If you ask someone who works at “The Last Bookstore” in Los Angeles for one of the books owned by Lee Iacocca, you might be able to buy one for cheap.
Washington Post Tech reporter Faiz Siddiqui got the shock of his life when he opened up the dedication page for “Unsafe at any speed” by Ralph Nader, an Ex Libris stamp showed the previous owner as one L.A. Iacocca. When Faiz took to Twitter to share and verify his once-in-a-lifetime purchase, an employee from “The Last Bookstore” confirmed our suspicions, L.A. stands for Lee Anthony as in Lee Anthony Iacocca, automotive magnate of Ford and Chrysler lore.
Check out his tweet below including verification from “The Last Bookstore employee Ben Holt.
can confirm! i work at their warehousehttps://t.co/FmSOFRtcHA https://t.co/Cnvt9nsxR0
— carbonqueer (@1800BENHOLT) March 2, 2020
The automotive world stood still last year on July 2 when Lee Iacocca passed away at 93. For the past 26 years, Lee was living in his Bel Air home, a mansion that recently hit the market at the end of January.
According to The Business Insider, among the rooms was a personal library with a small collection, at least in BI’s picture, of about 400 books. My guess is, Lee’s estate finally sold and either the new owner or the real estate agent sold and donated what they could, including hundreds of books.
Among those books was a 1965 copy of “Unsafe at any Speed.”
When “Unsafe at any Speed” first came out, Iacocca was Ford’s Vice President of cars and trucks. Although some contend the book unfairly attacked GM, particularly its Corvair, the book had its crosshairs aimed generally at the automotive industry in Detroit, Iacocca included.
It would make sense for Iacocca to want to own a landmark book that radically changed the design, safety, and oversight of car design for years to come.
As Holt’s original tweet from February hints at, The Last Bookstore most likely has dozens of other books owned by Iacocca. The question now is, will they raise the price of those ones now that word is out on its famous previous owner?
If you live in Los Angeles, head over there now!
