Hay-on-Wye, or Y-Gelli, as it is known in Welsh is a small town in Wales near the border of Wales and England (Fairs 1). The town is on the banks of the River Wye. Its name, Hay, comes from the Norman word “Haie” which translates to “a fenced or hedged enclosure” (Hay-on-Wye Tourist Information Bureau). The Welsh name, “Y-Gelli” means grove (Hay-on-Wye Tourist Information Bureau).
Richard Booth, an Oxford Graduate, came to Hay-on-Wye with the intention of establishing numerous bookstores. His aim was to create a town that specialised in the buying and selling of second-hand books in order to create an economy for the town based off of the books.
Booth originally opened the first second-hand bookstore in 1961 in the town’s former firehouse (Chenoweth 2). He then started the trend of bookstores by employing various inhabitants of the town who went on to open their own stores on properties that he had purchased. In 2001, over half of the population of Hay-on-Wye made a living off of the bookstores (Tempo). Booth bought out properties that were out-dated and rarely used and turned them into bookstores (Seaton 379). In 1971 Booth purchased the famous Hay Castle and transformed it into a second-hand bookstore.
Booth stocked his bookstores by purchasing large collections of books that were no longer wanted (Engel 1). In Booth’s words: “I used the skills which I needed and they were basically moving skills. […] No one else wanted to shift 200 tons of old books down the stairs” (Engel 1).
The town of Hay-on-Wye is not famous simply for one bookstore, although admittedly the second-hand bookstore of Hay Castle is the most famous of them all. With approximately thirty bookstores, Hay-on-Wye has one bookstore per 59 locals (Whaley 44). Hay-on-Wye is a Booktown, customers do not visit merely to purchase books from a single store, they come for the experience of wandering through many small book stores in a way which makes the whole town feel as if it is, in itself, a massively sprawling bookstore.
Hay-on-Wye has a population of approximately thirty bookstores and two bookbinders (Hay-on-Wye.co.uk). Each of the bookstores is unique not just in what it offers, but in how the shop functions. The organization, treatment and pricing of the books varies drastically across the town. For example, in the courtyard of Hay Castle the books are unorganized and left out in the rain in metal bookshelves, resulting in many damaged books. The courtyard of Hay Castle is one of the few bookstores in the town that operates without staff and instead relies on the honesty system to acquire funds. Instead of a cashier and a front desk, the courtyard of Hay Castle simply has a small box with a slot in it set into the wall. Customers select their books, add up the prices on their own, and insert their money into the box when leaving.
Even the bookstores of Hay-on-Wye that sell new books are bizarre in comparison to typical modern bookstores such as Chapters. Just as all the other bookstores in Hay-on-Wye are designed, the floor plans of these stores are cramped and do not conform to modern ideals. However, the Hay-on-Wye bookstores are a perfect example of storefront windows and street displays, catching the customer’s attention immediately (White).
Peter Florence founded the Hay festival in 1988 completely independently of the bookstores (Chenoweth 2). The festival brings in a community of readers and authors that, along with the usual tourists, make up the major population of those who use the bookstores (Florence 126). It is held outside in late spring in order to accommodate the influx of tourists (The Telegraph Hay Festival).
Despite the independent origins of Hay-on-Wye the Booktown and the Hay Festival, they hold a large influence over each other. The Hay Festival brings in a flood of tourists and potential customers to the bookstores of the town, increasing their revenues, which in turn helps in allowing the numerous bookstores to remain open.
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References
A Brief History of Hay-on-Wye.” Tourist Information Bureau. Web. 09 Mar. 2012.
<http://www.hay-on-wye.co.uk/tourism/history.asp>. Web.
This website is the tourist site for Hay-on-Wye. This page discusses the town’s history.
Anderson, Byrant, et al. A Manual on Bookselling. New York: American Booksellers
Association, 1969. Print.
This book is practically an instruction manual for opening your own bookstores. It mentions location and staffing choices, both of which will hopefully have a place in the paper.
Beach, Garnett, et al. Bookselling in America and the World. New York:
Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co, 1975. Print.
This book mentions bookselling in England as well as the competition between bookstores and libraries. It will be very important in the point that Hay-on-Wye can only exist due to tourism.
Chenoweth, Emily. “Making Hay-on-Wye.” Publishers Weekly 252.26 (June 2005): 24-
26. Print.
This article gives a history of both the bookstores and the festival. It offers details on the founder of the bookstores as well as the founder of the festival. The beginnings of the festival and bookstores will be talked about in detail in the paper and so this article will be vital.
Curwen, Henry. A History of Booksellers. London: Chatto and Windus, 1873. Print.
This book provides a long history of book selling ranging from the 1200s to the 1800s. It will be useful in giving background information about how bookselling began.
Engel, Matthew. “Dispatch from Hay-on-Wye.” Financial Times (FT.Com). May 23
2009. Print.
This article discusses the methods Richard Booth used to set up the booktown. It also discusses his motives in doing so.
Fairs, Geoffrey L. A History of the Hay: The Story of Hay-on-Wye. Chichester:
Phillimore & CO. Ltd, 1972. Print
This book provides a history of the town of Hay-on-Wye. Although the history does not mention the Hay festival or the bookstores, it does mention Hay castle (the location of the first bookstore), as well as the history of the trade and industry of the town.
Harper, Graeme. “Literary Festivals: Hay-on-Wye.” Essays and Studies 62 (2009):
125-128. Print.
This is an interview of Peter Florence, the founder of the Hay Festival. In it he talks about the Hay Festival as well as the town of Hay-on-Wye. It will be useful in looking deeper into how the festival began as well as how it runs.
“Imagine the World.” Hay Festival. The Telegraph. Web. 09 Mar. 2012.
http://www.hayfestival.com/wales/index.aspx?skinid=2. Web.
This website offers information about the Hay festival. It is useful for finding dates of things.
Jakarta. “From Hay-on-Wye with ‘Resistance’: Indonesia’s Weekly News Magazine”
Tempo (Dec 2001). Print.
This article is written in a “travel piece” style that will help to paint a picture of the town of Hay-on-Wye. The descriptions of the town will be backed up by my own experience, specifically the nature of the bookstores and the treatment of the books.
Seaton, A.V. “Hay on Wye, the Mouse That Roared: Book Towns and Rural Tourism.”
Tourism Management 17.5 (1996): 379-382. Print.
This article discusses small town tourism. This will be useful in determining the factors that made Hay-on-Wye capable of supporting the tourism industry.
Whaley, Simon. “Hay-on-Wye: Booktown: 50 Years of Second-Hand Books.” British
Heritage 32.3 (July 2011): 44-47. Print.
This article describes the bookstores found in the town. It also mentions how the festival contributes to the economy, which will be mentioned in the paper.
White, Ken. Bookstore Planning and Design. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982. Print.
This book offers details on how modern bookstores are designed. It can be used to compare Hay-on-Wye bookstores to more typical bookstores. The book also mentions competition, which would be interesting to bring up in a paper about a town with many bookstores coexisting.