Immersed in the familiar hallmarks of "antique" and surrounded by up to 15,000 books, antiquarian bookseller Kay Craddock declares: "Books are good."
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The owner of the Collins Street landmark is well-positioned to know given her business is celebrating its 50th anniversary with one owner in the all-conquering digital age. Her store qualifies as an antiquity in its own right.
So does her mother, Muriel Craddock, the 103-year-old matriarch who established the Essendon Treasure Chest on May 28, 1965, with her husband, Les, selling second-hand books, crocheted items made by mother and daughter, and bric-a-brac.
Sadly, Les died three months later from a heart attack and the grief-stricken women forged ahead in a male-dominated industry, forming a formidable partnership that continued until 2005 when Muriel's eyesight failed due to macular degeneration and she could no longer work.
Nowadays, Muriel is still loving books of the talking variety, consuming up to 10 a week and relishing crime fiction. "We were a good team," Ms Craddock reflected. "She wasn't just a mother. We were business partners and best friends."
Stepping into the sunken bookshop in the neo-gothic Assembly Hall as regular customer Barry Humphries does, the theatrical bibliophile stands atop the stairs, inhales the air and declares: "Kay, I'm back."
Just as the motorcar didn't kill the bicycle and film didn't kill radio, the e-book hasn't eliminated books or bookshops. Up to 1000 retailers nationwide have fought off the threat of the internet and e-readers with Nielsen BookScan data showing national book sales rose 2.3 per cent in 2014 but so far this year, sales have dropped 3.7 per cent due to a decline in children's books.
Ms Craddock, who wrote her first book aged 10 about the "perspective of art" and went into business at 19, believes books will never die because of their tactile and physical presence. "Holding a leather-bound book is almost a sensual experience," she said.
The Collins Street identity is also able to assess the dominance of the e-reader because she reads books on her iPad when she travels due to the convenience. "I have come to the conclusion that those people who say they don't buy hard-copy books have never been book buyers as such," she said. "They may have borrowed books but they are not collectors. Some people only want the words and don't mind what form they come in."
An advocate for the printed page is Joel Becker, the CEO of the Australian Booksellers Association, who said: "Print books were never going to be dead. That was coming from businesses that are selling e-readers. As new ways to read come into the market, people will use those too. It doesn't mean the death of the book or bookshop."
Ms Craddock, AM, received a Queen's Birthday honour in 2007 for services to the antiquarian book trade and has been based in Collins Street for 26 years. Whether it is a novel by D.H. Lawrence or a book about Winston Churchill or cooking, the value of antiquarian books aren't necessarily judged by age, author, title, the binder or printer but by condition. If they came with a dust wrapper, they still need one.
The most popular topics customers bury their heads in are children's books, poetry about love and romance, and war books. Marking the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, that title and Through the Looking Glass from 1872 are priced $25,000 and safely locked in a glass cabinet.
With Melbourne being a UNESCO City of Literature, a Readers' Walk was established in 2012 between Collins Street's literary neighbours. Forming three bookends, Kay Craddock represents the old, Mary Dalmau's Reader's Feast the new, and the Melbourne Athenaeum Library the borrowed.
Ms Dalmau, who has been in the book trade for 39 years, is another ambassador for books and reading, saying: "The story of Kay Craddock Antiquarian Booksellers is a wonderful tale of a great partnership (between mother and daughter); of a small business that forged its way into Melbourne's glorious history on Collins Street; and of a world that embraces change but has been a constant in the lives of readers from all corners of the globe."
To mark the golden anniversary of Kay Craddock Antiquarian Bookseller, she will appear with Ms Dalmau at the free "Talking Books" event on June 3 at Reader's Feast, 162 Collins Street, Melbourne, at 6.30pm.
