Toronto. May 12, 1982 I picked up this book used from Edwards Books on Queen Street near Spadina. The bookstore was selling off a massive collection of photographic books. This book was a 1938 first edition by Morgan & Lester of Leica Manual fame. The cover was a full colour engraving by Beck Engraving Co. of Philadelphia with branches in Springfield and NYC. It was created from a Kodachrome slide taken by Nickolas Murray. Kodachrome 35mm had recently been offered by Eastman Kodak in Rochester.
The attraction of this book was its focus on miniature cameras including the Leicas of the day, its extensive catalogue section, and its generous dollop of technical information for amateur darkrooms of the late 1930s. The choice of photographs told an unintentional story of the fashions and beliefs of the day.
The following excerpt is from the Torontoist web site. The excerpt is from a note posted by Jamie Bradburn on January 6, 2012. I copied it here since the site seems to duplicate it with some of the HTML code displayed:
“Edwards Books & Art
Edward Borins learned how to buy and sell high quality remainders at low prices while managing David Mirvish Books during the 1970s. Borins and his wife Eva established their own store at 356 Queen Street West in 1979, which eventually grew into a small chain. As NOW noted in a March 1989 profile, the original location “opened just at the time when the area was being revitalized by a new wave of artists and businesses.”
“The chain fought a lengthy battle with the provincial government over Sunday shopping laws that led to around 300 charges. Edwards ran into troubles with its suppliers that played a role into the chain’s demise in 1997 and, thanks to tighter credit limits publishers had imposed in the aftermath, negatively affected other local booksellers. The Borinses moved to Santa Fe and ran Garcia Street Books for a decade before selling it last year.”
