This article is brought to you by the Bay Area Book Festival. Fill in the blank: B–k. Maybe you read “Book.” Or possibly your mind extrapolated a bit and thought “Berkeley.” Berkeley means books. There have been terrible losses: Cody’s (can it actually be eight years?), Shakespeare & Company (only last year), Black Oak Books on San […]
Serendipity Books
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Shotgun Players to create studio at old Serendipity Books
Berkeley’s Shotgun Players has purchased the building on University Avenue that once housed Serendipity Books and will turn it into a new rehearsal and shop space. A large gift from an anonymous donor allowed Shotgun to buy the 5,200-square foot building at 1201 University (at San Pablo) in March 2014. The Board of Directors and other […]
Posted inArts
Era ends: Liquidation sale at Berkeley’s Serendipity Books
When Peter Howard, the owner of Serendipity Books, died in March 2011, he left behind more than one million books crammed into his two-level store on University Avenue in Berkeley with the oak barrel hanging out front. Howard’s collection of rare and antique books was considered one of the best in the country; he often […]
Posted inArts
Rare works from Serendipity Books to be auctioned
The collection the late Peter Howard amassed for Serendipity Books was so vast that it will take Bonhams six different auctions to sell it off. Once stuffed into an old winery on University Avenue, the collection, estimated at one million volumes, has now been sorted – and resorted and resorted – for sale. “The bookstore […]
Posted inArts
Peter Howard, owner of Serendipity Books, dies
Peter Howard, the eccentric and brilliant owner of Serendipity Books, and a towering figure in the world of rare books, died at home on March 31. A Giants season ticket-holder for more than 40 years, Howard died with the opening game of the season blaring on television – while the Giants were still beating the […]
Posted inArts, Business
Future uncertain for Berkeley’s Serendipity Books
Peter B. Howard, the owner of Serendipity Books, has been collecting antique tomes for 47 years and the results of his diligence can be seen in the stacks and stacks of books at his store on University Avenue. A world-renowned book collector who has rescued a number of valuable archives from the Berkeley city dump […]