same area that constituted the bony impenetrable western border beyond which cartographers penciled in question marks during the first two hundred years of new world exploration. The story, long told, is that the Appalachians were a barrier. More than that they seem to have resisted change, even deep into the 20th century, regional stubbornness, optimism and independence defining traits that native sons like Mr. Yount absorbed with the sunlight. These values serve him well and today define his relationship to books, their mending and sale. We now know what lies west and we also have some idea why the explorers may have lingered long on the Appalachian border. You stop when you find what you are looking for.
Cape Cod turned out to be a wonderful place to find old books and people who appreciate them. “Twelve years later I’m a binder and bookseller, enjoying the material, the searches and discoveries and selling on the Internet. I’m a little hard of hearing so email suits me. I can read, thank you Lenoir.” In fact he’s just fine by phone, just a little self conscious about occasionally asking for a question to be repeated.
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A Man for All Seasons
- By Bruce McKinney
Mr Yount, approaching his fourth score of years, is a reminder that books are not only a part of life; they are also an elixir that extends it. “I never know what I’m going to find or who I’ll talk to. It makes me look forward to tomorrow.”
Many of his books are online. “I buy them as I sell them, one at a time. If they are needy I give repair. If they interesting to me I believe they will be interesting to others.” Just the other day he sent one of his bindings to Taiwan and felt very good about it.
“If I were doing it over again I would become involved with books earlier. This, after all my experiences, is the best of life.” Between visits to auctions, following discussions on line and exchanges with customers, all with the occasional afternoon nap, Professor Yount is able to be active and interested everyday.
He lists his books in AE’s books for sale. Here is a link to them. He’d love to hear from you. In books, he finds life.
The material is eclectic, the focus on good copies of interesting material. Have a look.
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