Otto Penzler: The books are gone, the memories live on

KENT — As a young man, fresh out of college and living in New York City, Otto Penzler got the idea that he wanted to read a book called “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.”

He went to a bookstore and was told it was out of print.

Penzler didn’t know what that meant. He was directed to a dense concentration of used bookshops on 4th Avenue.

“Twelve blocks, 96 bookshops,” he said recently in the living room of his home in Kent.

He found a copy for $10, which was a lot of money around 1963. It was even more considering he was making $42 a week working for the New York Daily News.

He thought the bookseller had made a mistake. “Look, it’s $2,” he said, pointing to the price printed on the dust jacket.

That’s when Otto Penzler learned about first editions.

Penzler’s house has a library. It might be more accurate to say that the library has a house around it. There are lending libraries that would be very happy to have this kind of space.

And until very recently, the shelves were filled with 60,000 books, mostly crime fiction.

Penzler said it was the finest such collection in the world.

“Otto Penzler” probably rings a bell with fans of crime fiction. That’s because he owns the Mysterious Bookshop in Manhattan and several publishing imprints, including the Mysterious Press.

Or because he has published writers like Donald Westlake, James Ellroy and Ed McBain.

Or because he has edited 50-plus anthologies of crime fiction and won a couple of Edgar Awards. He continues to work on anthologies and reads hundreds of stories per year, while also searching out new titles for his four publishing houses.

He had a lot to say about Ellroy, author of “LA Confidential.”

“He’s a very unusual guy.”

Ellroy came to Mysterious Books one day. He was excited because he had received a lot of money for a movie version of “LA Confidential.” He and Penzler had a good laugh over that.

“There are 100 characters in the book,” Penzler explained. “It’s unfilmable.”

Yet the movie was a financial and artistic success and won Academy Awards for its script and for Kim Basinger (best supporting actress). 

“Ellroy doesn’t admire anyone who is alive,” Penzler said. “He throws compliments around like manhole covers.”

But even Ellroy liked the film version of “LA Confidential.”

Penzler was asked why crime fiction remains enduringly popular. He said a mystery is “essentially a fairy tale for grown ups. There’s a battle between good and evil. And, especially in crime fiction, the good guys win.”

Readers also enjoy trying to solve the puzzle.

Penzler maintains a residence in New York but has owned property in Kent since the mid 1980s.

His second wife had wanted to live in the country. They began to search towns within driving distance of the city. They saw plenty of nice homes, but there was the problem of the books.

“I had so many books, even a nine bedroom house wasn’t enough. So I was looking for acreage.”

He credits Ellroy — specifically, the robust sales of “The Black Dahlia” — for the house.

“I want to hug Ellroy every time I see him.”

He was asked why he decided to sell the monumental collection that has lived in the house’s stately library for so many years.

“I’m 76,” he said. “I’ve got no family, nobody to leave it to, to take care of it. 

“I regret it every minute but it was an adult decision.”

So what does he do for reading material, now that the books are gone?

Otto Penzler laughed. “I own a bookstore.”

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