It is often said that all of literature can be derived from only seven stories. If that’s true, then the seeds of Dan Whitmore’s dream business—a rare- book dealership based out of his California home—can be traced back to one of the oldest stories, found in the Bible: sibling rivalry.
“My brother, Rob, was given first editions for Christmas every year by his godfather—and I wasn’t,” Whitmore ’03 says. “I always coveted his first editions, so I had this idea in the back of my mind that when I grew up I’d have this library of first-edition books that were really important to me.”
After one year working as an associate in the Los Angeles law offices of O’Melveny and Meyers, Whitmore had a professional epiphany. Imagining himself 15 to 25 years in the future, he says, “I couldn’t pick anyone in the firm whose life I wanted.”
He scribbled other possibilities on a legal pad—a neighborhood bar, a bed and breakfast in South America. Then he realized if he could make his living as a rare-book dealer, he’d be much happier.
With his wife Darinka’s blessing, Whitmore quit the firm, turned his budding collection of first editions into a starting inventory, and founded Whitmore Rare Books out of the couple’s home in Altadena in January 2010. “We took a right turn,” Whitmore says, “and I haven’t really looked back since.” (And as for his brother’s collection of first editions? “My library far overshadows his at this point,” Dan says, smiling.)
In an era when most great works are just a click of the Kindle away, Whitmore says he feels “like a lot of people are looking at books as a record of our cultural heritage.” He’s spent the last five years growing an inventory of about 300 items, diversifying beyond modern first-edition fiction and moving into antiquarian and world literature, some leather-bound books, and some significant works in science and architecture.
Whitmore majored in economics at Middlebury and later studied at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. While living in Philadelphia, he bought a well-worn first printing of Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls from a street vendor—a purchase that reignited his passion for the printed word. “I started hitting every used bookshop looking for those magic words ‘first edition,’” he says, but he never spent more than $200 on a book.
Soon after law school, and when drawing a law-firm paycheck, Whitmore seized the opportunity to buy “a really nice copy” of Atlas Shrugged from a private collector for $600. A month later, he spent $6,000 on a first-edition English-language copy of Don Quixote from 1620. “This book just glowed every time I opened it up or looked at it,” he says.
That fueled Whitmore’s own quixotic dream of turning his passion into a profession. He says, “To some extent, people telling you you’re crazy gives you the motivation to make it work.” Whitmore Rare Books is, in fact, a partnership with his wife Darinka—a graphic designer and photographer—who builds the website and produces the catalogs while Dan researches and purchases inventory, along with writing book descriptions. “I’ve never had a second thought about working for a paycheck versus doing something that I love,” he says. “What would I do if I had more money? I’d buy
more books.”
And while Whitmore muses one day about opening his own retail shop, with two dogs and two children underfoot, that’s a story to be continued. “As our kids grow older, this really can be a family business for us,” he says. “Growing up with first editions and fine literature, Oliver and his brother are going to have a really interesting relationship with books that most of their friends won’t.” And with any luck, these siblings will learn to share their first editions.
Parallels
Until recently, The Lord of the Rings trilogy was on Whitmore’s wish list—books he first read in fifth grade. (Retail price: $27,500.) At Middlebury, he took a winter term course on Tolkien taught by Matthew Dickerson. In the class they read The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, the LOTR trilogy, and The Silmarillion again. “You take one course for a month, and you just live in that world. It was one of the best courses I had—just incredible.”
Whitmore is a card-carrying member of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America, which was first founded in 1949 and which, according to its website, was begun “to promote interest in rare and antiquarian books and book collecting, and to foster collegial relations.” The average ABAA member has spent 20 years in the antiquarian book business before joining; Whitmore got his card in four.
Inspired by a Middlebury friend who came in as a Feb after hiking the Appalachian Trail, Whitmore took a semester off to hike the 2,200-mile route north to south. Now, when he goes hiking, he brings 16-month-old Oliver and takes the family for a two-hour hike, starting at the trailhead just two blocks up the street from their home. “It’s a quality-of-life thing we can take advantage of because of the way we’ve developed our business,” he says.