Rubin: Traverse City liquor store manager meets literary hero after chance encounter

I loved this little story, and I hope you do, too. Worst case, you get a couple of packing tips.

It's a tale of a chance encounter and fortuitous timing, and it starts with the former Anne Gertiser and her husband deciding it was time to downsize in Traverse City. Or maybe it starts with her father-in-law's demise at age 82 in 2019, which led to her mother-in-law moving into a condo, which led to buying her three-bedroom house and slowly leaving a four-bedroom home of 25 years with a cavernous finished basement.

Or maybe it starts with Anne and her husband learning to read, because between them, they had a lot of books.

"You know how a shelf on a bookcase has one row of books?" she says. On theirs, "we had three rows."

Anne has been a newspaper reporter, freelance writer and magazine editor, and these days she's the executive director of the National Writers Series. The NWS conducts writing programs for kids and brings renowned writers to the historic City Opera House, where hundreds of people pay to hear them talk about what they do.

Among the things she has learned, either on her own or from the likes of Margaret Atwood, David Sedaris and Alice Walker, is that if you need to transport enough books to fill 20 boxes, go to the liquor store.

Beer and wine cartons, Anne says, "are just perfect" for the task: sturdy, yet small enough that you'll still be able to lift them, and with convenient cut-in handles. So a few days ago she made yet another trip to a friendly nearby shop called Kap N Keg, where manager Jon Butler hopes to become the owner before too long.

They started chatting, and he commiserated over the arduous tasks of moving in general and moving books in particular. When he last relocated 12 years ago, he said, he had 200 of 'em.

"Books? she asked.

"Cartons," he said.

Jon explained that he is fond of history, Anne says, that he holds on to any book he likes, and that one of his absolute favorites is "In Harm's Way," about the sinking of the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis during World War II and the subsequent calamity that befell its crew. He said he particularly admires its author, local literary hero Doug Stanton.

"That's a coincidence," Anne Gertiser Stanton said, "because Doug is my husband."

A career and a calamity

Doug Stanton grew up in Traverse City, entranced by books but mystified at how they all made the journey from basic idea to the shelves of the library.

Eventually, he figured it out. After writing for multiple prestigious magazines, he landed "In Harm's Way" on the bestseller list, followed by "Horse Soldiers," about a small band of Special Forces soldiers who helped Afghanistani warlords push back the Taliban in the early days after Sept. 11, and "The Odyssey of Echo Company," about a fresh U.S. Army reconnaissance platoon in Vietnam that found itself awash in the Tet Offensive.

"Horse Soldiers" was the basis for the 2018 Chris Hemsworth movie "12 Strong," which was a nice distinction.

"In Harm's Way" is said to have helped in the exoneration of the USS Indianapolis' court-martialed captain, Charles B. McVay III, which was even nicer.

In July 1945, the Indianapolis arrived at Tinian on a secret mission to deliver about half of the world's supply of uranium-235 along with parts for the atomic bomb known as Little Boy, which would explode several weeks later above Hiroshima.

Days later, the ship was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in the Philippine Sea. Some 300 men died in the sinking, leaving 890 adrift to stave off dehydration, starvation, exposure and sharks across 3½ days in which no help came because naval bungling prevented the Indianapolis from being logged as overdue.

Of the 890, only 316 survived.

Among them, in fiction, was Quint, the obsessed charter captain in "Jaws."

In the real world, while the Stantons were deciding about their books, Doug also had to ponder what to do with old drafts of his works, research, notes, oral histories and ― still in its box ― a 20-inch-long plastic model of the USS Indianapolis.

It was a gift from one of the soldiers in Echo Company, a valued friend, but trying times make for painful decisions. He was standing in front of the house, holding the model, when Anne pulled in from the Kap N Keg with her load of cartons.

"I'm going to take this to Goodwill," he said.

No, she thought, you are not.

Available space vs. sentiment

Anne's litmus tests for what to keep and what to donate marries sentimentality with availability.

Even if she loves a book, she asks herself, is she likely to read it again? And if so, is it available at the library?

Many of Doug's references are out of print. They make for thornier decisions. Anne is equally attached to some of her best work for Northern Express magazine, but technology and brevity helped.

"I put my best stuff on a website," she says. "Things I want to remember, I take a picture of. We're in the digital sentimental mood."

The basement door they marked their three mostly-grown kids' heights on will be installed at the new house. That's Doug's baby, he says, and he'll do the work.

The box of adorable baby blankets friends crocheted for them will go to to Goodwill.

"Is it better in a box," she asks, "or better put to use? Almost everything falls under 'put to use.' "

It's kinder to make hard decisions now, they've decided, than to force their heirs to make them someday, or force them to rent a Dumpster while they mutter unkind things about their parents.

As for the scale-model warship, Anne knew just the right recipient. Let’s go meet a fan of yours, she said.

Doug, not one to blow his own foghorn, protested. “That’s embarrassing,” he said.

She insisted, and five minutes later, they were at Kap N Keg ― where Jon was thrilled to meet a writer he admires, and staggered at the gift.

“It’s going to go in my library,” he says, next to his copy of “In Harm’s Way,” amid all those boxes of books he and his partner, Justine Hock, couldn’t imagine leaving behind.

The two of them have a 3-year-old son, Alden, who’s already reading.

The Indianapolis, Jon says, should have safe harbor in his family for quite awhile.

As honorary chair of Bookstock, Michigan's largest charity used book and media sale, Neal Rubin reminds one and all that bargains will abound April 7-14 at Laurel Park Place in Livonia. Reach Neal at NARubin@freepress.com.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Traverse City author Doug Stanton's downsize offers a tale and a tip