Michael Dawson, third-generation owner, curator and primary book buyer of Dawson's Bookshop in Larchmont Village, opened wide his shop's doors Sunday to about 200 well-wishers who had come to help celebrate the store's 100th anniversary.
First set up in downtown Los Angeles in 1905, Dawson's claims to be "the oldest continuously operating bookshop in the city." After three moves downtown, Dawson's family finally settled on Larchmont Boulevard in the Hollywood/Hancock Park area in 1968. It specializes in buying and selling rare and antique books on subjects such as California history, Western Americana, photography and fine arts. Dawson's also operates a small publishing press. Over the years, it has earned the recognition and respect of its customers, who consist mostly of private collectors, institutions, museums and other members of the trade.
Talking to The Times a day before the event, Dawson said the celebration gives his family and customers a chance to look back and see how far the business has come since his grandfather, Ernest Dawson, opened it. By year's end, he plans to publish a book of essays -- written by him, his uncle and his father -- on the shop's history.
Dawson, who took over the family business in 1995, said that the rise of the big bookstores and the Internet has created a new set of challenges for small stores like his, but he believes his and similar shops have the distinct advantage of having in-depth knowledge on particular subjects, which the big chains don't, keeping customers devoted. In fact, he said, rare book dealers have to become even more specialized as the knowledge base of antiquarian bookshops has become "more democratic as opposed to being proprietary in the past."
Setting up the Michael Dawson Gallery in 2000 was one such attempt on his part to attract younger collectors "who are more visual-oriented than text-oriented," he says.
On Sunday, enthusiasts -- most of whom had ties to the bookshop stretching back years -- filled the small two-story shop, viewing the gallery's photo exhibit of the Dawson family and the business from its earliest days to the present. Francis J. Weber of the San Fernando Mission first visited the store in 1959 and has remained a regular, publishing several of his own works through Dawson's. "It's the premier antiquarian bookshop on the West Coast," he said. "They have kept alive the whole notion of antiquarian book trade."
