Philip C. Duschnes (c. 1897 – July 4, 1970) was an American book dealer specializing in rare books. Based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

at 66 East 56th Street, then 58th Street and Seventh Avenue, and later 699

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, Philip C. Duschnes Rare Books & First Editions specialized in works by

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and

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

, as well as fine printing,

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s, and work by the typographer Bruce Rogers. He was also a publisher of '' The Colophon, A Book Collectors' Quarterly''."Philip C. Duschnes Is Dead; Rare‐Book Dealer Was 73"
''The New York Times'', 5 July 1970.Ron Blumenfeld
"Moving Forward, Looking Back / Collection speaks volumes about library"
''Fairfield Citizen'', 18 July 2012. Duschnes told a story in 1967 about how for 16 years, he and Joey, his cocker spaniel, had walked at night past the bus stop at the corner of 57th and Seventh Avenue. He knew that the last bus to stop there was at 11:24 pm, so whenever he saw people waiting after that time, he'd tell them, in an effort to be helpful, that they'd missed the last bus. In 16 years of doing this, no one had ever thanked him. Then one midnight, the man waiting at the bus stop snapped back: "Is that so, wise guy?" and pointed in the direction of the bus arriving. It was the one night the bus was late. From that point on, Duschnes said, he and Joey "shunned that corner"."Nice Don't Pay", ''The Pittsburgh Press'', February 24, 1967, 25. When he died three years later, ''The New York Times'' reported that his wife, Fanny Duschnes, would continue to run the business.

Selected works

*''A Complete Catalogue: Twenty-five Years of Limited Editions Club Books'', New York: Philip C. Duschnes, 1954. *Duschnes, Philip C. Two Chapters from an Unfinished Autobiography: It’s Better Than Working; Confessions of a Dealer in Rare Books. Lunenburg, Vt: Printed at the Stinehour Press, 1969.

References

1890s births 1970 deaths American book and manuscript collectors American booksellers Year of birth uncertain {{US-bio-stub