The rock star "cart shark"
"In addition to his musical legacy Tom Verlaine (who died on January 28) was a fixture in a small corner of the New York book world....If you swung by the carts that line the Strand’s exterior, where all the books cost $1-5, odds were good that you’d run into Verlaine, searching for grails that had been shunted out to the street. 'Pre-COVID? He was there every day. For at least an hour or so,' said Peter Calderon, a Strand employee of more than 15 years. A former employee, Alice Richardson, described him as most employees remember him: 'He’d be quietly browsing the dollar carts at night, smoking in an overcoat.'
"Strand and Verlaine had a long history. He was one of the store’s most famous alumni, along with (Patti) Smith, fellow Television founder Richard Hell, and Sam Shepard. When the store’s owner Fred Bass died in 2018, Verlaine eulogized him for the New York Times. But his gig in the shipping department was just a blip compared to his decades-long tenure as unofficial Carts Captain.
“'Everyone who worked there knew he was a regular,' said Christopher Pirsos, another former bookseller. 'I don’t think he ever bought a book from inside. He almost exclusively bought cart books.'” - Colin Groundwater