Punk rock cart shark: What we learned looking through Tom Verlaine’s 50,000 books

By Colin Kirkland

It’s not every day that you get a chance to buy directly from a deceased rock star’s collection of 50,000 books. Just ask the hundreds of Brooklynites willing to spend their Saturday afternoon waiting in a two-plus hour line on Greene Avenue in Bed-Stuy, smoking, chatting, reading, texting, sweating and drinking iced coffees that long ago melted into their book-hungry palms.

Tom Verlaine, best known as the guitarist and frontman of Television, an influential genre-busting band that was once a staple of New York’s vibrant punk scene, passed away in January. Now, his boundless personal library is up for grabs.

The line at Better Read than Dead (Colin Kirkland)

“It’s just kind of sensational,” remarked one eager reader, shading her eyes from the midday sun. “50,000 books? Dead rock star? I was like, I wanna go now.”

She, like everyone else awaiting their chance to snake through the two garages overflowing with books, was driven by an ad posted by Better Read Than Dead, the Brooklyn-based book seller putting on the massive garage sale alongside Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Hill Books.

“Tom Verlaine was as prodigious and visionary of a book scout and collector as he was musician and songwriter,” the post read.

For the first iteration of what will become a multi-wave sale, Better Read announced that in order to “whittle away at this mountainous collection,” prices would be “LOW and discounts HEAVY for those looking to wheel away books by the box.”

‘Secret sources’
Aside from being a punk-rock icon, Verlaine scoured bookstores for decades. He even developed a reputation as a “cart shark” at one of New York’s most iconic bookstores, The Strand, where he landed a job at 18 years old, one week after moving from his hometown in Delaware.

According to stories shared after his death –– from Strand workers and close friends like Patti Smith and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore –– Verlaine would visit The Strand almost every day (unless he was on tour), spending hours combing through the curated dollar carts, smoking cigarettes in an overcoat, and chatting with fellow bibliophiles.

“No regular was as consistent or beloved,” remarked former Strand employee Colin Groundwater in an article for LitHub.

In an essay paying tribute to Verlaine’s life, Patti Smith reflected on what it was like to comb through one another’s bookcases.

“We were amazed to find that our books were nearly identical,” she wrote. “Even those by authors difficult to find. Cossery, Hedayat, Tutuola, Mrabet. We were both independent literary scouts, and we came to share our secret sources.”

Better Read mentioned in their announcement that it’s likely that Verlaine “looked into almost everything he ever bought.” Still, it’s impossible to know what Verlaine thought of these books. Or which ones he actually read.

Inside the garages, the books were arranged by section, the main categories being Literature, Music and Art.

Many people in line, however, seemed most excited about books that were categorized under the acronym “MOPS,” which included works of Mysticism, Occult, Paranormal and Spirituality — making up perhaps the widest slice of Verlaine’s collection.

One man in line said that after seeing a tweet about the book sale, he decided to stop by, hoping to add to his recent collection of books focused on “cults and science stuff from the 17th and 18th centuries.”

“I don’t think the collection is going to be filled with Danielle Steel or James Patterson…” another person remarked, though it’s hard to say. Out of the 5,000 to 10,000 books up for sale on Saturday, it became clear that Verlaine’s literary interests were fairly fluid.

A fellow cart shark (Colin Kirkland)

Communicating with animals
In fact, a lot of what Verlaine had collected over the years populated extremely niche genres.

There was a sheet of paper duct-taped to one of the garage walls that read, “Lit?” with a smaller sign below clarifying the question mark: “But also Psychic Pets, Peptides + China.”

(We enjoy the idea of Verlaine thumbing through titles like “Amino Acids: Metabolism and Medical Applications,” “Communicating with Animals” and “Negotiating China.”)

The wide-ranging subject matter in Verlaine’s vast collection was a definite crowd pleaser, giving people the chance to peep at intriguingly unexpected titles like, “The Spiritual Journey of a Showbusiness Priest,” “Native American Healing Secrets” or “Hustling: Prostitution in Our Wide-Open Society.”

But what seemed to matter most to the crowd was that Verlaine picked these books out himself.

“Been a huge Television fan for a long long time, and it would be nice to get something that’s a little part of someone I admire musically,” said Orin Silverstein, who added he was working at Capitol Records when Television released their 1992 reunion album with the label. “You get an insight into what he was into, what he was curious about.”

Aaron Beckwith, co-owner of Capitol Hill Books, expressed a similar desire. The hardcovers and paperbacks, “having gone through Verlaine’s hands and his mind, add this new layer of resonance,” he said. “Just the breadth of his interests is fascinating.”

Beckwith also believes that releasing these books back into the community marks a welcome tribute to Verlaine and a life spent gifting, trading, and collecting.

In 2018, when The Strand’s late owner Fred Bass died, Verlaine eulogized him in The New York Times, writing that the bookstore “was a whirlpool of silent expression, of ideas happily waiting patiently … little letters on pages awaiting a glance.”

It’s comforting to think that the moments Verlaine spent standing out on that sidewalk, readying hundreds of unique (and cheap) purchases, are now being recycled and shared by a swath of New Yorkers who, seven months after Verlaine’s death, are eager to take home a piece of his life.

Better Read Than Dead says there are still over 40,000 of Verlaine’s books to sell and will soon be announcing dates for upcoming sales. Watch this space for updates.