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The Book Pages: Meeting ‘Last Unicorn’ author Peter S. Beagle among the paperbacks

March 24, 2023

The rain came down hard last Sunday, and I wondered whether I’d made the right decision.

This is a question I often ask myself, rain or not. But this time it had more to do with avoiding puddles and keeping my clothes from soaking through.

While the smart money was on a day of pajamas, Sunday papers and hot beverages, I’d decided to leave the great indoors for a cold downpour.

I was on a mission to visit the Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Collectors Show at the Glendale Civic Auditorium, which promised “tens of thousands of vintage paperbacks” along with authors Denise Hamilton, Tim Powers, Gary Phillips, Larry Niven and more. I’d never been, but my colleague Steven Rosenberg had tipped me to it.

“There is no telling what might show up,” the website had promised, and I wondered if they were referring to me as I shook off the rain.

But as I entered and saw the tables and tables full of old paperbacks, I knew I’d made the right decision. As a kid, I’d gotten most of my books this way, pawing through paperbacks at rummage sales, yard sales and Friends of the Library events.

Or on some very good days, I’d ride my bike to a used bookstore in Pasadena called Book Village where a beatific man named Nick patiently answered questions about comic books or old paperbacks while leaning back in his chair behind the desk, occasionally eating a Dolly Madison pie.

So while I didn’t really need more books, I did need to look around. I walked in and went straight to the back and found myself in front of the table of Peter S. Beagle, author of “The Last Unicorn” (and the screenplay for the animated film), as well as other books, short stories and the script for the 1978 Ralph Bakshi animated version of “The Lord of the Rings,” among other things.

Beagle, who recently regained control of his intellectual property, is publishing a new book in April, “The Way Home: Two Novellas from the World of The Last Unicorn,” and in May he’s bringing out the two-volume, “The Essential Peter Beagle.” I’m told there’s going to be a new edition of “The Innkeeper’s Song,” and in the UK this fall, there will be a new edition of “A Fine and Private Place” with an introduction by Neil Gaiman.

I’d first heard of Beagle through Gaiman, who has praised Beagle’s work, and the kind words went both ways as Beagle recalled their first meeting at a convention.

“We were on a panel, the two of us, and we had five or 10 minutes to get used to each other,” said Beagle. “We bounced lines off each other as though we’ve been carrying on together for 30 years. … We’ve been friends ever since.”

The 83-year-old Beagle seemed pleased to be there, giving each person his full attention when they approached him to chat or have a book signed. Throughout, he kept a black-and-white photo of a smiling woman close at hand.

“She’s gone. Today, it’ll be 11 years,” he said, gesturing to the picture. “I called her Nell, but her full name was Jenella DuRousseau.”

Though they’d not been married to each other – there had been other marriages for both of them – Beagle said they’d maintained a connection even when DuRousseau was in Europe and he was here in the States.

And did he always bring the photo with him?

“These days I do,” he said. “She loved books and writing, so it seemed logical to bring her with me.”

“The Last Unicorn” author Peter S. Beagle at the Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Collectors Show on March 19, 2023. (Photo by Erik Pedersen)

Not wanting to monopolize Beagle’s time, I moved on, looking unsuccessfully for a copy of “The Last Unicorn” for him to sign. I did buy some classic Penguin Crime paperbacks, John Wyndham’s “The Chrysalids,” Wilkie Collins’s “The Moonstone” (despite – cough – having bought one in recent memory I haven’t opened) and a copy of “The Ipcress File,” largely because I will watch the 1960s Michael Caine film version anytime it’s on.

Some Penguin Crime paperbacks purchased at the Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Collectors Show at the Glendale Civic Auditorium on March 19, 2023. (Photo by Erik Pedersen)

Finally, I found myself near the entrance again, looking at a bunch of familiar paperbacks – and a familiar face.

It was Nick – full name Nick Smith, I learned – who’d been so kind to me when I was a kid asking him intense questions about Marvel comic books or Doc Savage paperbacks. I was thunderstruck and overjoyed, and he was, as remembered, beatific.

Smith, who recently retired from the Pasadena Public Library, was volunteering at the event as part of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society. As we talked about books, the upcoming LosCon 49 and the work of comic book writer Ed Brubaker, I asked him if he’d realized the effect he had on kids like me and my friends, who he treated with such kindness and respect.

“I remember being a kid buying comics myself. And where I was buying comics at the time, there was nobody to ask; there was just the person behind the counter at the grocery store and they didn’t know anything about the comic. They were just selling them,” Smith said. “So I tried to be somebody that people of any level could communicate with.”

Nick Smith at the Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Collectors Show on March 19, 2023. (Photo by Erik Pedersen)

I told him I had a very strong memory of him eating Dolly Madison pies, for some reason, and he laughed.

“We didn’t really have much in the way of breaks there, so I would get stuff either from the little grocery store across the street or from the Burger King,” he said, surprisingly willing to answer what I realize was an entirely strange question.

We had a wonderful talk, and in moment that seemed to pull everything together, Smith told me about meeting Peter Beagle at a convention years ago.

“It was amazing. Peter actually invited a bunch of us fans up to his hotel rooms to play us the music for “The Last Unicorn” songs, because he had written original music, or adapted really obscure music, for all of those things that are scattered through the book,” said Smith, recalling Beagle as being incredibly nice.

“He was just so kind and generous with his time and was so excited to be having fun with fans. Because that was part of what he was about.”

It was time for me to go, finally. As I walked back into the rain, my books wrapped in a plastic shopping bag, I couldn’t help but think of something else the website had promised: “There will be treasures found.”

Victor LaValle shares what he found in a Flushing, Queens candy store

Victor LaValle is the author of, most recently, “Lone Women.” (Photo by Teddy Wolff / Courtesy of One World/Penguin)

Victor LaValle has written novels, novellas and short stories, and his latest work is “Lone Women,” which hits stores March 28. LaValle’s books have made numerous best-of lists and he’s the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. He teaches at Columbia University and lives with his family in the Bronx. LaValle spoke with Michael Schaub about the new novel, and here he responds to the Book Pages Q&A.

Q. Is there a book or books you always recommend to other readers?

I always recommend “Corregidora” by Gayl Jones. Close runner-up is “A Personal Matter” by Kenzaburo Oe. Both are pretty rough books, but that’s why I love them. They look at some difficult subject matter and never blink.

Q. Do you remember the first book that made an impact on you?

The “Encyclopedia Brown” books were early favorites. They were the first books I could read by myself and I felt proud of that.

Q. What’s something – a fact, a bit of dialogue or something else – that stayed with you from a recent reading?

The grandson of one of Thomas Jefferson’s slaves is named Fountain Hughes. He gave a recorded interview in 1949 as part of the Works Progress Administration program. You can listen to his voice as car horns sometimes play in the background. Much as some people like to discuss slavery as some ancient event, it remained in the living history of this man, and by recording it, it becomes a part of our living history. Past isn’t even past, as the saying goes. Learned this in a book called “Darkly” by Leila Taylor.

Q. Do you have any favorite book covers?

My favorite recent book cover is Mariana Enriquez’s “Our Share of Night.” The annotated Lovecraft stories, edited by Leslie Klinger, both have gorgeous covers. Centipede Press, an independent press out of Colorado, makes a tremendous number of books with beautiful covers.

Q. Which books do you plan, or hope, to read next?

I’m reading the Enriquez now and loving it. Also planning to dive into “Mott Street” by Ava Chin, a nonfiction book about Chin’s family history in the United States, tracing it back more than a hundred years from coast to coast.

Q. Is there a person who made an impact on your reading life – a teacher, a parent, a librarian or someone else?

Two sisters who ran a candy store around the corner from my apartment building in Flushing, Queens. Their names were Gina and Rose. Their store was, aptly enough, called GinaRose. They let us kids read all the comics we wanted on the spinner rack, even if we weren’t buying. Never shooed us out of the place, never demanded we spend a penny. It was such a loving act. I fell in love with comics, and with reading, because of the freedom they gave us.

Q. If you could ask your readers something, what would it be?

When’s the first time you fell in love with a book, and why? I’m always fascinated by the answer to such a question because it’s rarely about the book all by itself. You ask about the book and you often learn something a lot more personal.

• • •

Please write me at [email protected] to share news, comments and what you books you’re enjoying, and your comments may appear in the newsletter.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

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The Book Pages: Meeting ‘Last Unicorn’ author Peter S. Beagle among the paperbacks

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