Richard Carreno

Richard Carreño, born in 1946, is a Philadelphia-based on-line bookseller, who has operated @philabooks|booksellers (www.philabooks.webs.com) since 1999.

Though a general bookseller, @philabooks specializes in subject areas that mirror Carreno's specific interests, those especially in the works by and about the mid-20th century Pennsylvania author John O'Hara; about The New Yorker; by and about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor; and equesterianism.

The O'Hara emphasis is tied to Carreno's work as the moderator of the international John O'Hara Society (www.OHaraSociety.blogspot.com). Equestrianism is linked to Carreno's current past-time as a recreational horseman, though in years past, when he lived in Massachusetts and Florida in the 1980s, his vocation as an amateur polo player, a competitive long-distance rider, and as an occasional foxhunter with the Tanheath Hunt in Massachusetts.

He was formerly associated with Rambles Farm, a family-operated boarding stable in Thompson, Connecticut.

Before establishing @philabooks, a partnership with his late father Ralph J. Carreno, of Boston, Carreno was a reporter and editor for several daily newspapers in New England. He is a former resident of Worcester, Massachusetts.

In the 1970s through the early 1990s, he was serially a reporter and editor at the Worcester Telegram and Gazette; a reporter and fashion columnist for The Hartford Courant in Connecticut; and a New England correspondent for The Boston Globe, covering the southern New England states, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. He was also a frequent contributor to The Globe's financial pages. During this time, as well, he was the news critic and ombudsman for The News in Southbridge, Massachusetts, and won a national Lowell Mellet Fund Prize for a Free and Responsible Press for this work.

During this same time, Carreno was also beginning to amass what was to beome a 5,000 title personal library, including, significantly, the most comprehensive collection of works by and about John O'Hara in the United States. Like the sales emphasis of @philabooks, the Carreno Collection also fielded complete works by and about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and in esquestrian sports. 

While bookselling and collecting are Carreno's primary professional focus, he twinns this interest with work as a writer and author, and as an independent scholar and academic researcher.

And with travel. Whenever possible, Carreno and his partner, Joan T. Kane, spend as much time as possible in France and Italy, but at least a week or two once a year. As a teenager, Carreno lived in Switzerland, France, and grew up in Nassau, The Bahamas, where his mother's ashes are buried. He considers this time as a transformative period.

Carreno is also a frequent traveler to the home of his children, Justin, in Washington; Abigail, in North Carolina; and Hunter IV, in Connecticiut. 

Carreno is the author of Clotheshorse: A History and Guide to Riding Apparel, the definitive work in this area of equestrianism, and is a contributor to scores of hard-copy and on-line publications in the United States and the United Kingdom. He frequently writes about art, museums, and on literary topics. His work has appeared in The New York Times, XXXXXX,XXXXX, and other publications. Currently, his work most frequently appears in the Weekly Press (www.weeklypress.com) and in www.BroadStreetReview.com, both Philadelphia-based media. 

He is also editor of The Philadelphia Junto; editorial director of Writers Clearinghouse; and is the founder the Philadelphia Book ConneXion, a charity that distributes free books to schools.

Carreno's work as bookman and writer overflows to the academic arena. For many years, he served as a lecturer of English and American literature and of English composition at several universities. In 1996, Carreño was a Visiting Scholar at Cambridge University and, later, an educational consultant to the US Agency for International Development (AID), serving in Ukraine.

 In 2004, he was an ESL specialist in Madrid. As a media consultant, based in London, Carreño travelled widely in Europe and the Mid-East. Returning to the United States in 1999, he held a short-term, mid-career assignment as a James H. Ottaway Sr Fellow at the American Press Institute, Washington.

Aside from his honors citation from thel Mellett Fund, Carreno has a first-place award from the New England Scholastic Press Association; and a Friends of The Bahamas Essay Award; among others.

Among Carreño's past teaching posts were adjunct positions at Johnson & Wales University, Providence, Rhode Island; the Harvard University Institute for English Language Programs; Clark University and Assumption College, both in Worcester; and at the Choate-Rosemary Hall School, Wallingford, Connecticut. He was a Philadelphia public school teacher for many years, and is now, from time to time, at adjunct teacher at Girard College, Philadelphia.efore moving to

Carreño served as an elected and appointed official to a number of library panels in Connecticut, including the Connecticut Association of Library Directors; the Connecticut Governor's Conference on Libraries; and the Thompson Library Board of Directors.

 He is a member of Pen & Pencil Club, Philadelphia; the Cambridge University Society; and the Mid-Century Society, Philadelphia and London.

Carreño was educated at New York University, where he was a Regent Scholar; and obtained undergraduate degrees from the American University, Paris, France; and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He studied at the graduate level at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Besides long-term residence in Britain, Carreño has lived, for various periods, in The Bahamas, France, and Switzerland. Carreño was born in New York City on 28 January 1946.

Last updated: Winter 2010