Yeoman's in the Fork Blog

When I was asked to write the inaugural blog post for Yeoman's in the Fork, I first felt honored to be asked. Then I felt a slight twinge of fear because I had to think of something to write about. I figured the most natural thing to write about is how this all came to be, from my perspective.

I first met Mike & Keith a little over 5 years ago when they gave me the opportunity to join the fascinating and sometimes bizarre world of book collecting. From the onset, I could tell they both had a keen sense for history, whether it be their daily tidbits of historical facts they would share with me (whether I wanted to know or not), or their profound excitement when we came across a treasure with historical relevance like an official government document signed by Theodore Roosevelt. We were all working for another company at the time whose main market was rooted in more modern works of literature, books for the Hemingway and Faulkner or King and Grisham lovers of the world. We would get in pieces of history from time to time and did build up a nice collection related to the Presidents of the 20th century. We were able to build a nice following and clientele with this business, though it may not have been exactly the market Mike & Keith were interested in. After some time and with dreams of bigger things, they decided to venture out on their own and pursue their own goals. I stayed behind and continued to ply my trade in the collectible book market.

The company line is that Mike & Keith realized their dream of opening their own historical bookstore. From my vantage point about 2 years ago, that dream seemed very long and far-fetched. I kept in contact with them during the interim as they were friends of mine and I was interested in working with them again. I was surprised to find they were selling vintage baseball cards online in Mike's cramped basement. That was about as far from opening a bookstore as you could possibly get. But with any dream, sometimes you have start from the bottom and scratch and claw your way to it.

Months passed and I didn't really hear much from the pair. During that time, the company I worked for became stagnant and I was becoming weary with the day to day grind that it had become. I was hoping for something new and tried my luck with a phone call to Keith to see how they were doing. What I heard was very exciting and renewed my interest in working with them. They were able to build a nice collection of books through their baseball card sales and then were able to reconnect with an old client of theirs that was interested in doing business. From this, they purchased a rather large collection of vintage and antique books from an estate sale in Virginia. They now had an office in downtown Nashville, TN. It was a big leap forward from Mike's basement. At this point, they still had to scratch and claw to get many things done and were not able to hire me at that time but the outlook was looking much brighter and their dream did not seem so far-fetched.

A short time goes by and I hear from Keith that they are in the beginning stages of opening a bookstore focusing on early American history. I really couldn't believe they went from selling baseball cards to opening a beautiful new bookstore in such a short time period. The store was being built in a house that is on the National Historic Registry of Homes and is located in historic Leipers Fork, just outside Franklin, TN. That was a few months ago and since then, they were able to bring me on to the team where I can hopefully apply my talents to help make this the best bookstore in the South.

Currently, I am writing this blog in an incredible and beautiful bookstore that I am sure is much more than they could have ever imagined. The store is just about complete and opening day is coming soon. Even though I am one of the newest members of this team, the sense of pride & history that is emanating from Mike & Keith has definitely rubbed off on me over the years. I can't wait to welcome any and all to our store and website and share with them all the wonderful pieces of history we have inside these walls.

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