In October 1968, Paul Elder Jr. sold the 70-year-old family business to Brentano’s. The bookstore, however, remained open under the Paul Elder name for another 14 months, closing for good on 29 December 1969. Just one week later, be it by chance or design, Paul Elder began a new chapter as a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner. The new column was called “Paul Elder’s Book Forum.”
The Book Forum ran every day, alongside other daily Examiner columnists such as Guy Wright, Sydney Harris, Bob Considine, and Dick Nolan. On Sundays, the column appeared in the combined Chronicle-Examiner. The first installment ran on 5 January 1970, and began with this introduction:
It shall be the purpose of this book column to bring you informative, timely and complete coverage of new publications and events of interest in the book world—to evolve a true book forum by drawing on the best minds in this sophisticated area with guest reviews by talented members in academic and literary fields.
Elder then warmly reviewed Charlotte Armstrong’s suspense novel The Protege, saying “when one has been reading with enjoyment everything an author has written for 20 years or so, he can’t be blamed for feeling a personal loss when that author dies.” Armstrong had passed away six months earlier at the age of 64.
It appears that the Book Forum ran for just one year. The last known installment appeared on 12 January 1971.