business. Stevens once mailed a list of religious books to a community college in Virginia that needed volumes for its library. A college representative called and said school leaders wanted to buy the books. He asked which books they needed. “They said, ‘We want the whole list.’” Stevens provided 20,000 books to the library at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis. He has sold books also to smaller theological schools. Stevens has helped retiring professors and pastors who wanted to sell or donate their book collections. “One of the frustrating things through the years is not having the money to buy collections when they became available,” he said. After he sold his Raleigh store, Stevens stayed on for a while to help train workers the college sent. The school used many of the books in its libraries, but still operates the store, which is less than a mile and a half from the gallery. The store’s website says it has a half million books in stock. The sale included the name of the store. Stevens and his daughter make it clear that there is a distinction between the two businesses. Pam Stevens, who is an artist, said the gallery focuses on rare and collectible books. It also has more than 100 sets of Bible
Stevens Book Shop in Wake Forest, N.C., was once popular with Southeastern Seminary students, faculty and alumni. It moved to Raleigh in 1989.
commentaries, she said. “We try to supplement what they have and not duplicate or compete with them,” Dick Stevens said. His daughter has helped him since she was young. “I’ve juggled the books, the framing and the art since 1988 to make a living,” she said. Pam Stevens said the gallery pays a lot of rent to preserve the books. “In this economy we should be thinking about marketing them,” she said. “I think of saving them.” Her father has a similar attitude. He said he sees himself as a book dealer, not a bookseller. “The seller wants to get rid of the books as soon as he can, and the dealer wants to find
the person who needs the books if he has to wait a long time,” he said. “I don’t like to see a book go to someone who only puts it on a shelf for looks.” Stevens said the most enjoyable part of his career has been “being able to help students and ministers find the tools they need.” “It’s fitting the book to the customer,” he said. “Trying to meet the needs of the students, teachers and libraries has been very satisfying.” Stevens said he feels that the Internet has lowered the value of books. “The people selling are only trying to get rid of books, and I fear many good, hard-to-find books will only be lost on a collector’s shelf and not in a seminary library where many people can use them for years,” he said. “Just as the American farmer is becoming extinct, so are many used book stores — and that will be sad.” Stevens has a hard time getting around now because of arthritis in his knees, but he can still find a book when he needs it. Recently, he noticed that a volume of G.W. Paschal’s History of North Carolina Baptists was missing from a shelf. Within a few minutes, he located both volumes of the original and revised versions. “We’ve tried to do some good through the years,” he said. BT —Steve DeVane is the North Carolina-based contributing writer for Baptists Today.
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