Our Story

The Edwards Collection began long before Charles started the company. The story begins with his father, Charles Meadows Sr.

Charles Sr. collected a great deal throughout his life and was gifted with a unique ability to find rare and unique books wherever he journeyed. From saving boxes of discarded books at demolition sites, to rescuing them from garbage bins he could not see a book left to be destroyed.

Charles passed this love for books onto his son Charles Meadows Jr. Even at a young age, Charles Jr loved reading. In his early teen’s he even had a custom shelving unit built that reached from one end of his childhood bedroom, completely across to the other wall, which he filled with books (the unit is still used today at a housing location for The Edwards Collection.)

As time passed and life continued to complicate, the books were left at his family home in Oklahoma while following his heart across the country. Struggling with severe depression and anxiety, he moved from Dallas, Texas, to Newport Beach, California where he would again discover his love of books.

While living on the beach in California, he realized the importance of education and giving back to the community. He would find unique books around town at various places, take them home, and research them to keep his mind busy. Once done with it, he would donate or sell the book to find the next.

Eventually, he decided to go back to his hometown to be near family. He made a cross-country road trip stopping here and there to collect books and meet new people along the way. By the time he rolled into town, his car was packed with books from across the United States.

Once settled in, he struck out on a new adventure. Opening an online bookstore that he could share his love of books with others. To this day, his first and foremost desire is that. The Edwards Collection can provide books to anyone in need.

Books are like people. Too often the strange ones, the old ones, the familiar are all put on a shelf and eventually moved to an attic or a basement and forgotten. Once, the pages begin to disintegrate due to age. The elements, the laughs and the tears, the stories of inspiration and of love between the covers are lost to time forever. Once someone discovers the old item, they packed away is of monetary worth, it is a race to the attic. Why? It is because that item now has value to them.

I see this far too often with people. We all have our own unique stories that can make a difference and change lives. However, the odd, the old, and the familiar get pushed aside or left behind for various reasons. Once people realize the value of another person, they treat them differently.

I hope that more people will learn to see the value that each and every one of us has buried between the pages of our lives and that we may spend time learning and loving together. I believe it is our responsibility as humans living in the present to protect the stories that our fathers and mothers have left for us, those that we call histories. That we can continue to write the current chapters in our stories of lives in the here and now. Not only to write but to believe, teach, and nurture a vision of hope, that will spark the imagination, for the stories yet to come.