We've changed our name...to Pegasus!
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We here at Pegasus and Pendragon books are finally going to make a change we have been contemplating for some time: we are retiring the name Pendragon, and will be known from now on as Pegasus Books.
Our stores have always been a little name challenged. Founder Matt Wyse opened Pellucidar Books, at the corner of Shattuck and Haste, in 1969. He almost immediately regretted the choice, as it was instantly clear that the word Pellucidar, which comes from the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel about a world in the center of the earth. was both hard to pronounce and almost impossible to spell. So when he opened his second store in 1971, he chose another name, Pendragon, which was a little more manageable but still created difficulties for people trying to find us.
In 1983, we closed Pellucidar and opened a new store on Solano Avenue, and because by that time neither "Pendragon" nor "Pellucidar" had the magic touch, Matt and Karen chose the name Pegasus, reasoning that it looked kind of similar but was a lot easier to understand. In 1990 we opened Pegasus Books in Walnut Creek. When we closed that store in 1996 we came back to Berkeley and opened Pegasus Books Downtown. This left Pendragon a bit out in the cold, identity-wise, a situation we are now trying to remedy. If you've followed this far, you will understand that we currently have Pegasus Books on Solano, Pegasus Books Downtown, and Pendragon. We believe that customers are not aware that we have three locations, or that our stores have always operated as one organic whole. We do deliveries between the stores twice a week, we use the same trade slips and frequent reader cards, our staff often work at more than one store -- we are, in short, one company happily operating in three very different neighborhoods. We hope that by adopting one name, and one name only, our customers will better recognize that they have three stores worth of carefully chosen, reasonably priced new and used books from which to browse. Please welcome Pegasus Books in Oakland, as we begin our fifth decade doing the work we love best, putting wonderful books into the hands of avid readers.
Amy Thomas
President for Life
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