A flexible itinerary for the armchair traveler or active trekker, guided by Stefan Baer, of Complete Traveller Antiquarian Bookstore

Meghan Cenci
Nov 19, 2024
3 min read

After years of experience and work with his passions, Stefan Baer came to North America for new opportunities. He spent the majority of his younger years in Switzerland where he grew up, the same place where he held an apprenticeship and acted as a manager for a nearby bookstore. He loved being surrounded by stories and literature, but everything he did dealt with new books, things that were popular at the moment. When he finally came to America and started deciding what it was that he would do, he realized how different the role of a book seller in Switzerland was from the role of a book seller in America. He would have to start from scratch in order to get anywhere. Instead, he began finding jobs at local rare book stores, until he ended up at the Complete Traveller where he spent 15 years working until he took over in 2015 as the new owner. His shop specializes in armchair travel guides, books on exploration, and rare travel books. This was where Baer found his happy place.

Baedker's Egypt travel guide — *Egypt and the Sudan*, Handbook for Travellers. Leipzig, Karl Baedeker : 1902. One of the rare travel guides in Baer's online store.

For people who can’t always be traveling, these books are a way to keep each other connected through language, culture, history and the differences in our regions. He finds beauty in this concept of what he refers to as “an armchair traveler.”

Perhaps his favorite part of selling these books however, is the renditions of photographs found in each of them. The contrast is so extreme compared to the reproduced photos we have nowadays. In his own words, “in one picture you can see the whitest whites… and the darkest darks.”

Currently, Baer is located in Westport, Connecticut where he runs and operates his online book store. In 2001 he made the transition from selling new travel books to solely old ones. His specialty is in selling original and rare travel books the way they used to be made, small and red. He also has a collection of books published from A & C Black books in London, which he refers to as “coffee table books.” Another of his specialties are Works Progress Administration (WPA) publications, travel guides that were written and released during the Great Depression era. These guides were known for putting many writers back to work, which is why the writing of so many now-famous authors can be seen in pages of these travel guides.

Baer will be participating in the Northampton Book Fair and if it hasn’t already sold, he’ll be bringing “Lake of Geneva” the rarest A & C Black book. Browse and buy from the fine selections of The Complete Traveller Antiquarian Bookstore and a sampling of the collections and work of 40 other exhibitors at the Northampton Antiquarian Book, Ephemera, and Book Arts Fair on Friday, November 21st, 5 -8 pm and Saturday, the 22nd, 10am - 4pm in the Community Arts Trust at 33 Hawley Street.

For advance tickets and fair information: click here