About Us
Who Are Motte & Bailey?
Motte & Bailey is actually a what, not a who. It is a type of medieval Norman castle, a wooden palisade rising on a mound of earth, found in many places in England, Wales, and Scotland. At Motte & Bailey Booksellers, we specialize in books concerning all the various aspects of history, so we chose a name that reflects our interest.
The History of the Bookshop
Motte & Bailey, Booksellers began in 1996 here in Ann Arbor, selling exclusively on the web. By 2000, we had an opportunity to expand into a storefront. We found a lovely building, an 1870's Italian style with three floors and a basement. The building had previously housed a bar, a telecommunications office, a bindery, a pharmacy for holistic medicine , and, if local opinions are correct, a brothel on the upper floor, though not all at once. The rent for the first floor and basement fit the budget. We started moving things in around the first of August 2000.
On October 15, 2000, after building our own shelves and moving in over 250 boxes of books, Gene Alloway, Paul Hare, and John Murphy II opened the bookstore at 111 E. Ann Street, in the historical Kerrytown section of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Our first day resulted in $24 in sales. We've had better days since. In October of 2006 we moved around the corner to a much busier street, at 212 N. 4th Avenue, and increased our in-store sales by a considerable margin.
Our hope is to provide not only interesting used and rare books, but also useful information, services, and resources for readers and collectors. We have over 6,500 well chosen books, pamphlets, and prints (and a few maps) on a wide range of subjects. We're on all the major databases, but list our books here first. We have also created lists to provide folks with places to start reading on a variety of areas.
What is Important to Us
Good service, good books, and good information. When you ask us about a book, if we don't have it we will find someone who does have it. If you want us to order if for you we will, but getting you the book you want is your top priority. We also seek to purchase, sell, and recommend the better books in the areas we cover. "Better" is a subjective term, but we use a variety of professional and personal criteria to choose our books, and rely greatly on recommendations from our knowledgeable customers. Good information is especially important to us, and we do our best to describe books we list on our site with great care and attention to detail. We can also send you digital camera images of our more uncommon or collectible books if you need them.
Who We Are
We originally started as a triumvirate, but John Murphy II has moved on to legal and literary pastures, and we hope to see him in print soon. You might see him at the shop occasionally helping us out. The remaining partners are:
Gene Alloway
Originally From Kansas, Gene has degrees in classical history and librarianship, and has worked in a number of areas, from oil fields to academic libraries. He is the primary appraiser of the shop, and the specialist in books about books, antiquarian books, prints, military history, and classical history. He is a so-so frisbee player, and has an avid interest in the history of libraries, focusing on the destruction of libraries and lost books.
Paul Hare
Born in Oklahoma, Paul has degrees in medieval history and education. He is the primary cataloger for the shop, and the specialist for religion, medieval history, philosophy, early modern Europe, and literature. He is an avid frisbee player, and has an avid interest in mythology, especially monsters of legend.
Motte & Bailey is actually a what, not a who. It is a type of medieval Norman castle, a wooden palisade rising on a mound of earth, found in many places in England, Wales, and Scotland. At Motte & Bailey Booksellers, we specialize in books concerning all the various aspects of history, so we chose a name that reflects our interest.
The History of the Bookshop
Motte & Bailey, Booksellers began in 1996 here in Ann Arbor, selling exclusively on the web. By 2000, we had an opportunity to expand into a storefront. We found a lovely building, an 1870's Italian style with three floors and a basement. The building had previously housed a bar, a telecommunications office, a bindery, a pharmacy for holistic medicine , and, if local opinions are correct, a brothel on the upper floor, though not all at once. The rent for the first floor and basement fit the budget. We started moving things in around the first of August 2000.
On October 15, 2000, after building our own shelves and moving in over 250 boxes of books, Gene Alloway, Paul Hare, and John Murphy II opened the bookstore at 111 E. Ann Street, in the historical Kerrytown section of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Our first day resulted in $24 in sales. We've had better days since. In October of 2006 we moved around the corner to a much busier street, at 212 N. 4th Avenue, and increased our in-store sales by a considerable margin.
Our hope is to provide not only interesting used and rare books, but also useful information, services, and resources for readers and collectors. We have over 6,500 well chosen books, pamphlets, and prints (and a few maps) on a wide range of subjects. We're on all the major databases, but list our books here first. We have also created lists to provide folks with places to start reading on a variety of areas.
What is Important to Us
Good service, good books, and good information. When you ask us about a book, if we don't have it we will find someone who does have it. If you want us to order if for you we will, but getting you the book you want is your top priority. We also seek to purchase, sell, and recommend the better books in the areas we cover. "Better" is a subjective term, but we use a variety of professional and personal criteria to choose our books, and rely greatly on recommendations from our knowledgeable customers. Good information is especially important to us, and we do our best to describe books we list on our site with great care and attention to detail. We can also send you digital camera images of our more uncommon or collectible books if you need them.
Who We Are
We originally started as a triumvirate, but John Murphy II has moved on to legal and literary pastures, and we hope to see him in print soon. You might see him at the shop occasionally helping us out. The remaining partners are:
Gene Alloway
Originally From Kansas, Gene has degrees in classical history and librarianship, and has worked in a number of areas, from oil fields to academic libraries. He is the primary appraiser of the shop, and the specialist in books about books, antiquarian books, prints, military history, and classical history. He is a so-so frisbee player, and has an avid interest in the history of libraries, focusing on the destruction of libraries and lost books.
Paul Hare
Born in Oklahoma, Paul has degrees in medieval history and education. He is the primary cataloger for the shop, and the specialist for religion, medieval history, philosophy, early modern Europe, and literature. He is an avid frisbee player, and has an avid interest in mythology, especially monsters of legend.
