Case of Bookseller Facing Eviction Comes to Tragic End

The saga of an eccentric, elderly Portsmouth, New Hampshire, bookseller came to a sad ending this past month. We wrote about Walter Wakefield's difficult journey last October. His property was foreclosed several years ago. The new owner wanted him out, the city condemned the place for building and fire code violations, but Walter stayed. He had no place else to go. This was his home, his life. He fought the powers as long as he could, but the law was not in his favor. Seeing no other alternative, Walter Wakefield took an extreme step. He ended his own life, a bullet to the head.

Walter Wakefield operated the Antiquarian Bookstore in Portsmouth for over 50 years, since 1973. He was only a few years out of college then and property records show 1973 as the date his building was constructed. His books were the constant in his life. His devotion to his books may seem strange to some people but book lovers will understand.

Wakefield was an eccentric man. He was married but his wife predeceased him. He was not the most welcoming of merchants, at least not in recent years. We don't know what he was like in the earlier days when the bookshop must have at least been able to hold its own financially. Some customers, particularly new ones passing through Portsmouth, often found him rude. He was not much of a salesman. He charged admission just to look at his books. Visitors found the shop musty and messy. On the other hand, those who spent more time with him discovered he loved to talk about books and was helpful. He was a teacher. They loved coming back to his shop and thought of it as a mysterious place with treasures to yield if you searched hard enough.

Over the course of his life, Wakefield accumulated he believed 250,000 books. The shop became so crammed it was difficult to navigate the narrow aisles. When the store could hold no more, he filled cars and buses, 21 non-working vehicles parked outside the shop. Presumably, over the years he sold enough books to have a working business, but eventually expenses outpaced income.

In 2019, Wakefield lost his shop in a foreclosure sale. The buyer was MMCT Realty. They wanted Wakefield and his possessions removed. Those included the 250,000 books and 21 junk vehicles. The city also wanted them removed as they violated city ordinances. You can't have 21 non-working cars on your property unless you fix them. Wakefield stayed anyway. The city began leveling daily fines, which reached hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars over the years. They agreed to cancel the fines if he removed or fixed the cars. Wakefield could not afford to fix 21 junk vehicles and he had no place else to go with his large book collection. So he and the cars stayed, to the chagrin of both the city and MMCT Realty.

Wakefield delayed and challenged court orders, but eventually, his case reached the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Wakefield understood his time was up. He had no chance of winning in the Supreme Court and he had no way to protect his cherished books. The thought of the bulldozers coming for the shop, the dump trucks coming for his books, must have been too much for him to bear. He couldn't stop it from happening, but he wasn't going to witness it. Last fall, Wakefield was quoted by the Portsmouth Herald as saying, “the only real practical solution is by extermination, exterminating my life.” It wasn't hyperbole. He meant it.