MEET THE STAFF     
(Click HERE to visit PRB&M's partners)

Wendy Gale  became a PRB&M cataloguer due largely to the mysterious workings of fate and Cynthy's friend “HK” — who made the felicitous connection before either Wendy or the firm had quite determined what was happening. She very happily spends most of her time rummaging through books, researching them, and writing them up, most frequently under the watchful eye and firm direction of Sessa. Some time ago, she emerged as the spirit animating our (then newly) developing specialty in antiquarian cookery — now, she is expert in that area.  And French books, too, delight her . . .

Wendy plays a flock of woodwinds — including flute, recorder, crumhorn, and shawm — both with local Renaissance/folk bandBurlap Lute (currently on hiatus) and at events held by various historically themed groups.  She and her husband Neal recently welcomed their first child, a little girl named Mina Hadara Gale, which will interestingly modify one of their favorite pastimes — plotting the next trip abroad. The Gales participate in the Society for Creative Anachronism, an organization dedicated to the study and re-enactment of life in the Middle Ages.  One of Mina's very first pieces of clothing was a lavender medieval gown.

Wendy's e-mail goes to her under her “SCAdian” name, Sabine Kerbriant de Lanvaux.  Or click BurlapLute — and, if you have Winamp or comparable player, you can click [HERE] for an MP3 sound sample!

Derek Plattowski  is our longtime, still-going-strong packer/shipper and mailing specialist — and, after 15 years here, serves as THE senior source and touchstone on pretty much all PRB&M legend, lore, and practice.One happy PRB&M customer, writing that her order arrived so splendidly packed as to “survive a nuclear blast at ground zero,” wrote an actual “ode” in his celebration — to read it,  click here!

Derek, who knows UPS, FedEx, DHL, and USPO regs down to the ground, can predict the wrapped weight of any book to within a few ounces. Deft of hand and well tutored by one of our binder/conservators, he performs most of the physical care of the books in our custody; presently, he is tutoring James in this regard. He also writes checks, manages maintenance, and is the guy who organizes the trucks, the people, and generally the project when a literal ton of books needs to be picked up in, for example, New York City (ay, the parking issues!) — in upstate New York (ay, the snow!) — or in central New Jersey (ah, that was the nice lady who took such kind lunchtime care of the packers!).

Jason “Hayce” Rosenberg  has been PRB&M's Photoshop Master and a valued General Computer Tech-Guy since July of ‘02.  His love of graphics spans back to the days of the Atari 2600. When not amusing himself here at the shop (see picture at right), he amuses himself by racing R/C cars, watching darn near everything on the Cartoon Network, and playing really violent computer games. Other favorite things include Mystery Science Theater 3000 (he runs his ownMST3K episode trading site), Animation (the more bizarre the better), and . . .

Convertibles!     

Hayce professes to know the secret identity of Space Ghost
and really hates writing descriptions of himself.

Jean-Pierre “JP” Beugoms  has been cataloguing books and pamphlets at PRB&M since 1998, save during his “sabbatical” year teaching English in Taiwan, 2001/2002 — though he originally signed on for only a 4-months' tour!  He is the firm's U.S. Americana specialist and, with partner David, has largely “been” SessaBks.

He is currently working on his Master of Arts degree in American history, his primary research interest being the antebellum army; our residence here at the 19th-century Arsenal suits him perfectly.  He plans to continue his graduate studies for the Ph.D. in either American or Chinese military history.

JP's additional interests include contemporary politics, archaeology, and classical music — especially Mahler, Schoenberg, Debussy, Ravel, and Shostakovich, and minimalist composers like Philip Glass and John Adams. He plays the violin, and reads and speaks French and Mandarin Chinese; he loves endurance sports of all kinds, and once went without a full night's sleepfor an entire month so he could watch all the World Cup games live from 2:30am to 9:30am.  

JP is pictured hard at work at his desk in our Arsenal cataloguing room. This represents an improvement over his situation in our old shop, where he spent most of his working day in the basement stacks (a/k/a “The Dungeon”) — only occasionally coming up for food, water, and, during the winter months, warmth. For a view of JP's old “dungeon” spot . . . and his old view therefrom . . . and a picture of him taken during his sojourn in China . . . click here.

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James Plaster has been a PRB&M'er since July of 2006. An Anglo-Spanish Londoner now living in Philadelphia and married to David's niece, he worked as a bookseller of mostly second-hand books for a number of years before coming to the U.S.  By half his heritage a lifelong aficionado of “Los Toros,” James has not only seen a great many bullfights, but trained to become only the fourth British subject to become a full-fledged professional Matador de Novillos. Marriage to Julie meant his retirement. . . .

James is a passionate traveller. His explorations can happily be local, however, as well as remote; while in London, he took people on historical tours of the graveyards in its vicinity, and he wrote a book (as yet unfinished) on London loos.

Because he's had a longstanding interest in theology without actually holding a degree in the subject, James likes to describe himself as an “armchair theologian.” We describe him as the guy who, when somebody mentions a strange 16th-century sect or a significant but obscure German religious movement), can probably say, “Oh, right! and did you know . . . ”

If your call or email is answered, your order gets to you at the right address, or you find a price-free copy of our cataloguing tucked into an item you've bought for a gift, thank office manager Cynthia Williams. Cynthia started here in 1997 and stayed for almost five years, then breaking for a spell of homeschooling her daughters; she and her husband, Eric, are parents to two grand girls, Yoncenia and Tahneyia. We were THRILLED (see Roget 865 and also 886–87!) when she came back in time to organize our 2006 move to the Arsenal — what a managerial job THAT was! 

Beyond the usual, and having been in other lives a wedding and event planner, Cynthia goes into action when party plans need to be executed — ordering chairs or picking up the turkey doesn't begin to cover it. She copes when multiple appointments must be delicately coordinated — e.g., do we really want the massage therapist to run into the visiting bankers? And she is a champion bookspotter. The 12mo or slim pamphlet that attempts to hide itself on the wrong shelf or behind another book stands no chance of escaping her capture. She is passionate about books of all types and has made good customer service her heart's mission here.

Cynthia is a venturesome cook, an expert seamstress, an avid reader, and a diva of deadpan joke-delivery. To e-mail her, click here . . .

As for Sessa, you can visit his own illustrated, animated FAQ page by clicking HERE. It's staff consensus that profits would be a lot higher if he didn't stay up nights ordering stuff from the Home Shopping Network on store credit cards; but we couldn't do without him. He's such a sweet little guy . . . and besides, since 2001 he hasrun the entire SessaBks division!  (You can see, at right, how both the late nights and his responsibilities exhaust him.)

For more pictures . . .
Visit the staff gallery page
or the partners' page
  or Sessa's FAQ page
or HIS gallery.

All material © 2008

PRB&M/SessaBks

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