David Gregor

Shares his rare knack

You'll have to travel a bit to experience the natural high of browsing Gregor Rare Books, the well-known West Seattle shop that David Gregor moved to Langley, Whidbey Island, a year ago.

Gregor, who co-produces the popular Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair and Book Arts Show at Seattle Center each October, has been selling secondhand and collectible books since 1987, bringing a passion and next-door-neighbor good humor to a field that can seem stodgy and obscure.

He's the go-to guy for that 1937 first printing of Ernest Hemingway's "To Have and Have Not" ($2,500), complete with original dust jacket, or a first edition of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" (only 10,000 copies in the first printing).

"The true collector wants the book as it appeared — when it first went on sale," Gregor muses. "There's that exclusivity aspect that people thrive on. It puts you in a certain kind of company."

Back in 1987, Gregor was an aspiring 40-year-old author, working days at a little grocery in Seattle, where customers came to know him as a book sleuth with a knack for tracking down volumes long out of print — on his lunch breaks, no less.

"I had probably a dozen customers who I helped build nice little libraries," Gregor says.

Now he specializes in books that feature Paris in the 1920s, as well as modern giants from Steinbeck to García Márquez. He teaches how-to courses for rare-book collectors and dealers.

Moving such a niche enterprise to an out-of-the-way locale may seem like an odd decision. But Gregor didn't head to Whidbey for money. He went for love. His wife, Priscilla Lowry-Gregor, owns Lowry-James Rare Prints and Books, practically down the street in Langley's quaint retail district. Lowry-Gregor is a sought-after authority on 16th-through-20th-century botanical and zoological prints.

The two met at the book fair in Seattle two years ago and tied the knot May 1 last year. "Things connected," Gregor explains. "She's a sharp cookie."

For the collector, rarity is a kind of virtue. But the appeal runs deeper, Gregor says. A rare book gives the collector a special connection to the creator's artistry and life.

"It's like a talisman," he says. "If we have it, maybe something of it can cross over into us."