The dealer in local materials: The Alabama local history librarian and the out-of-print problem

Abstract

Pat Cather is not only a native of Birmingham who was educated at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, he is also the fourth generation of his family to be actively involved in the areas of printing, publishing, and/or bookselling. Pat began dealing in out-of-print books and phonograph records in 1961. In 1979, he entered the trade fulltime and formed Cather & Brown Books with partner Hugh W. Brown III. The firm of Cather & Brown specializes in southern and western Americana, Civil War and the Confederacy, Afro-Americana, jazz and blues music, American industrial history, and “Alabamiana.” Cather & Brown issues regular catalogs of its offerings and, in addition, works with clients in locating op materials in the firm's areas of specialization. Pat is a member of the Alabama Library Association, the Alabama Society of Archivists, the Alabama Historical Association, the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, and other professional and historical groups. Besides being a dealer, Pat is also an active collector of “Alabamiana” and has in excess of 20,000 titles in his collection of books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and photographs relating to his native state. He has published four books about collecting “Alabamiana”: A Brief Essay on Collecting Alabama Related Books and Pamphlets, My Alabama Collection, Some Alabama Book Collectors and Book Dealers of the Past, and My Alabama Almanak Collection.