BY TOM HEADLEY
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Bookstores and libraries here placed orders for 402 Pathfinder books and pamphlets in an eight- day period earlier this month. Nineteen Pathfinder supporters visited 40 stores and libraries in Washington, Maryland, and Virginia in conjunction with a sales tour by Pathfinder staff member Michael Baumann.

"The interest booksellers displayed in Pathfinder titles - ranging from the Cuban and Russian revolutions to the labor battles of the 1930s, which laid the basis for the industrial union movement and social gains that are coming under intensified attack today - confirmed their relevance to the issues on many people's minds," Baumann noted.

Advance preparation contributed substantially to the success of the bookstore visits. In almost all cases Pathfinder supporters set up appointments well in advance and then confirmed them before the visit. Eleven of the visits produced immediate orders, and ten more offered serious prospects for orders through follow-up work. Besides the 402 books initially ordered, 60 more have been ordered since then as a result of the week's work. These go toward supporters' goal of getting orders for an additional 100 books in February.

Pathfinder supporters showed book buyers a representative selection of about a dozen books - ranging from Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War: 1956-58 by Ernesto Che Guevara to Leon Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution, The Origins of Materialism by George Novack, and the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. Preconceptions about which titles may interest a given buyer may be inaccurate and opportunities can be missed if a buyer never sees a broadly representative sampling of Pathfinder's stock.

One example of this was the response of an owner of an independent bookstore in northern Virginia who initially said he did not want "anything political - just Malcolm X." He ended up ordering five Communist Manifestos, five copies of The Jewish Question: A Marxist Interpretation, and five copies of Cosmetics, Fashions, and the Exploitation of Women for a total of 50 books.

A number of stores ordered Pathfinder titles dealing with the Cuban revolution and its leaders. Prominent among these were Guevara's Bolivian Diary and Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War, and To Speak the Truth: Why Washington's 'Cold War' against Cuba Doesn't End, containing speeches by Fidel Castro and Guevara.

Several campus bookstores ordered a range of titles for Black History Month specials. At a relatively new Black- oriented bookstore in Baltimore, Pathfinder supporters were invited back to participate in an upcoming forum on Malcolm X and his relevance for today.

Supporters found a number of stores where appointments could be scheduled for weekend visits. These included a local airport, where the team combined a plant-gate sale - focused on introducing books and periodicals to airport workers organized by the Machinists union - with a visit with a buyer for the airport store.  
 
 
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