快猫视频

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Tom Warth once visited a school library in Jinja, Uganda, that had nearly everything everything a library needs 鈥� except books.

There was a librarian, a card catalog, tables, bookcases and students, but the聽shelves聽were nearly bare. What few books there were, he said, were 鈥渢attered聽and worn.鈥�

Warth聽took it upon himself to fill the library聽with books 鈥� and then did the聽same for hundreds of other libraries across the continent.

On Wednesday, the nonprofit organization that Warth founded, 快猫视频, shipped its 60 millionth book to Africa. A truckload of books left the 快猫视频 warehouse in Marietta, Ga., bound for the harbor in Savannah, Ga., where they will be placed on a container ship bound for Ghana.

快猫视频, based in St. Paul, is the largest shipper of donated text and library books to the African continent, having shipped books to all 55 countries in Africa since 1988.

Warth, a native of England, founded the organization after he sold his publishing company, Motorbooks International. 鈥淚 wanted to invest the money where it would make a difference,鈥� he said. 鈥淓ducation is essential to Africa鈥檚 development and to the future of its students.鈥�

Warth, 88, of Marine on St. Croix, celebrated his 70th birthday by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania as a fundraiser for 快猫视频. He trained for the climb to the mountain鈥檚 peak, 19,340 feet above sea level, by climbing the Main Street Stairs in downtown Stillwater 110 times, the equivalent of ascending the mountain.

When he turned 80, he decided to walk across the island of Zanzibar for yet another fundraiser. He also has walked across Gambia in West Africa; from Lake Michigan to South Dakota; from Canada to Iowa; and聽聽and from Taylors Falls to the Capitol in St. Paul 鈥� all to raise both visibility and funds for 快猫视频.

鈥淲ithout Tom, none of this would have happened,鈥� said Patrick Plonski, the organization鈥檚 executive director. 鈥淪ixty million books have been shipped 鈥� and every single one of the African countries on the continent served 鈥� and it鈥檚 all been run out of this base here in Minnesota. All of this would have been unthinkable 36 years ago. It just shows the value of vision, and the 鈥榓rt of the possible.鈥欌��

To put that number into perspective, there are approximately 150,000 books at George Latimer Central Library in downtown St. Paul.

Last year, 快猫视频 shipped 4,029,000 books, valued at more than $32.6 million, to 32 African countries 鈥� the most books ever shipped in a single year. About 800,000 digital books also were shipped on 116 computers and 150 tablets. More than $2.6 million was raised to ship the books to partners across Africa, Plonski said.

Warth, the owner of T. E. Warth Esq. Automotive Books, works out of an office above the Marine General Store in downtown Marine on St. Croix. He sells rare books to car enthusiasts.

Warth has two children and two grandchildren. He is married to Zantha LaFon Warth.

In an interview with the Pioneer Press over lunch at the Brookside Bar & Grill in Marine, Warth talked about 快猫视频鈥檚 recent milestone, a new children鈥檚 book called 鈥淭he Book King: The Story of Tom Warth and 快猫视频,鈥� and his love of hitchhiking. The transcript is edited for clarity and conciseness.

Tom Warth Q&A

Q:聽Congratulations on reaching 60 million. To what do you attribute 快猫视频鈥檚 success?

A:聽There are three reasons. Number one, books. Nobody likes to throw away a book, so we get given books. Number two, we started it in a philanthropic center of the country. Minnesota is known for philanthropy. I don鈥檛 think if we鈥檇 started in Baltimore or Washington, it would have worked. And third, we鈥檝e had two great executive directors. You know, the first one, Bob Kowalczyk, didn鈥檛 mind packing the books and doing grunt work. And (Plonski) loves to network. You know, that鈥檚 the secret. I mean he has really made it fly.

Q:聽Talk about the importance of books, particularly printed books.

A:聽You know, we were talking about newspapers, and the tactile feel and the sniff of a newspaper and holding it out and how looking at it is so much nicer than looking at something online, and then I think of the children in Africa, we can鈥檛 abandon printed books. You know, half the population of Africa lives in rural areas. There are 400 million children. They live in huts with no printed material. Surely they need one printed book that they can touch and feel.

Q:聽Tell me about your childhood. Where did you go to school?

A:聽I grew up near Cambridge (England). I went to boarding school, and then I went to Cambridgeshire Technical College for a year. That鈥檚 like an American vo-tech. I learned basic things like typing, law, statistics, accounting, you know, a little about a lot, and that served me well the rest of my life. In fact, I got irritated at Motorbooks when they said in their advertisements for employees that they need to have a college degree. I said, 鈥淲ell, I鈥檓 running the show, and I don鈥檛 have a college degree.鈥�

Q:聽What brought you to the U.S.?

A:聽I lived in Eau Claire when I emigrated in 1960. I came to Eau Claire because that鈥檚 where my sponsor, an Eighth Air Force pilot who had befriended my dad (during World War II) lived. He came to visit my dad in 1959, and we met, and he said to me, 鈥淭om, if you want to see America, I鈥檒l sponsor you.鈥� You know, no one was immigrating in those days. I just thought, 鈥淲ell, I鈥檇 like to see America.鈥� I came over and worked in a drugstore and on road construction. I stayed for about a year. Then I went back and got married, and then we decided to come to America, so we both came. America was the land of opportunity.

Q:聽Tell me about your interest in cars. How did that come about?

A:聽My dad (Ewart) liked fine cars. He had a Bentley, and he would reverse it into the parking space, so people would know what he had. My brother, John, and I were infected by that. John was two years younger. He ended up being a major dealer in cars. He would go to India and spend a year there trying to get into the good graces of the maharajas and so on, who had garages full of Rolls-Royces. Sadly, he died in 1986. He was 48.

Q:聽How did you get into car book publishing?

A:聽We lived in Minneapolis, and I worked for Prudential Insurance for five years, but my ambition was always to work for myself, not have a boss. I didn鈥檛 intend to have a big company or anything, but, with cars being my hobby, I started to think about getting material for (car) enthusiasts. I knew the car magazines, and so I put little ads in magazines like Road & Track, and gradually it got bigger and bigger. I was the first, and the hobby was small. Back then in the 60s, people didn鈥檛 have enough money to buy a lot of old cars. I threaded the needle in terms of timing. If I鈥檇 started it earlier, there wouldn鈥檛 have been enough business. If I鈥檇 started it later, other people would have been in it. We were publishing 100 books a year when I sold out in 1988.

Q:聽Have you always liked driving?

A:聽Yes. Oh, I love driving. I like seeing the scenery and stuff. We just drove to Savannah and stayed for 10 days in an Airbnb and that was 3,000 miles I put on. I鈥檓 still lucky enough to have my wits about me. I can still drive, you know? My eyesight is good, and my reaction times are good. I like walking better than driving, though. I walk three to four miles a day.

Q:聽How many cars do you have?

A:聽I have a 1960 gray Citro毛n 2-CV 鈥� or Deux Chevaux. I had a 1965 289-AC Cobra, which I had for many years and sold, and I鈥檝e got a 2003 Jaguar. The everyday car is a Fiat 500.

Q:聽When did you move to Marine?

A:聽We were living in South Minneapolis, and a friend showed me a house on Judd Street that had English characteristics, and so we bought that in 1975. I鈥檝e been here ever since. I鈥檓 in my third house here now. 鈥� We looked around within a 20-mile radius for the business. It was a banker in Osceola (Wis.) who convinced me that an industrial park in Osceola would be a good spot for Motorworks.

Q:聽I understand a children鈥檚 book called 鈥淭he Book King鈥� has just been published about you.

A:聽People have said, 鈥淭om, you鈥檝e had such an interesting life. You should write your autobiography.鈥� Well, now it鈥檚 been done. Rosemond Sarpong Owens wrote it, and she did a fabulous job. It鈥檚 a nice outline of my life.

Q:聽Let鈥檚 talk about your love of hitchhiking.

A:聽People say it鈥檚 dangerous, but I think it鈥檚 less dangerous now than it was in the 鈥�50s and 鈥�60s, because there鈥檚 supposed to be less crime. I think the problem is, there鈥檚 so much publicity about crime now that people are frightened. Is the driver going to attack the hitchhiker, or is the hitchhiker going to attack the driver? I just don鈥檛 think this happens.

In the 1950s, I hitchhiked around Europe. In 1961, I hitchhiked from Eau Claire to New Orleans for the Mardi Gras. Just south of Chicago, a lady picked me up, and she said, 鈥淲hat part of the South are you from?鈥� I said, 鈥淚鈥檓 not from the South. I鈥檓 from England.鈥� She鈥檇 mistaken the Union Jack on my backpack for a Confederate flag. I also hitchhiked from Eau Claire to Winnipeg to buy a car. In Cuba, when I was last there, they fine drivers who passed a hitchhiker and had an empty seat and didn鈥檛 pick them up.

I just think environmentally, we have to think about all these cars, four-seat cars with one person in them. I鈥檝e picked up hitchhikers a lot, and I like it, you know, if you鈥檙e on a long drive.