Further research into the bookstore Allsopp And Chapple in Little Rock, AR led me to the following information:
1. The bookstore no longer exists.
2. It was co-owned by Frederick William Allsopp (June 25, 1867 to April 9, 1946), but was sold in 1919 to a new owner. It was again sold in 1958 and at that time still operated under the original name of Allsopp And Chapple.
3. The "Chapple" in the bookstore name was James Chapple who might have been related to Mary Chapple Allsopp (Frederick's wife??).
3. Born in England, Mr. Allsopp emigrated to the US with his family sometime in the mid to late 1800s.
4. Although never the editor or publisher, Mr. Allsopp was a business manager of the Arkansas Gazette and helped to shape the future of Arkansas newspapers.
5. Mr. Allsopp was a life-long lover of books and eventually published books as well as co-owned the aforementioned bookstore, Allsopp And Chapple, which is said to have been the leading bookstore in the county at that time.
I wasn't able to find out anything more, but still it was fun to stumble upon a bit of history. Holding the bookmark I can't help but ponder the unanswered questions time has turned to mystery. Like, who was the customer was that bought Mrs. Miniver and was it at Allsopp and Chapple? Or did they buy another book and then reuse the bookmark while reading Mrs. Miniver? What was the bookstore like? How old is this bookmark? How did the bookmark end up in a book that was bought by me several states and at least 1,000 miles away?
History can be full of the oddest little mysteries.
1 comment:
Funny. I just bought an old cookbook from the 50's and a similar bookmark fell out of it. Mine's older than yours, though; mine has the alphanumeric phone number FR 2-1846.
Googling led me to this blog entry, among other places.
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