Melbourne’s literary cult­ure may fade: Hill of Content closing

Albert Bert Spencer (1886-) was born in Balmain Sydney, younger son of Henrik Henry Spencer, a Danish labourer and his wife Al­ice. The father died when Bert was a toddler, meaning the 3 sib­lings were raised by a struggling mother. 

Hill of Content bookshop, 

Bourke St Melbourne

Spencer’s mot­h­er was the inspiration for all his endeav­ours, intro­d­ucing him to the won­d­ers of reading, and she borrowed books from neighbours since there was no money to buy them. He went to Waverley Public School where he be­gan his life-long love of poetry, with sup­port from a sympathetic teacher. At 14 he was forced to leave school to work in a boot factory, cutting out boot up­pers. Luckily he left after 8 months to become a messenger-boy with the book sellers and publishers, Angus & Robertson.

Spencer fell in love with a girl he planned to marry. They courted for se­v­eral years but she died in her early 20s. In Jan 1909 Spencer mar­ried pianist Eileen Rebecca O'Connor at Woollahra Pres­byterian Church.

For 22 years (1900-22) at Angus and Robertson's, Spencer learned the trade from its Australian masters, George Robertson and his employee Fred Wymark. He regularly delivered books to home of David S Mitchell, whose amazing collect­ion formed the Mitchell Library.

Spencer became head of Angus and Robertson's Second-Hand De­partment, and the confidant of Sydney collectors like Sir William Dixson and Sir John Ferguson, Robertson's son-in-law and compiler of the 7-volume Bibliography of Australia.

Not wanting to open in op­p­osition to his long-time employer, Spencer decided to open instead in Melb­ourne. He borrowed £1000 from collector H.L White, uncle of not­ed author Patrick White. The money was lent without surety, but Spen­cer was able to pay it back with interest in 3 years. 

Melbourne was going through recession then, and gangsters were known to haunt the city’s narrow laneways. Spen­cer was told it was risky to open a bookshop in seedy areas, so he sought a positive name for his new shop. The name came to him during a walk in the Fitzroy Gardens when he was given a name for the new shop; the elm-trees and plane-trees said call it Hill of Content (1922). 

Spencer also had the support of Melbourne collector, F Hobill Cole and of George Robertson himself. Cole found him a shop at the top end of Bourke St, while a Robertson man de­signed and meas­ured the shelvings. And so in 1922 founder Bert Spencer opened the Hill of Con­tent. The shop was small (33’ x 19’) and the fam­ily lived behind the premis­es. At this time the Aust­ral­ian Parl­iam­ent sat at the Victorian Parl­iament Building one block away in Sp­ring St; meanwhile the State Parl­iament sat in Royal Exhibition Build­ings, so prominent politicians frequented the shop as well.

Every section of the bookshop is appealing to visitors

Fortunately Spencer handled the dispersal of the private lib­raries. The spectac­ular Rob­ert Sticht collection arrived the year Sp­en­cer opened in Melbourne and helped ensure the shop’s success. Then two other two libraries, F Hobill Cole and H.L White, were added. Sp­encer also maintained contact with his old Sydney coll­ect­or-friend Sir William Dixson, and attracted the custom of Melbour­ne's notables.

In 1927, with the lease exp­iring, Spencer asked the owners to dem­olish the old buil­ding and erect a new 3-storey one. Very quick­ly, the new shop emerged as a major out­let for second-hand and fine new books. Its customers in­c­luded stars eg Dame Nellie Melba, Lionel Lindsay, Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton, Governors, medicos and lawyers. The shop expanded to cover 2 floors of the building built by Spencer in 1928, with its staff eyeing off the third floor, currently occup­ied by Collins Book­sellers head office! Thus this book shop became its founder's enduring legacy to Melbourne.

Spencer hoped his son would join the business but, after sur­viving 5 years of RAAF service, Greg Spencer was discharged and died in a car crash. This was tragic for Spencer and alth­ough he ran the busin­ess for c4 more years, he was grieving; in 1951 he sold Hill of Content to Angus & Robertson.

After he busied himself for months supervising the transfer of Dix­s­on's collection to the NSW State Lib­rary. Spencer later issued cat­al­ogues and sold books privately from his San­dring­ham home and wrote his memoirs. His book was published as Hill of Content: Books, Art, Music, People by Angus and Robert­son in 1959. It high­lighted the Sydney and Melbourne literary worlds from the turn of the century to WW2’s end. Both chatty and nostalgic, his book re­veal­ed the pleasures and prej­udices of their generation. Spencer also wrote good portraits of oth­ers eg David S Mitch­ell, George Robertson and esp­ecially Henry Lawson.

He was supported by help from friends and neighbours, but his last years were saddened by the deaths of his wife 1964 and daughter. He died in 1971.

Remember his shop had been purchased by Collins Book­sell­ers and man­ag­ed the company store from 1952. The owners of the Collins franchises in Sale and Bairnsdale organised franchisees to create a new company to buy the business and franchise rights. The Watts and Johnston fam­ilies bought the Hill of Content, which now operates as an independent store under the Collins umbrella. Its man­ager have complete autonomy to buy, market and sell the books that best reflect the tastes of the shops’ dedicated clients. Hill of Cont­ent has enjoyed a period of steady growth over the last 20 years, more than doubling the turnover.

Readings’ staff encourage book-based conversation, mak­ing recommend­at­ions based on what a read­er was seeking. The staff knew the stock and showed more interest via in-shop author ev­ents. Indep­endent book­­sell­ers surv­ived bec­ause of customer loyalty, but they knew their customer base and ordered strat­egically. 

Shoppers loved the book­mark with the AH Spen­cer quote on one side and the signatures of famous visitors on the other: Sidney Nolan, Louis Armst­rong, Fred Wil­liams, Patrick White, Barry Humphries, E Annie Proulx, Robin Boyd etc.

Wendy Harmer spoke to her new memoir

"Lies My Mirror Told Me"

and she autographed her books.

It was held by the same family for 73 years and now is the right time to sell. After over a century, the Hill of Content will likely be used for other retail or hospitality opportun­ities. It will be auct­ioned on 7th March, fetching ?$6 million but now Melbourne’s literary cult­ure may fade. Melbourne, an international city of literat­ure, has long been a city with many book­shops. On­-line book sales are cheap and con­venient, but a reader loses much of what a real bookshop used to off­er. On-line depots are NOT cultural cent­res.