ABOUT BLUE JACKET BOOKS

STORE HISTORY

Blue Jacket Books began in 2004 when the former owner, Elizabeth Svendsen, started to sell books on-line. She opened for business in downtown Xenia on February 18, 2006. I, Lawrence Hammar, purchased the store from Elizabeth on October 3, 2011.  You can still reach her at walkaboutbooks@att.net .

Like Elizabeth, I have been haunting used bookstores for a long time, and I initially added ~7,000 of my own books to our inventory, which once numbered around 40,000 volumes until the water-related catastrophe we suffered on January 28th, 2013. Yet and still, we have risen from the sodden ashes, and as we continue to rebuild the store, we will continue to specialize in anthropology and medicine, social sciences and the humanities, and especially European histories and cultures. We do also carry, however, a fine selection of everything from the home arts and collectibles to children's books and military history, from fine arts to local history, from mysteries and Science Fiction to contemporary literature and Fantasy.

Blue Jacket Books is named after the Shawnee Indian war chief Blue Jacket, who lived in this part of Ohio in the late 18th and early 19th century. He is remembered for his fierce defense of Shawnee lands against the encroaching pioneers. Along with the Miami chief Little Turtle, he was one of the primary leaders of the Native American confederation that defeated federal troops under Generals Josiah Harmar (1790) and Arthur St. Clair (1791).

 

Some historians have written that Blue Jacket began life as a white Virginian named Marmaduke Van Swearingen, who was captured (while wearing a blue jacket) and adopted by the Shawnees during the Revolutionary War. However, in recent years, descendants of Blue Jacket have successfully used DNA testing methods to dispute this story. Either way, Blue Jacket is beloved here in Xenia, where an outdoor drama recounting tell the story of his life and his people was staged each summer for decades. The show closed after the 2007 season, but may return in the future with a new script.