C.V.

1953:  b. St. Cloud, Minnesota.

1958: Immaculate Heart of Mary Elementary School, Glen Lake, Minn.

1965:  Paperboy, Minnetonka, Minn.  Minneapolis Star and Tribune.

1969:  Minneapolis Floral, Hopkins, Minn.  Manured greenhouse roses in excruciating circumstances.

Minneapolis Moline, Hopkins, Minn.  Janitor.

1970: Target, Knollwood Plaza, St. Louis Park, Minn., Gas station attendant.

Summer:  San Francisco/Berkeley/Oakland;  Hippie.

Fall:  Tyrone Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis.  Usher, stagehand.

1971:  Graduate H.S., Hopkins, Minn.  San Francisco, under-employed aging Hippie.

Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minn.  Gallery guard, occasionally mistaken for a Duane Hanson sculpture.

1972:  Savran’s Books, Cedar Avenue, Minneapolis, Minn.  Clerk.

1973:  Visit New York.  Univ. of Minnesota. One semester, incomplete.

1974:  Move to New York.

1975:  Strand Books.  Clerk.

Biblo & Tanner.  Clerk.

University Place Books, “Specializing in Everything To Do With the Negro for over 50 years.” (NY Yellow Pages).  Apprentice antiquarian to Walter Goldwater and William French.

1976:   03.0 1:  Lorry’s Books. Park Row.  Clerk.  There is not a trace left of this loser of a bookstore specializing in civil service test books and Monarch Notes, a few bestsellers, mostly remainders and a motley selection of used books.  Got artist/pal Steve Kramer a job there and, next thing you know, we’re both out of work.

Nov.  Madison Avenue Bookshop.  Clerk.  Hired by Rodney Pelter for Arthur Lehman Loeb. After 2 years of working full time, for the next 15 years I’ll work part-time for the shop, between 69^th and 70^th on Madison, and full-time as their book scout (see: Ninth Gate.  Roman Polanski).

1977:  Reading modern and contemporary literature with Arthur Loeb and the clientele of the salon/bookstore: everything current, Valéry, Mallarmé, Rilke, Henry James, Marcel Proust, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Joseph Conrad, Somerset Maugham, Wallace Stevens, etc.& etc., and their critics, in depth -thru 1992.

Publish.  First appearance in print: Traveler’s Digest.  ‘Patacularities Replete: The Supermale’ by Alfred Jarry. w/VictorBockris, Jeff Goldberg, Bobbie Bristol, Erica Lennard, Christopher Knowles, Kathy Acker, Christopher Makos, William Burroughs, David Byrne, Ted Berrigan, Gerard Malanga & John Holstrom.

1978:  Onitsha Market Literature finds me at University Place Books. [see: Afterword in Life Turns Man Up and Down. NY: Pantheon Books, 2001]

1979:  Carriage Driver, Central Park.  Chateau Stables.

Return to Madison Avenue Bookshop.

Library.  Hired as Diana Vreeland’s “Private Librarian“.

1980:  d.b.a. The Private Library.

Library:  Diana Vreeland.

1981: Collaboration with Roberto Polo, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis & Louis Auchincloss on a fine arts edition of Deborah Turbeville’s Unseen Versailles (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co. 1981)

Collaborate with D.V. on La Belle Epoque at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, supplying “Important literary research.”

Libraries: Mr. Jerome Zipkin; Mary McFadden, NYC.

1982:   Libraries: Molly Parnis, Lili Auchincloss, David Granger, NYC.

1983:   Collaborate with Keith Haring, Tseng Kwong Chi, Dan Friedman on documenting Haring’s public art.

Read The Flash of the Spirit and meet Robert Farris Thompson.

1984:  Package:  Art In Transit: The Subway Drawings of Keith Haring (NY: Harmony Books, 1984)

Revival of Charles Portis cult novel The Dog of the South.

1985:  “I heartily thank Kurt Thometz for guiding me to Haring’s studio in 1985.”  Robert Farris Thompson, Requiem for the Degas of the B-Boys.  Art Forum. May, 1990.

1986:  Commissioned to co-author the memoirs of Mrs. Walter Jane Pickens Hoving.

1987:  Engaged.

1988:  Married, Nevine Takhla Nakhla. St. Mary Church.  Al Marashly St,  Muḩāfaz̧at al Qāhirah, Zamalek, Cairo, Egypt.

Libraries:  Mrs. Vincent Astor, ; Mr. & Mrs. Donald Newhouse; Mr. & Mrs. S.I. Newhouse; Mr. & Mrs. Edwin Weisl; Mr. & Mrs. Frank Richardson; Ambassador Joseph V. Reed; Mrs. Dory Small, NYC; Michael Clinton, Paris, France.

Film consultations:  Julian Temple.  Take the A Train. Jazz doc.  Never made.

Bruce Weber.  Let’s Get Lost.

1989:  Write Mary Travers course on Protest Music at The New School.

Co-authoring Gerry Mulligan’s autobiography.

Libraries: Mr. Bromwell Ault; Mr. & Mrs. Donald Marron, NYC.

1990:  Business Man:  Negotiating with George Whitman on purchase of Shakespeare & Co. in Paris, backed by Martin Ackerman.

Publish.  Sell The Private Library, a book that will be published as At Home With Books by Carol Southern Books in 1995.

Libraries:  Mr. & Mrs. Frederick Melhado: Mr. & Mrs. Edwin Weisl; Joan Kron; Irving Blum: Mrs. Eugene Black, NYC.

Born: Adam Adolfo Thometz.

1991:  Libraries: Alan Pryce Jones, Newport, R.I.; Michael Thomas, Bridgehampton; Leo Lerman; Fred Hughes, Jean Stein; Dorothy Small; Leonard Stern; David Granger, NYC.

1992:  Leave Madison Avenue Books.

Library.  Mr. & Mrs. Steve Ross, NYC/East Hampton.

1993:  Libraries:  Mr. & Mrs. Steve Ross; Mr. & Mrs. Leonard Lauder; Mr. & Mrs, Sid Bass, NYC; Mr. & Mrs. Steve Ross,  Dr. & Mrs. Lewis Thomas, Calvin Klein, East Hampton.

1994:  Libraries:  Leslie Wexner for John Stefanidis; Mr. & Mrs. Henry Grunewald; Mr. & Mrs. David Granger; Mr. & Mrs. Sid Bass; Diane Von Furstenberg, NYC.  Ross School Project, East Hampton.

1995:  Libraries: Mrs. Jackie Pierrepont; Mrs. Victoria Newhouse; Courtney Sale Ross: Mr. & Mrs. Gustavo Cisneros, NYC.

1996:  Libraries: Fran Lebowitz; Cheryl Hardwick O’Donoghue; Mr. & Mrs. John Gulino, NYC; Ross Institute, East Hampton; Mr. & Mrs. Leslie Wexner, Columbus, Ohio; Mr. & Mrs. Gustavo Cisneros, NYC & La Romana (DR).

1997:  Libraries: Mr. & Mrs. Gustavo Cisneros, NYC & Caracas, Vz; Bob Iger; Mike Nichols & Diane Sawyer; Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Altchul; Courtney Sale Ross, NYC.

1998:  Libraries: Mr. & Mrs. Gustavo Cisneros, NYC & La Romana, DR.  Courtney Sale Ross, East Hampton & NYC.

1999:  Library.  Frederick Hughes, NYC.

2000:  Libraries:  Annette Tapert & Joe Allen, NYC;  Courtney Sale Ross, Stockholm.

2001:  Libraries:  Mr. & Mrs. Leonard Lauder, NYC; Courtney Sale Ross, East Hampton.  Consulting: Barnes & Noble Rare Books.

2001:  June 23^rd.  Married to Camilla Jackson Huey in the Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage.

Sept. 11^th.  Also publication date of Life Turns Man Up and Down: Highlife, Useful Advice and Mad English (NY: Pantheon Books).  World Trade Center Borders Books signing, 10:30 a.m., obliterated.

2002:  Libraries:  John Gulino; Mr. & Mrs. Leonard Lauder; NYC.

Bravo TV Canada.  Documentary.  Arts & Minds.  The Private Library.

2003:  Havana, Cuba.  El Museo Casa de los Americas.  Install Hochi Asiatico exhibition.

2004:  Purchase & renovate 426 West 160^th, NYC.

2005:  Jumel Terrace Books opens.  Onitsha Market Literature exhibition.

Libraries: Mr. & Mrs. Sid Bass; Edwin Weisl; Pembrooke & Ives; Mr. & Mrs. Leonard Lauder, NYC.

2006:  Jumel Terrace Books, Bed & Breakfast opens.

Jumel Terrace Books: Michael Thelwell, Robert Farris Thompson & Darius James readings.

2007:  Library. Mr. & Mrs. Leonard Lauder; consult L. Lauder re: Gotham Book Mart.

Lecture on Onitsha Market Literature for Brent Edwards’ Africana Department, Rutgers University.

Lecture on Jumel Terrace Historic District for Herb Boyd’s Harlem History class,  City College of New York.  It becomes an annual event.

08.11 Feature.  NY Times.   Jim Dwyer.  Making a Home and a Haven for Books.

2008:  Library.  John Cheim, NYC.

Exhibition.  In conjunction with the Tony Shafrazi Gallery, Jumel Terrace Books hosts a Michael Ray Charles exhibition.

2009:  Libraries:  Mr. & Mrs. Leonard Lauder; Mr. & Mrs. Leonard Riggio, NYC.

2010:  Library: Fran Lebowitz, NYC.

2011:  Library: Courtney Sale Ross, NYC.

Documentary.  Arte Télévision. 9.11.11.  Jumel Terrace Books featured in New York Confidential, by Remy Burkel, taking a measure of how the City’s changed since 9.11.01.

2012:  Library: Courtney Sale Ross, NYC.

03.25.  Aloe Blacc – I Need A Dollar.   The song is the theme music for the opening credits of HBO’s Winter 2010 show “How To Make It In America.” Kahlil Joseph’s video features Oscar Martinez and Javier Nunez as Wilfredo Gomez. Shot in Harlem, New York, it features Jumel Terrace Books and a cameo by Kurt Thometz.

05.31  Adam Adolfo Thometz graduates Magna Cum Laude from City College.

08.28  Featured.  Le Magazine du Monde.  Harlem, quarter libre by Sylvan Cypel.

09.21. “…the last-word-but-one” in the new documentary “Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel” (an animated version of Mrs. Vreeland has the last).”: Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel.

10.09   Speaker on Onitsha Market Literature and the Cordel at The Brazilian Endowment for the Arts, BRAZIL IN NEW YORK – VOICES OF NORTHEAST Cordel Literature Symposium.

2013:  Library.  “Belle Aime”, Port Everglades, Florida, for Courtney Sale Ross.

01.  Location.  Deutsch Vogue.  All That Jazz.  Bruce Weber.

05 – 09.  Exhibition.  The Loves of Aaron Burr exhibition, Morris-Jumel Mansion with Camilla Huey.

2014.  Featured. Narrative.ly. Kurt Thometz’s Little Black Bookstore. Orestis Tsonopoulis.

Docu-tainment for Nokia.  Bruce Weber with David Bailey featuring Jumel Terrace Books.   Harlem: A Poetry Lesson. 

Libraries:  Courtney Sale Ross, Fran Lebowitz, Leonard Lauder.  NYC.

2015.

Film Premiere:  The Loves of Aaron Burr: Portraits in Corsetry and Binding, collaboration with Camilla Huey.

Libraries:  NYC.  Leonard Lauder, Fran Lebowitz.

08.01.  Closed.  Jumel Terrace Books.

2016.  Dream time.

2017.  Opened HABITnyc with Camilla Huey.

Jumel Terrace BandB achieves and sustains a 5 Star rating.

2018.  In the first two weeks of August Adam Adolfo Thometz graduated from Hunter College with a Masters in Education, achieved his black belt from Kokushi Budin in the Pure Land Buddhist Church on Riverside Drive, and today secured steady employment as a Special Ed teacher at PS 567, Linden Tree, a Parkchester elementary school in the Bronx.

2019 – 2023

Closed HABITnyc with Camilla Huey and moved her atelier from the Garment District, home.

While I maintained myself and family as a hotelier, a brain-tumor matured until it near blinded and seriously depressed me in the early summer of 2022. Within the week an MRI photographed the fig sized tumor on my pea sized pituitary gland, the cause of my symptoms, Dr. Ted Schwartz had a 14.5 hour endoscopic go of it in the operating theater of Weil-Cornell. We beat it.

9 months later, I was getting to know my better self. It’s believed the tumor took the better part of a decade to grow, 7 of those years to pernicious effect. At 70, I am liberated and, since The Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement’s closed the City’s AirBnB’s, looking for work.