Wednesday May 24, 2006

Best Job Ever

Susan Henderson has posted a nice interview with Corey Mesler of Burke’s Books in Memphis. Burke’s has fallen on hard times, which is a shame. I worked there for a time more than ten years ago, and it was the best job I ever had.

A lot of interesting firsts and signed editions passed through the store, like the day Faulkner paramour Joan Williams came in to have all her association copies from “Bill” wrapped in acetate dust jackets. The copy machine was right there, and I often wish I’d taken a shot of the inscriptions.

But Williams was not the most famous person to come to the store. Shelby Foote, Richard Ford, and George Saunders also made appearances, and John Grisham drew crowds around the block every time he put out a book. And, although I’ve lived in New York for six years, my best celebrity sighting (by far) still happened at Burke’s. That was the day Michael Jackson came into the store.

It was a slow Sunday afternoon, and he was preceded by an advance man—a body builder in a plain dark suit—who came in and asked when we closed. He left, then in came Michael, along with Lisa Marie Presley—they were married at the time, and in town for some Elvis tribute—and a small entourage. They shopped for children’s books for more than an hour, then left the advance man behind to pay the tab. The first credit card he presented—which said “Michael Jackson” right on it—was declined, but a backup made it through fine. That night on the news, I saw Michael and Lisa Marie passing the books out to sick kids at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. Nice, charitable, but still kind of creepy in retrospect.

Posted by jim at 05:10 PM ||