A FEW hours after Bob Gould's death at age 74 yesterday, the doors to his Newtown bookstore were open to the public.

''That's what Bob would have liked,'' said his daughter, Natalie Gould. ''He loved books and this place has been his life. Keeping it open is the best thing.''

Bob Gould ... loved a debate. Credit:Dallas Kilponen

The secondhand bookseller and left-wing activist had been frail for some time, but still worked at the store a couple of hours most days. He was sorting through his own books at the store, when he fell and injured his head. By the time the ambulance arrived, it was too late. Friends and relatives gathered at the store yesterday with his wife, Janet Bonser.

Mr Gould opened the Third World Bookshop on Goulburn Street in the city in 1967. He was regularly raided by the police over the next few years for stocking Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint, posters by Aubrey Beardsley and even pictures of Michelangelo's David.