Swan’s Fine Books

Specialties

Swan’s Fine Books offers collectible and rare books. Walnut Creek’s only collectible bookstore, we carry quality used books on a variety of general interest topics.

We also conduct evening discussion events and book signings, offer vintage movie posters, special order books, and buy older, used books.

We are currently offering many books about California and the early west, such as the very rare 1888 A Guide Book to San Francisco and several Civil War-​related books, such as the Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant (DeLuxe edition, published in 1885 and 1886).

Children’s books are another area where we have some treasures: a first edition Stuart Little, The Little Engine That Could, and a Pulitzer-​Prize Edition of The Yearling, inscribed by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, to name just a few.

History

Established in 2012.

Swan’s Fine Books is the product of a lifetime of a love of books. Laurelle Swan, Proprietor, grew up with books and cats as two of her great childhood loves. As with many people, books were for her, and remain, a gateway into so many worlds: a way to learn, to grow, to broaden experiences, to form bridges to those who have gone before as well as those walking life’s pathways at the same time. Having completed a successful career in corporate sales, Laurelle decided to share her love of fine books with others; thus was born Swan’s Fine Books.

Meet the Business Owner

Laurelle S.

Business Owner

My love of fine books began decades ago. I’ve loved old books since I was a child: one of my earliest memories involve routing through a barn (literally) in New Hampshire and finding a hardbound, dog-​eared (pun intended) copy of Alfred Payson Terhune’s Lochinvar Luck. I still have that copy and, tattered and torn as it is, it sits proudly on my shelf. Being the story of a dog that nobody wants, buffeted by cruelty both intentional (by humans) and incidental (nature), the dog grows and matures in response to the challenges — and the book even has a happy ending!

Having worked for over 30 years in Corporate Sales, Laurelle decided to pursue a second career in the world of fine books. She was fortunate to find several mentors who had collectively spent decades as bookstore owners and as sellers of fine books, and with their assistance, she has opened Swan’s Fine Books in downtown Walnut Creek.