Thomas Loome, who sold rare books in Stillwater, dies

Thomas Loome got his start in the secondhand book business while working on his doctorate in theology in Germany.

Loome, the former owner of Loome Theological Booksellers and Loome’s Antiquarian Booksellers in downtown Stillwater, traveled throughout Europe in the late 1960s and 1970s, searching for books he needed for his research. He learned so much about antique and secondhand books that famed bookseller Richard Booth, of Hay-on-Wye, Wales, hired him after Loome pointed out he wasn’t charging enough for certain editions, said Karen Loome, Thomas Loome’s wife.

“He asked Tom if he had ever made a mistake pricing books … and asked for an example,” she said. “Tom actually had a book in his hand, and he said, ‘Well, for example, this one.’ It was priced at, I don’t know, 5 pounds, and it was worth hundreds of pounds, and then Richard said, ‘Well, would you work with me?’”

Loome died March 31 at Croixdale Senior Living in Bayport as a result of complications related to Parkinson’s disease. He was 83.

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