A Ghost in a Labyrinth of Books

Barber's Back Door Bookshop is a glorious labyrinth of books where unusual statues perch atop rare jumbles, and prints by painters from Egon Schiele to Norman Rockwell hang along banisters and upon thresholds. Yesterday I visited Barber's for the first time in many years. When I entered the door, I had a strange, wondrous flashback to my childhood. I was overtaken by the satisfying smell of old books and the mystery of the antiquarian's obscure treasures.

Barber's Book Store, you see, was the first great bookstore I ever entered. My grandfather owned a small business a few blocks away, at an address that no longer exists, and I often visited Barber's when I was a boy. I can not remember the first time I entered the shop, but in my mind's eye I can still see the stacks of books lining the staircase. Yesterday I felt like I had met the ghost of Fort Worth past. I felt like I had entered a window into the city's past, into my own past.

Larry McMurtry, who purchased the store's inventory in the late 1990s, also considers Barber's the first fine bookstore he ever entered. In fact, he bought his first secondhand book, Hugh Walpole's Rogue of Herries, at Barber's in 1954. Considering the store's proximity to the Star-Telegram building, I imagine a number of Texas' legendary writers were not infrequent visitors to Barber's. The store is part of Fort Worth's history. It is part of downtown's intellectual heart.

And, yes, there is a ghost that turns the pages of books and walks the stairs. This, of course, is perfectly logical. Like my grandfather's old place, Barber's is situated in a building that was on the edge of Hell's Half Acre, Fort Worth's famous vice district. In the early twentieth century, part of the Barber's building was a house-of-ill-repute, and the ghost is believed to be a woman who once worked there. When I was a boy, though I knew nothing of the "ill-repute" story, I always hoped to catch a glimpse of the ghost. I hoped to see a book levitate or to witness some other supernatural manifestation, but I never saw anything otherworldly.

Now it seems that my past and present have converged, for one of the books among the thousands at Barber's happens to be mine. It is one tiny star in a galaxy of knowledge, and I am both proud and grateful that it is there waiting to be discovered. I can only wonder who will stumble across it. Perhaps the ghost of Barber's Book Store will turn my book's pages or some literary legend of the future will lay hands upon its spine. For now, I am content with it resting upon a shelf in the first bookstore I ever visited, in a world of magic and possibility.   

The store's Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Back-Door-Books/116449068380017

A story about Brian Perkins, the bookstore's owner:

https://www.nbcdfw.com/the-scene/shopping/Book-Collector-Could-Rival-Small-Library-124980204.html