Now and then I find myself thinking back to the days, hours, years I spent browsing Great Expectations Bookstore located near the L tracks on Foster Street in Evanston, Illinois. I went there often in the late 1960’s, through the 1970’s, until June 1983 when I moved to California. It was nearly impossible to visit the store without somehow coming into contact with Truman Metzel, bookseller/owner, curmudgeon, friend, store guide, and host to hundreds of Northwestern faculty and students. He offered free coffee, an open table and chairs ready for whomever wanted to just hang out, sit and discuss. For ambience, he always had a radio playing near the coffee and table, usually tuned to WFMT, Chicago’s classical music station.

I’ll will certainly never forget my first visit to the store one fall afternoon in 1968. I was a freshman at Northwestern. After a half hour or so of browsing, I walked over to Truman and asked where I might find Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature. Sitting at a desk messy with invoices, packing slips, book orders, he looked up at me over his half-rims and responded, simply, with his deep voice, unblinking eye-contact, and slow delivery, “Which edition, what publisher?”

His questions left me speechless—it would be years before I knew or cared about such things as editions and publishers.

[Note: Sadly Truman Metzel passed away June 6, 2008.
The remainder of this post and the post noting his passing are dedicated to his memory and the memories so many have of his Great Expectations bookstore.]

Here are three other pieces I found on the web relating to Great Expectations Bookstore and its inimitable, unique owner and bookseller, Truman Metzel, including a 2001 Daily Northwestern article documenting the final closing of its doors. The article contains an interesting interview with Jeff Rice, the store’s last owner/manager.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share/Save