12/09/2024
With sorrow, we report the passing of Faxon Auto Literatureās founder, Ed Faxon.
Ed loved cars loaded with accessories, which joined his passion for vehicles with his enthusiasm for gadgets. As a teen, he worked at a gas station where the boss let him borrow his car ā a red and white retractable 1957 Ford factory-equipped with a supercharger. When he looked for a 1957 retractable of his own in the early 1970s, car collectors told him he was foolish ā no cars made after World War II would EVER be collectible. He bought and sold cars for a while, including dozens of ā57 Fords. He started buying literature and manuals to go with the cars. When the stacks of books began to grow inside his 2-bedroom apartment, his wife grew concerned about the space and the cost. In 1974 he took his little red wagon out to the Rose Bowl swap meet to sell his spares, and Faxon Auto Literature was born.
Although that was 50 years ago, he never stopped seeing the business as a way to fuel his voracious appetite for collecting auto literature.
The piles of books in his home continued to grow. They filled his garage, and then the living room, and even the porch of his 1400 square foot house in Corona. He spent his weekends at swap meets buying and selling. In 1981, he bought a bookmobile the size of a Greyhound bus, which was parked on the curb outside his home. He hired his first employees, which were local teens. Ed didnāt get along with his father growing up and he often took young men under his wing ā especially those who didnāt get along with their dads or whose fathers were absent. Since he had a background in psychology, he nurtured them and encouraged them to grow into responsible and independent mentally-healthy adults.
In 1986, his house got some relief when the business moved into its first commercial space, a 5,000-square foot warehouse. More space meant there was room for more books and inventory grew rapidly, soon bursting at the seams of the little warehouse. Having the business afforded Ed the opportunity to take on collecting whatever kind of literature caught his fancy ā literature for Dodge Power Wagons (inspired by the line truck he drove for the phone company in the 1960s), accessory brochures, announcement albums, post-war Ford literature, convertible top books, Ford-powered performance cars like AC Cobra, sales brochures aimed to sell cars to women, Corona road race memorabilia, and dozens of other categories Iām forgetting. Number one on his list was always 1957 Ford literature of any kind ā brochures, manuals, parts books, dealer albums, literature from overseas, tractor brochures, posters, film kits, signs, you name it. At last count he had over 500 pieces of 1957 Ford literature, but that was decades ago. Would it be rude to tell you that we have a little laugh when someone tells us that they āhave all the literatureā for their car?
Ed amassed books throughout the 1980s and 1990s, while the business grew through a toll-free number and mail order. In 1996, we moved to our current 28,000-square foot warehouse in Riverside, California. We believe it is the worldās largest single-subject bookstore. The bookmobile was replaced with a custom semi trailer he designed himself, outfitted for selling books at the swap meet. In 2000, he began selling books on the internet, taking the company in a new direction that it continues to this day.
Ed worked daily in the business until 2020, when he went into semi-retirement. He still worked in his favorite job ā buying books. He delighted in researching nuances, seeing new literature that he hadnāt seen before, and making deals. His daughter Melanie took over for him in 2020 and continues to run the company.
Ed spent his last day doing what he loved all his life ā going for a drive. At Faxon Auto Literature, we are grateful to Ed for providing the spark, joy, and soul of this business that continues with his name on it.
