July 23, 2011|By Frederick N. Rasmussen, The Baltimore Sun
In 1979, Remington's closed its store at Charles and Mulberry, which had been managed since 1966 by George Leinwall, a colorful and somewhat crusty book appraiser, raconteur, bibliophile, and collector of rare volumes of James Joyce, Arthur Rackham and Joseph Conrad. He counted among his many customers Ogden Nash, John Dos Passos and Gerald Johnson.
At the time of the closing, a Sun article with the headline "Old order fades away: Remington's to close" caused a flap. Remington's took out a back page ad in the paper that in large type said, "THIS IS NOT THE CASE." The ad stressed that the company would continue to serve its customers and gave as a reason for the store closing that "Charles Street is no longer the shopping area it once was. We leave it with sadness as have other fine merchants of the past years."
At the time of the Charles Street closing, Leinwall told a reporter, "The world will go on, I assure you. This will not affect the course of human nature or of human life."
Reassigned to the store at Baltimore and Calvert, Leinwall continued to greet customers and address friends with his characteristic "Brother." As he had in the Charles Street store, he maintained a back room that he called his sanctum sanctorum, where rare used books and Marylandia were stored. Only those that Leinwall felt passed muster were invited back to savor its contents. It had been the site of the founding of the Maryland Writers Council by Leinwall, Sun reporter Ike Rehert and Denis Boyle.
When the Calvert Street store closed in 1983, Leinwall moved to the former Doubleday Bookstore on York Road in Anneslie, where he remained until Remington's folded for good in 1986.
"In today's world, there is no longer desire for the services we used to extend," Leinwall told an Evening Sun reporter at the time. "We're closing down. We'll belong to the ages."
Leinwall, who lived in Westminster, died on New Year's Day in 1993. He was 77.
fred.rasmussen@baltsun.com
