Working in the Commonwealth of Books

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From a golden age of bookselling to community-based publishing

Working in the Commonwealth of Books lays out Keith Helmuth's cultural memoir encompassing the past six and half decades-a narrative seen through the lens of a bookseller, bookstore manager, college librarian, and publisher.

Starting in the 1960s in Iowa City, Syracuse, and Manhattan, an account of an era unfolds as seen by an activist devoted to the culture of books and their role in illuminating the human condition in a time of accelerating ecological destruction and deepening social crisis. The journey continues at Friends World College on Long Island and in Kenya. The story is rounded out with a return to bookstore management in Philadelphia and community-based book publishing in Woodstock, New Brunswick.