A Brief History

Kevin Mullen became a bookseller in February 1993, after leaving a short career in the environmental consulting field. He also spent four very enjoyable years in the land surveying business in Hunterdon County, New Jersey in the mid 1980s. Prior to all this, he received his Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Geology from Marietta College in Ohio,1984. After graduating from Pingry School in Hillside (now Martinsville), New Jersey, he spent an educational and transitional year in the wholesale nursery business prior to attending college.

Raised on a farm in Oldwick, New Jersey, with three brothers and three sisters, Kevin grew up in a house surrounded by books and learning (on the inside) and animals and countryside (on the outside). His maternal grandfather, Gerald Tyne, was the worlds leading authority on the history of Vacuum Tubes, and wrote the still-standard work on the subject, The Saga of The Vacuum Tube. During his lifetime, Gerald Tyne assembled one of the pre-eminent collections of books and printed matter relating to the history of electricity and magnetism, and the visions of these centuries old books bound in sheepskin and vellum, made an indelible impression on Kevin as a youngster. His father, Thomas J. Mullen Jr. was a renowned military historian whose field of specialty is the involvement of soldiers, regiments and armies of Irish origin in conflicts throughout time. Kevin's mother Joan assembled an impressive collection of books related to Pewter and American Decorative Arts. 

Books and scholarship have always been a large part of Kevin's life. He acquired an interest in American art while in college and began to develop his own small library in 1988. When he discovered how limited the sources were for out-of-print material in this field, he left his short Environmental Consulting career  and decided that there was plenty of room for another specialist in American Art books. Over time, his interests and inventory have expanded to include today's comprehensive selection of books devoted to the arts from all over the world. Current inventory surpasses 100,000 volumes and occupies almost 2 miles of shelving.

Interests and Family

In addition to books, I have developed a great passion for varied subjects and objects. These would include homeopathy, bio-dynamic gardening, Waldorf Education (my partner Diana Marshall and I have three children between us, and all three attended the Susquehanna Waldorf School here in Marietta, PA), organic and nutritionally dense foods, raw milk (Lancaster County has the finest milk I've ever tasted), farming, alternative energy, and the ongoing restoration of our circa 1800 home (former tavern) known as The Brick Tavern. It no longer serves spirits, but its 15 rooms and 12 fireplaces harken back to an age when people seemed to have a lot more money to build things. I can also be found within the crowd at many Dead and Company concerts and Diana can be found planning the next trip to India or Thailand when she is not tending to her flocks of chickens, turkeys or ducks. She is also a very proficient chef with a specialty in Thai and Indian dishes, a skilled biodynamic farmer and Healer, with skills that are legion in their breadth.

 

Tom Turkey

King of the Hill

Baby Turkeys