One thing Ezra Tishman wants to make clear from the outset is that he has not retired.
He has downsized, effective in early August, after selling Aardvark Rare Books following 30 years of stewardship. Those 30 years have seen the Eugene-based business become a national and international name in the rare books trade with more than 2,300 books for sale as well as Revolutionary War pamphlets, Civil War release papers, dust jackets, authentic signatures from historic figures — such as a baby shoe with an authenticated signature of Amelia Earhart at the bottom — and much more.
“At its foundation, Aardvark buys and sells rare and unanticipated titles,” says Josh Hirschstein, the new owner of Aardvark Rare Books. “We primarily buy from people in western Oregon who wish or need to downsize, or who inherited a treasured-by-someone selection of books — or other printed material — that are in need of ‘re-homing’ to another collector who will treasure them as well.”
Tishman officially sold the business to Hirschstein, 64, a fellow Eugene resident, on August 1. The 75-year-old Tishman will continue to work with The Bookfinder, a smaller operation that Hirschstein notes does not involve the “daily grind of organizing and operating a business that needs daily attention.”
Instead, he will focus on the hunt for rare literature — in particular, older ephemera, his first love — and offer appraisals.
The keys to the larger business now firmly belong to Hirschstein, and he declares that he’s ready.
“I’m the one responsible for all the screwups,” he says.
Aardvark Rare Books is strictly an online business. Tishman notes that “maybe 20 people have visited” the physical site in-person over the last 30 years. “This is a national and international business,” he explains. “People find us. We’re not brick and mortar.”
Hirschstein worked for 30-plus years at Lane Tutoring Service, an in-home, one-on-one tutoring service for K-12 students from experienced certified teachers. It closed in 2022, and he became Tishman’s assistant shortly afterward. After having assistants in the past who didn’t quite work out, Tishman says he was immediately struck by Hirschstein’s professionalism and attention to detail.
“He was a natural,” Tishman says. “He is teachable, and I say that without irony.” Moreover, Tishman adds, “He has a moral compass that points true north.”
Tishman, a self-described “book detective,” became enamored with books as a boy in Pennsylvania who lived for a short while in foster homes. “Books were a portal to escape,” he says, and he came to Eugene in 1995 after having taught English at Washington State University. While living in nearby Moscow, Idaho, Tishman established Aardvark Book Search, and it’s been his full-time work ever since.
Hirschstein marvels at Tishman’s innate ability to quickly digest the authenticity of a manuscript, pamphlets and diaries, using the German word fingerspitzengefühl — intuitive flair — to describe Tishman’s relationship with these materials. “His fingers dance across the books,” Hirschstein says.
“I am a cataloger,” Hirschstein explains, and he got his start at age 16 working part-time as an archivist at the Seattle Public Library. After studying at Western Washington University, he returned to Seattle Public Library and became the full-time archivist. “I was the only person who knew where everything was in that giant building.”
Now he has the task of maintaining the Aardvark collection he bought (“A good chunk of change,” is all he will say he paid for it) and adding to the inventory.
Estate sales, both men note, are great places to look. “Who has books that need to be downsized?” Hirschstein asks. “Their kids, if they have them, don’t want their crap.”
And there are gems out there. Hirschstein talks about books Aardvark has by the likes of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and J. M. Barrie, all made important by the dust jacket illustrations of Hugh Thomson, an Irish illustrator.
“That was back when visuals were rare,” Hirschstein says. “The pictures carried great weight back in the day.”
Hirschstein adds that Aardvark has a photo of Teddy Roosevelt, signed by the man himself, out-of-date dust jackets, horse books dating back to the 1930s and ’40s, early maps of U.S. westward expansion and young women’s and girls’ literature.
A quick browse on Aardvark’s website also has, among its 2,300 books, Ansel Adams’ 1981 Yosemite and the Range of Light, Richard Avedon and Truman Capote’s 1959 coffee table book Observations (signed by Avedon), Agatha Christie’s 1966 13 Clues for Miss Marple: A Collection of Mystery Stories and A Collection of Pamphlets: Sammelbande Containing Four Tracts by Edmund Burke (1796), four separate pamphlets bound into one hardcover binding with the previous owner’s signature (John Dawson Brien) and the date of the signature (Oct. 15, 1834) to front free endpaper.
Hirschstein knows well the treasures he has and aims to take great care of it all.
“Someone poured their life into this book,” he says. “There’s something eternal. It’s something stable in an unstable world.”
More information about Aardvark Rare Books is at AardvarkRareBooks.com, at 800-434-6033 and at Office@AardvarkRareBooks.com. Ezra The Bookfinder is at 541-683-3131 or email at TheBookFinder@gmail.com.