Jeffrey A. Rothermel April 29, 2026 Captain's Log: The WW2 Honorable Discharge Certificate for the Army of the United States An interesting leaf of ephemera recently entered the bookstore. It was a piece of paper printed on both sides in 1945. The front side of the document contained the bottom line. It was a certificate stating Private First Class Hesseltine "is hereby Honorably Discharged from the military service of the United States of America... 22 October 1945." The

Bookselling in a snowstorm. Nine inches of snow fell in Iowa City, Iowa on small business Saturday. The storm disrupted in person book browsing on Small Business Saturday, but not internet book orders that continued to surge.

Senator Hayden's (former chair on Printing) 103 U.S. gov't printed books titled "Foreign Relations of the United States."

Bookselling is a lot like soldiering. Each person's experience is a bit different. Just as every veteran's combat experience differs, each bookseller's adventures also vary. Why some soldiers survive, while others perished is an age-old question pondered by each generation, similar to why some booksellers make it and others don't.