Karen Etingin on running a vintage poster shop

A year and a half ago or so I spent the weekend in Old Montreal with my friend Tony Martins. Here’s the view from our hotel window(that development up at the top is called Habitat. It was designed by Moshe Safdie for Expo 67. My friends the poet Eric Ormsby and his wife librarian Irena Murray, used to own a unit in the place). One evening Tony and I went to dinner at this Polish restaurant. On the walk back to the hotel we passed this shop L’Affichiste before stopping in at this barWhat a wonderful idea (the shop) I thought. How often does a guy see vintage posters on the street!? Intrigued, I decided to return the next day. The owner, Karen Etingin happened to be in and we had a good chat about, among other things, Steven Heller, New York, Cassandre, and the business of selling posters. Turns out Karen is the author of a book on this great Austrian poster designer:(in fact, Julius Klinger is recognized as one of the leading graphic designers of his age, along with Lucian BernhardListen to my Biblio File conversation with Christopher Long about him here ). Fast forward a year, and I was back in the store again, this time for what amounted to a personal tour through 20th century posters, thanks to Lea. It was great! Apparently, however, I'm not special. Anyone can get the same treatment if they visit the shop. Anyhow, Lea’s tour sealed it. I had to interview Karen. Several weeks ago we taped a show.  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebibliofile.substack.com/subscribe