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| John Dunning | |
Author, rare bookseller, and "force of nature" John Dunning, "one of Colorado's most beloved bibliophiles," died May 23, the Denver Gazette reported. He was 81. "Some recall the Denver Post city-side reporter who would run through the newsroom on assignment with his shirt hanging out. Others knew Dunning as an old-time radio show collector and successful crime writer whose main character, an ex-Denver cop and expert on rare books, was awfully familiar," the Gazette noted.
"I could not read those books without seeing Dunning as Cliff Janeway," said his longtime friend Dan Danbom.
Dunning, co-owner of the now-defunct Old Algonquin Books, was also a respected antiquarian bookseller. "He lived in a world of books," said Marilyn Auer, who had dealings with Dunning when she was publisher of the Bloomberg Review. "If we were looking for an obscure book, John is one of the first people we would call." Auer added that Dunning was a book sleuth who could track down any publication and answer any question.
Dunning's books Looking for Ginger North and Deadline earned Edgar Award nominations in 1981 and 1982, and the novel Booked to Die won the Nero award and was nominated for Best Novel for the 1993 Anthony Award.
He was a newsman until 1970, when he retired to write his novels. Four years later, he and his wife, Helen, began running Old Algonquin Books on East Colfax for 10 years until 1984, when he started an online bookselling business.
Danbom, who co-owns the Printed Page bookstore in Denver, said that Dunning is the reason he got into the antiquarian book business. Dunning made it seem like such a romantic lifestyle when he called Danbom on Mondays to brag about the rare books he bought at garage sales and flea markets. Dunning would lecture him not to keep the books he bought, telling him, "You cannot collect books." But that was exactly what he did, Danborn noted.