About

Bendowa Books is a bookselling project run by Jon Beacham, who is also the proprietor of the letterpress printing studio and publishing imprint The Brother In Elysium.

My background in handling books began as a student at The San Francisco Art Institute, where I worked in their small, but very special library still operating within the card catalog system. In 2003, while still a student at SFAI, I began working in used bookstores in the Bay Area, and continued over the years in multiple bookshops in New York City. The spaces Hermitage (2007–2009, Beacon, NY) and The Brother In Elysium Books (2018–2019, Tivoli, NY), which I co-founded, incorporated a focused selection of used, out of print, and new books alongside the letterpress printing studio; and were also host to a 16mm film screening series, exhibitions on small presses and art, and poetry readings. Bendowa Books was launched in Spring of 2024 after a few years’ hiatus from bookselling. The return has brought a broader approach to the material handled, and operates primarily online and through periodic newsletters of new arrivals and featured titles.

The inventory is located within the printing studio of The Brother In Elysium in Western Massachusetts. If you are interested in browsing books in person, or are passing through the area and would like to visit, please send me a note in advance. I welcome visitors.

I am always interested in buying quality used books within the fields represented on this site, and I travel to do so. If you have books you are interested in selling, please send me an email with further details. Pictures are always helpful.