Bill Sherman (not famous local fish boat captain) started the Bar Harbor Sherman's in 1886. In 1962, Jeff Curtis's parents bought the Bar Harbor business from Bill Sherman's daughters. Jeff worked for the store summers and weekends all of his growing years. In 2006, Jeff bought the business from his mother when she retired.

Imagine the “millions” of books that have crossed the thresholds since 1886 in all Sherman locations. I asked Jeff if he could guess at the number of books sold in 2021. He said so far this year they had sold more than 300,000! You do the math! And now there are eight stores with another to open soon in Falmouth!

We met Jeff and Audrey Curtis in Portland during one of the first “Maine Product Trade Shows” at the Civic Center. They were exploring the idea of a bookstore in Boothbay Harbor. When asked how we felt about the idea of a Harbor bookstore, we could not have been more enthusiastic. “Pine Tree Variety,” with considerable remodeling, eventually became the Sherman flagship location.

Recently on a cruise through the Harbor I noticed a scene outside what once was “Carbone’s,” now a branch of the Sherman family. Jeff was maneuvering a huge stack of boxes along Commercial Street from a semi parked at the “Whale Park.” “Wow,” thought I ... Books, books and more books! Wrong!

The boxes were filled with paper shopping bags which Jeff said must be ordered in huge quantities in order to secure delivery. Hundreds of thousands of paper bags for all the Sherman locations. With supply delays, it’s the only way to reserve enough bags, as much as a year in advance. A less glamorous back story no doubt, but an essential environmental consideration in an effort to reduce plastic.

Jeff credits new partner and local artist Maria Boord with much of Sherman's recent success. As director of operations for all Sherman stores, she has assembled storewide staffing and taken control of inventory and systems used for reordering and tracking sales, which must be a very substantial effort.

In closing, Jeff mentioned a quote attributed to Stephen King, a significant book person: “Don't let the sun go down without saying thank you to someone, and without admitting to yourself that absolutely no one gets this far alone.”

That's a good read.