Gerald Winters and Son, the new bookstore in Bangor

[Ari_Racing]

I'm speechless. Hope most of the unique stuff is safe and he's insured.

[jsweet]

That's just horrible. Feel so bad for him.

[wizardsrainbow]

When Gerald Winters moved to Bangor from Thailand a little more than a year ago, he had one goal: to open a rare book store with every conceivable edition of Stephen King’s books, including manuscripts and first editions — a collection that took him two decades to amass.

But Winters was dealt a devastating blow Tuesday morning when a water main burst on Main Street, almost directly in front of his business, Gerald Winters & Son.

The broken main flooded his basement with chest-high water, soaking the pages of dozens of first- and limited-edition King books, galleys, signed copies, prints in different languages, rare ephemera, and seven of King’s original manuscripts.

He kept the rarer items — some of which he which travelled all over the world to collect — in his store “to show people, not to sell them,” he said.

He estimates he lost about 2,000 books, and as many as seven of King’s original typed manuscripts, including, “Dolan’s Cadillac,” “Maximum Overdrive,” and “The Eyes of the Dragon.” He also collected rare and signed copies of works from J.R.R. Tolkien and George R.R. Martin, some that date back 80 years.

“You can’t replace this stuff,” he said quietly.

He had moved much of his inventory to the basement while he reorganized his shop. He estimates that only about 10 percent of his entire inventory was unscathed by the flood.

The majority of those books were floating in soggy boxes in his dank basement late Tuesday afternoon. The water had receded to the bottom steps, where he stood looking, trying to see if he could identify anything.

“There’s a first edition of ‘Pet Semetary’,” he said, pointing to the waterlogged book sprawled on top of a box near the back of his basement.

City workers responded to two water main breaks on Tuesday — one on Maine Avenue near the University of Maine at Augusta campus, and the other on Main Street. Crews on Main Street were expected to continue working throughout the night.

In front of Winters’ store, city workers had used an excavator to dig through the pavement to the water main, only to find that the source of the leak was actually under the sidewalk and not under the pavement, according to Bangor Water District Inspector Pat Smith.

The Standard Shoe Building, which houses Winters’ bookstore and Nocturnem Draft Haus, appeared to have sustained the most damage from the burst main, with at least six feet of water pooling in both basements at one point. Furnaces were also damaged in the flooding, knocking the heat out.

[Heather19]

Such horrible news. I can't even imagine

[Pasiuk57]

The world may never again see some of the rarities Gerald had.
Devastating.
Always my biggest fears-fire and water.
I'm speechless.

[east-tennessee]

Terrible news...so sad...

[Fsmdr]

God...what a travesty. It hurts to think about something like this could actually happen. I'm sure he has insurance, being a business...but as he said, some things are irreplaceable. My heart breaks about this.

[herbertwest]

Holy shit !

I know that it wont bring anything back, but I hope that he was insured properly + made scans or took pictures of his rarer items like manuscripts.

[Ben Mears]

Devastating news. I can't imagine the heartache Gerald is experiencing.

[Dano]

Terrible news. My condolences.

Dan

[Cook]

How horrible, I feel as if I just heard someone died.

[becca69]

2,000 books - devastating!

[herbertwest]

The worst part is that it's the basement, where Gerald probably thought that it would be the safest place of the shops, and where the most valuables items may be...

[frik]

Absolutely horrendous - so terribly sorry this has happened.

sk

[becca69]

The worst part is that it's the basement, where Gerald probably thought that it would be the safest place of the shops, and where the most valuables items may be...

Having an older house, I would never put anything in the basement, especially on the floor (that's before we finished it and put in a french drain, sump pump and dehumidifier).

[herbertwest]

The worst part is that it's the basement, where Gerald probably thought that it would be the safest place of the shops, and where the most valuables items may be...

Having an older house, I would never put anything in the basement, especially on the floor (that's before we finished it and put in a french drain, sump pump and dehumidifier).

I have some books in the garage, but always worry when I see some heavy rain : i dont think that there will be flood high enough, but I always wonder about the humidity, although I have some salts to absorbs some. But I always think there are not enough of those.
Luckily, I only store valueless books in the garage : mass paperbacks + DVDs in their box, although I dont know how those behaves with humid air

[MikeDuke]

Wow, that is so sad. All those one of a kind items. Something that may have taken you years, or a lifetime to collect, now gone. I really don't even know this person but it is a horrible thing to hear.

[andyg75]

Horrible. Just horrible. I really feel for Gerald at this point. Like others, I hope the insurance covers it, even if it won’t replace a collection he spent so much time and effort on

[Patrick]

Still sick to my stomach every time I think of this. I feel so bad for him.

[DoctorZaius]

A little part of us all drowned in that flooded basement. As collectors, we respect and appreciate the world of collecting and what it means to be a collector. The passion it takes, the time it takes, and to see it all gone in a blink, especially those original manuscripts, makes me want to vomit. I feel so much for Gerald.

[Bev Vincent]

Stephen King ‘horrified’ by loss of his manuscripts in bookstore flooding

“I’m horrified. As a book lover, my heart goes out to him,” King told the Bangor Daily News on Wednesday. “I will eventually reach out and see if I can help in any way.”

[Pasiuk57]

That would be GREAT of him to reach out!

[MikeDuke]

Wow, if King found a way to help, that would be phenomenal.

[wizardsrainbow]

agreed, would be great...let's see if it happens.

[cit74]

such horrible news for Gerald - I hope that he is doing okay after all of this - sorry to read the news just now