Yeoman's in the Fork Blog

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10/20/2011 01:02 PM Posted by: Mike Cotter

Since moving to the greater Leiper's Fork area, I have witnessed friendships and business partnerships akin to those I have only read of prior to my arrival here. With relative ease, the days in our little village blend together with a 'howdy' and a 'see ya' from the neighbors I have come to rely on. This reliance was never planned mind you, it just sort of happens, like most of the things we consider exceptional about life on this earth.

I have truly come to rely on my neighbors to help spread the word of the rare book gallery in town. Being towards the end of the shopping path in the Fork, we are often left out in the cold when it comes to foot-traffic in the physical store. Our internet presence is strong and is a true base of operation for us in particular, but what about the sharing of our hobby and the love of our business that we hope to impart on those who come through our front door? Money is always a concern if you are in business, but there is a great sense of purpose at play in all of our hearts. We are doing something we love and we all want to share it with those willing to absorb the tales we're spinning.

A friendship and business arrangement between two friends we are all familiar with comes to mind folks. Some of you may know a thing or two about Mark Twain and Ulysses S. Grant, but did you know that these two were more than contemporaries. Twain and Grant forged a friendship and a reliance on one another that I can only imagine must compare to those that now infest my daily life. It was no secret in the 1880's that Grant had fallen on hard times financially. It might seem hard to imagine now, but I guess being quite possibly the greatest living war hero (admittedly arguable folks) and a two-time President of the United States did not equal the financial freedom that would come along with a graduation from a Dave Ramsay course.

The final months of Grant's life were purported to have been filled with worry and concern over the financial legacy that he would leave behind. Would Julia Grant be left destitute? Would his home and possessions be sold off via liquidation auction? We do know that he had sold off many of his civil war treasures to pay bills in the years prior to 1885 but what would his widow be left with?

Enter Mark Twain. Twain was an established author and had just launched his successful publishing business, Charles L. Webster & Company. Twain steps in to both provide the public relations the finished memoir of Grant would need as well as the funds and friendship that would see it from pen to print. Friendship, business partnerships and a reliance on one another to see things through. There is something very small-town in that story and we live it every day here in Leiper's Fork.

Without each other and the visitors that come to enjoy our work just as Grant and Twain relied on so long ago, we may as well toss in the towel and throw up our hands. It wasn't going to happen to Grant, even while enduring his final days on earth and suffering from throat cancer. He was able to finish his memoirs, although he did pass on before they were actually published. Mark Twain had stepped in to see the job complete for his friend.

Stop by the gallery to take a peek at the First Edition copy of their finished product.