http://bangordailynews.com/2018/01/1...er-main-break/

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.