Tecolote Book Shop
Founded: 1925
I happened to visit Tecolote Bookshop on Herbert Simon’s birthday. Herb Simon is a business man most well-known for shopping malls and the Indiana Pacers, but Mr. Simon is also owner of Kirkus Reviews and co-owner of Tecolote Bookshop.
After the original owner of Tecolote Book Shop retired, the bookstore almost closed. Luckily Mary Sheldon and partner Herb Simon, who was a fan of the store, were able to save the bookstore and since then have given it new life. In an article published in the Montecito Journal summer of 2007, author James Buckley quotes Mary on the transition to owning the bookstore: “anybody investing in an independent bookstore is really doing it as a labor of love. Bookselling is a fairly unique business. I like to think it of a profession. I don’t know anyone who runs an independent book store that doesn’t absolutely love books. We’re all willing to take the reward we get from choosing the right book for the right customer as our pay, instead of making tons of money.”
Mary’s personal history and passion for “Books, Botany, and Birds” stems from her studies in environmental science and work at UCSB’s botany program until she was connected to Tecolote Book Shop and the legacy of the Boutell family. Mary’s care and passion for finding a person “that favorite book” is clearly felt by the many locals and strangers who pass through.
Now, Tecolote Book Shop primarily sells new titles, and has a broad range of genres and sections, some specific to Santa Barbara and California history. It is one of two bookstores in Montecito and has been a staple in the local community for over 27 years. Yet, the history of the store travels farther back than 1990. Tecolote is not very well-known, but its roots are grounded in a notorious bookselling family. It is impossible to miss the many owls living around the bookstore. When I asked Mary about the significance of this bird, she handed me a copy of an article from Bookman’s Weekly in 1998. The article is written by Charles N Johnson and traces the history of Tecolote and its relation to the sign of the owl. Johnson calls the story “the best biblio-mystery” and as it unravels we see how interconnected the store is with antiquarian booksellers and the Boutell family who are prominent authors on antiquarian and first editions. The story starts with the a Santa Barbara earthquake in the summer of 1925 that detrimentally affected the shop’s original opening. The shop was run by a woman named Mrs. Kelley’s whose collection of miscellaneous art items triumphed over the small amount of books. After the earthquake, the store moved to a prominent shopping street called El Paseo. The store on El Paseo earned the title of “bookstore” with its replenished shelves, but it is a mystery to where the collection came from. Everard Meynell, who was a prominent author and bookseller at the time, was said to have something to do with it as the store took on his name. One of the other names on the store front was George Madison Millard and his widow put on display at the shop his collection of antiquarian titles.
Soon after the store gained notoriety for its rare books from “the finest binders in Europe…” including “a limited edition of the letters of George Meredith and Alice Meynell,” Roger Boutell arrived. This grew the collection of rare books and current books, and in 1926 published a catalogue with over 250 titles of antiquarian books. Although Johnson points out the logo of an owl was missing on this first catalogue, it continued to appear regularly throughout the decade. Johnson then discusses Roger’s sons, Clarence Burley Boutell and Henry Sherman Boutell, the author of a famous book on bookselling called First Editions of Today. Although he died at the young age of 25, Henry Boutell left a bookselling legacy through his books and even his wife Anita did too, whose signature can still be found in the guest book.
Other authors that seemed to have known of Tecolote and whose names remain in the guest book include “J.B Priestley, Hugh Walpole, Mary Ellen Chase, Beryl Markham, Alexandar Woolcott, Wallace Stegner, Joseph Henry Jackson, John Steinbeck, Charles B. Nordhoff and a certain Barnaby Conrad…”
In 1945 the bookstore moved across the street to “the sala of the Casa de la Guerra” where Richard Henry Dana was said to have enjoy festivities in 1836 and can be found in Two Years Before the Mast. Roger and Zella sold the bookstore in 1954 after “everyone seemed to be watching television.” First Editions of Today is on its fourth edition and still remains an important text to antiquarian and all booksellers. Although the shop has traded hands many times since then, Johnson quotes Mary saying “We have always thought of Tecolote as more than a bookshop.”
And as for the owl, Johnson writes, “The owl remains an integral part of the book shop’s idenitiy and serves, to those who let it, as a reminder of the shop that emerged many years ago from an earthquake, an unlikely phoenix that is ironically mirrored in the logo of H.S Boutell’s first publisher, an owl perched next to a crescent moon.”
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