Nestled among several blocks of student apartments is The Word at 469 Rue Milton, a small independent bookstore home to a considerable collection of secondhand academic books.
For what The Word lacks in size, it makes up for with its charm; its tangible impact on the McGill community is evident. Students can be seen throughout the day browsing bookshelves devoted to philosophy, literature, and more. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the bookstore’s establishment in the heart of Milton-Parc, where founder and McGill alumnus Adrian King-Edwards first began selling books from his apartment, which at the time was marked to passers-by with a photograph of George Bernard Shaw. The Daily had the opportunity to interview King-Edwards and his wife, Donna Jean-Louis, for this occasion in their own home, whose shelves of collector’s editions and snug armchairs are merely an extension of The Word’s cozy interior. Read further to learn about King-Edwards’ city-wide adventures in sourcing books, stand-out interactions with customers, and, ultimately, his love for the McGill and Milton-Parc community.
This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Eva Marriott-Fabre for The McGill Daily (MD): Tell me, what started your lifelong love of books? At what age did you become interested in reading, and who were your earliest influences?
Adrian King-Edwards (AKE): I’m sure it came from my mother reading to me. I can remember her reading David Copperfield — that’s a very strong memory — and she read Black Beauty to me. So definitely, my love of books came from my mother. I can’t remember ever thinking about it. I mean, it was just what I was interested in. So, I mean, I did well in high school in literature, and I really enjoyed it, and I can remember being close with the English teacher in high school. And then,
of course, when I came to McGill, I studied literature.
MD: How did you decide you wanted to study at McGill specifically? What brought you to Quebec and Montreal?
AKE: The bright lights of Montreal … you know, from outside, it appears like an exciting city. It is an exciting city. Also, growing up in northern Ontario, you have a huge prejudice against Toronto. I really, really enjoyed being at McGill and studying literature. It was a great experience.
MD: How did you foster your love of reading throughout your degree?
AKE: There were several things I was very keen on. We did one whole term on Ulysses by Joyce, and I was very keen on Faulkner. I was so keen on Faulkner that I wanted to go and see his home in Mississippi. I didn’t have any money, and in those days, people would often hitchhike. So I hitchhiked from here to Mississippi. Another professor, Professor Malik, did Paradise Lost with us. It was a very intense class on Paradise Lost. And then we did Chaucer with Professor Williams, and he would read to us in Middle English. And that, again, was fantastic. It was a great department. I really, really enjoyed being there.
MD: I read that The Word was not your first endeavour in selling books, and you started by selling books in the back of a Volkswagen in British Columbia. So what got you there?
AKE: I had this idea, as I was going along, that I would be a writer as well, and I also sort of started writing short stories, and that kind of thing, towards my third and fourth year. I went on a cycling trip after I graduated, and then I came back, pursuing my desire to write. I was going to write about my cycling trip — I cycled from London to Lagos, Nigeria. It took me about six months to do the whole thing and I’ve still got the bike in my garage. My first wife and I had really close friends in BC, in Belcarra Park near Vancouver, and we went out to visit them for the summer. We would leave here in April, and we would be gone all summer. The municipal law was that you could only sell books in unincorporated areas — places that weren’t towns. We’d go to lumbering camps, mining camps, and little hamlets which weren’t incorporated. We’d put out a blanket on the ground and put our books out, face up, and we would sell books like that, and we’d get to know a lot of people. People would tell us, “you know, there’s this guy who lives in a cabin on the lake about ten miles that way, and he’s got a big collection of science fiction.” We would go and knock on his door, and we’d trade books with him, and inevitably, he would feed us. We were working hand to mouth, so sometimes we’d have to wait a little longer to sell more books before we could buy gas. It was really fun…my first wife had a child who was four years old when we were doing this, and in northern BC people would come by on horseback and take them for a ride.
MD: So what brought you back to Milton-Parc?
AKE: I’ve lived on Lorne, Hutchison, Milton and Aylmer … this area is a wonderfully exciting neighbourhood to be in because of all the students. And at the end of August, I really look forward to the students coming back, because there’s all that life and excitement and energy back in the neighbourhood.
MD: How were you able to establish such close ties with McGill and why was it important for you to develop these relationships with your alma mater?
AKE: Well, we always wanted to have a store that was seriously academic and would benefit the students. I mean, that was always our focus. Then, well — first it was the students who told each other, and because my wife and I both graduated from the English literature department, we had all kinds of contacts with people in that department. And then it grew from there … 30 professors ordered [their textbooks] through us. But it was quite a few years before we started ordering new books for courses — it didn’t happen immediately.
MD: What challenges did you encounter in establishing and developing The Word? What were the difficulties that come with being an independent bookstore? AKE: We had the store back when we were living in our apartment next door — it was a four-and-a- half for $105 a month, and for a year and a half we sold books out of our apartment. There were four doors there that all looked the same, so we put a picture of George Bernard Shaw in the window. And then people would know. It got to the point where people would just walk in. I mean, nobody was ringing the bell or anything. They just kind
of knew because it was the cool underground bookstore. There’s two aspects here: the buying and the selling of books, and then dealing with the customer. And if you’re going to be successful, you’ve got to like both. And it’s really fun. I mean, every day when I’m in this store, on at least one or two occasions people will find a book that they’re really excited about, and you can hear them. They’ll take it off the shelf, and they’ll go “Ooh!” And that’s one of the things I live for. One of the advantages we have is that we’re so visible because hundreds of students walk by us every day. We’re selling literature books or philosophy books for a third of what they cost at Indigo or Paragraphe, so there’s obviously a price difference. And also there are the second-hand books. We have a much wider range of books available. We have books from 1950 or 1960 … last week, we actually bought 70 books by and about Heidegger. Most of those books are out of print and they’re not available. Even if they’re on Amazon or Abe [Books], there’s a premium attached, because we might be selling the book for $15 and theirs might be $25 — $25 American, in fact. We definitely have a cost advantage.
MD: What does your weekly schedule look like? How often are you at the actual bookstore and how often are you out sourcing books across Montreal?
AKE: Well, usually I’m in the store, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday. And then Thursdays, I do house calls. I go all over Montreal and we also buy books elsewhere. I mean, we bought a major library in Halifax a few years ago. In Toronto, we buy books … Ottawa, we buy books. But in those situations, we have to be sure that it’s really good. Sometimes you go for a house call and the books were misdescribed, or there really aren’t any books you want. So sometimes it doesn’t work. If we go down to Connecticut, for instance, we have to be sure that there’s going to be good books. And we always buy books when we travel. It’s something we always do. We just go buy books. You never know what you’re going to find — you can find some really real gems like that.
MD: How have you seen both The Word and the McGill community develop alongside each other over the years? Do you think there are many differences from when you first started, or even when you were a student?
AKE: I mean the neighbourhood has changed immensely. When we started the store, the neighbourhood was run-down. It was mainly rooming houses for elderly people and poor students. And then over the years, everything was bought up and turned into condos, and now it’s way more affluent than it used to be. That’s a major change in the neighbourhood. And although it doesn’t really appear that way from the outside, we’re making changes all the time in the store with regards to what we stock. Every week, we’ll discover a new author, and we’ll discuss whether we should stock their books. I would recommend if somebody is interested in literature, to start a second-hand bookstore. However, it’s really difficult now because of the really high rents. If we were just starting out now, we wouldn’t be here. If we didn’t buy the building 12 years ago, we would not be here because the rent would have been too high. Like any small business, you’ve got to work really hard to keep everything going … Yeah, we’re really fortunate. I’ve been glad that we’ve been in this location for so long. It’s really extraordinary.
The Word is open from Monday to Saturday at 469 Rue Milton. For more information, visit www.thewordbookstore.ca.