Ike Ong, "a redoubtable bookseller" who co-founded London bookshop Skoob Books in 1979, has died, the Guardian reported. He was 74. The shop, which sold general and academic secondhand books, "started out in a Covent Garden lockup that had previously housed market wheelbarrows. After a falling out between the partners (stories vary), he ran Skoob Books for the next 25 years."
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| Ike Ong at Skoob Books in 1979 (courtesy Skoob Books) |
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In 1981, Skoob moved to Sicilian Avenue in Holborn, central London, where Ong opened a second shop, specializing in antiquarian and foreign study books. This was followed by three more locations, in Singapore, Brisbane, and Kuala Lumpur.
Jynsym Ong, who wrote his father's obituary, noted: "Ike's next adventure was in publishing. From 1987 onwards he produced a guide to U.K. secondhand bookshops, then volumes of esoterica and anthologies of Malaysian literature written in English. It is perhaps with these books that he had his most lasting impact."
Ike Ong's interest in films eventually led him to make some, particularly documentary and historical re-enactment works, including History in Action for English Heritage and Twilight of the Longhouse. He also studied and taught filmmaking on a mezzanine below the Skoob shop floor fitted with former local movie theater seats.
Ong was born in Penang, British Malaya. His father served in the Royal Air Force and wrote book-keeping and commercial text books used in Malaysian schools. Ong was sent to London to study accounting, but in the 1970s he started working for Poole's secondhand bookshop on Charing Cross Road. When that closed, he co-founded Skoob Books.
In 2001, Skoob Books moved again, and a few years later, he had to consider yet another move. "Ike's view of life, after years of keeping the business afloat, had become bleaker. For him, bookselling had run its course," his son wrote. Ike Ong sold the bookshop in 2005.