TO THE EDITOR:
I am surely among the few in Chapel Hill who remember the ancient history of the Bull’s Head Bookshop.
In my undergraduate years (1952-56), the Bull’s Head nestled in a small room in the basement of the library, not yet named for the University librarian Louis Round Wilson. It was a cozy and inviting space for a bibliophilistic student who browsed there almost daily.
The manager was a hospitable lady, Mrs. Valentine, who enjoyed having undergraduates linger around her shelves.
The Bull’s Head, much enlarged, has moved; but in my experience still maintains Mrs. Valentine’s cordial example.
This explains why I am one of thousands of book lovers appalled that UNC would consider alienating the Bull’s Head to a distant commercial outfit, motivated entirely by profit-seeking.
Like the hiring of a Bush-family politician who seems unable to distinguish between a university and an NFL football team, it smacks of obliviousness. UNC administrative figures correctly dubbed “money dudes” by a former Bull’s Head manager have yet to offer the slightest justification for this maneuver, so alien to the spirit of literacy and inquiry.
Not one!
