Independent bookstore
Encyclopedia
Small business
A small business is a business that is privately owned and operated, with a small number of employees and relatively low volume of sales. Small businesses are normally privately owned corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships...
.
Literary and countercultural history
Salon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
. The bookstores themselves, "have historically supported and cultivated the work of independent authors and poets. Chances are if it were not for bookstores like McIntyre’s, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti is an American poet, painter, liberal activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers...
, Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
, and Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
would not enjoy the celebrity they did." This relationship with authors is referenced in the 1988 film, Crossing Delancey
Crossing Delancey
Crossing Delancey is a romantic comedy film starring Amy Irving and Peter Riegert released in 1988. It is directed by Joan Micklin Silver and based on a play by Susan Sandler, who also wrote the screenplay...
which stars Amy Irving
Amy Irving
Amy Davis Irving is an American actress, known for her roles in the films Crossing Delancey, The Fury, Carrie, and Yentl as well as acclaimed roles on Broadway and Off-Broadway. She has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, and has won an Obie award...
.
City Lights
City Lights BookstoreCity Lights Bookstore
City Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected titles related to San Francisco culture. It was founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence...
in San Francisco was founded in 1953 by Peter D. Martin and Beat
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti is an American poet, painter, liberal activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers...
. Ferlinghetti became its sole owner in 1955, and started City Lights Publishers that same year. Among the writers it publishes are the Beat
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
poets, including Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
, Gregory Corso
Gregory Corso
Gregory Nunzio Corso was an American poet, youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers...
, and Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
.
In 1956 City Lights published Howl & Other Poems
Howl
"Howl" is a poem written by Allen Ginsberg in 1955 and published as part of his 1956 collection of poetry titled Howl and Other Poems. The poem is considered to be one of the great works of the Beat Generation, along with Jack Kerouac's On the Road and William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch...
as number 4 in its City Lights Pocket Poets Series
City Lights Pocket Poets Series
The City Lights Pocket Poets Series is a series of poetry collections published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and City Lights Books of San Francisco since August 1955...
. Ferlinghetti and the bookstore manager, Shigeyoshi Murao, were arrested on an obscenity
Obscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
charge for publishing and selling the book.
Cody's Books
The now defunct Cody's BooksCody's Books
Cody's Books was an independent bookstore based in Berkeley, California. It "was a pioneer in bookselling, bringing the paperback revolution to Berkeley, fighting censorship, and providing a safe harbor from tear gas directed at anti-Vietnam War protesters throughout the 1960s and...
in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
opened in 1956 on Euclid Avenue in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
. It moved to a larger location on Telegraph Avenue
Telegraph Avenue
Telegraph Avenue is a street that begins, at its southernmost point, in the midst of the historic downtown district of Oakland, California, USA, and ends, at its northernmost point, at the southern edge of the University of California campus in Berkeley, California...
in 1967. In 1968, "Cody's served as a first-aid station [...] when anti-war protesters were teargassed and clubbed just outside its Telegraph Avenue doors [...] the store's employees were tending the wounded – anti-war protesters teargassed and clubbed by the police and the National Guard as protests broke out on Telegraph Avenue."
On February 28, 1989 unknown persons threw a firebomb
Firebomb
Firebomb may refer to:* Firebombing* Incendiary device* Molotov cocktail* A season 2 episode of the television show Alias* "Fire Bomb", a song by Rihanna from her 2009 album Rated R...
at the store in response to the prominent display of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses
The Satanic Verses
The Satanic Verses is Salman Rushdie's fourth novel, first published in 1988 and inspired in part by the life of Prophet Muhammad. As with his previous books, Rushdie used magical realism and relied on contemporary events and people to create his characters...
which had a fatwa
Fatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
placed against it by Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian clerics one month prior. In response the owners and staff unanimously voted to keep the book on display despite the attack and the increasing willingness of chain book-stores to bow to pressure to withdraw it.
Gotham Book Mart
The now defunct Gotham Book MartGotham Book Mart
The Gotham Book Mart, in operation from 1920 to 2007, was a famous midtown Manhattan bookstore and cultural landmark. The business was located first in a small basement space on West 45th Street near the Theater District, it then moved to 51 West 47th Street, then spent many years at 41 West 47th...
of New York City often sold banned books during its early history, notably Henry Miller
Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller was an American novelist and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is...
's "Tropic of Cancer
Tropic of Cancer (novel)
Tropic of Cancer is a novel by Henry Miller which has been described as "notorious for its candid sexuality" and as responsible for the "free speech that we now take for granted in literature." It was first published in 1934 by the Obelisk Press in Paris, France, but this edition was banned in the...
" and D. H. Lawrence
D. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation...
's "Lady Chatterley's Lover
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Lady Chatterley's Lover is a novel by D. H. Lawrence, first published in 1928. The first edition was printed privately in Florence, Italy with assistance from Pino Orioli; it could not be published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960...
. The store was notably frequented by many influential authors, artists and other celebrities over its history, and was the meeting place for the Finnegan's Wake Society and the James Joyce Society. Allen Ginsberg used to be one of the store's clerks for a time. The store's lengthy struggles to remain viable in latter years as Manhattan rents increased and competition from both internet bookstores and large-chain bookstores impacted it has been well documented. The store's history dramatically concluded with its inventory being seized by the City Marshall for failure to pay rent, and then the estimated $3 million in inventory was auctioned off in one single lot to the landlords for $400,000 to the protest of other bookmen and collectors present.
Kepler's Books
Kepler's BooksKepler's Books
Kepler's Books and Magazines is an independent bookstore in Menlo Park, California. It was founded on May 14, 1955 by Roy Kepler, who had previously been a staff member of the Berkeley listener-supported radio station KPFA...
in Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City...
was founded on May 14, 1955 by Roy Kepler. The store "soon blossomed into a cultural epicenter and attracted loyal customers from the students and faculty of Stanford University and from other members of the surrounding communities who were interested in serious books and ideas." The Palo Alto Weekly notes that, "Through the 60s and 70s, the culture of Kepler's began to evolve into a broader counter-culture. Beat intellectuals and pacifists were joined by 'people who worked for Whole Earth
Whole Earth Catalog
The Whole Earth Catalog was an American counterculture catalog published by Stewart Brand between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998...
, hippies into the rock and roll and recreational drug scene, politicos, and people with an interest in ethnic groups.'"
The Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
gave live shows at Kepler's early in their career. As noted in a 2005 article, "folk singer Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
, members of the Grateful Dead, and many local leaders remember sharing ideas, political action, music, and danger in the cramped store." Kepler's also features prominently in John Markoff
John Markoff
John Markoff is a journalist best known for his work at The New York Times, and a book and series of articles about the 1990s pursuit and capture of hacker Kevin Mitnick.- Biography :...
's 2005 text, What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry
What the Dormouse Said
What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry, is a 2005 non-fiction book by John Markoff. The book details the history of the personal computer, closely tying the ideologies of the Collaboration-driven, World War II-era defense research community to...
.
Printers Inc.
The now defunct Printers Inc. BookstorePrinters Inc. Bookstore
Printers Inc. Bookstore was an independent bookstore in Palo Alto, California, not far from Stanford University.-The Golden Gate:Printers Inc is mentioned in the novel, The Golden Gate. The novel follows the lives of a group of yuppies in San Francisco...
in Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
is mentioned in the novel, The Golden Gate. The novel follows the lives of a group of yuppie
Yuppie
Yuppie is a term that refers to a member of the upper middle class or upper class in their 20s or 30s. It first came into use in the early-1980s and largely faded from American popular culture in the late-1980s, due to the 1987 stock market crash and the early 1990s recession...
s in San Francisco (author Vikram Seth
Vikram Seth
Vikram Seth is an Indian poet, novelist, travel writer, librettist, children's writer, biographer and memoirist.-Early life:Vikram Seth was born on 20 June 1952 to Leila and Prem Seth in Calcutta...
based the work on his experiences as a graduate student in Economics at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
). The Printer's Inc Cafe is referenced in section 8.13 ("Should we walk down to Printers Inc, and get some coffee? [...] brownies, muffins, fudge, cake, toffee-most of the stuff's so good it hurts") and the Printers Inc Bookstore is referenced in section 8.14 ("The enchanted bookstore, vast, retangular [...] skilled extractor of my last dime on print or drink, mini-montmartre, Printers Inc!")
Shakespeare and Company
Shakespeare and Company (bookshop)Shakespeare and Company (bookshop)
Shakespeare and Company is the name of two independent bookstores on Paris' Left Bank. The first was opened by Sylvia Beach on 17 November 1919 at 8 rue Dupuytren before moving to larger premises at 12 rue de l'Odéon in the 6th arrondissement in 1922. During the 1920s, it was a gathering place for...
in Paris during the Sylvia Beach
Sylvia Beach
Sylvia Beach , born Nancy Woodbridge Beach, was an American-born bookseller and publisher who lived most of her life in Paris, where she was one of the leading expatriate figures between World War I and II.-Early life:...
period in the 1920s was often visited by authors belonging to the "lost generation
Lost Generation
The "Lost Generation" is a term used to refer to the generation, actually a cohort, that came of age during World War I. The term was popularized by Ernest Hemingway who used it as one of two contrasting epigraphs for his novel, The Sun Also Rises. In that volume Hemingway credits the phrase to...
" such as Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
, Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
, F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
, Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
and James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
. It was Sylvia Beach
Sylvia Beach
Sylvia Beach , born Nancy Woodbridge Beach, was an American-born bookseller and publisher who lived most of her life in Paris, where she was one of the leading expatriate figures between World War I and II.-Early life:...
who first published Joyce's book, Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
, in 1922 through Shakespeare and Company. The store was also referenced in Hemingway's A Moveable Feast
A Moveable Feast
A Moveable Feast is a set of memoirs by American author Ernest Hemingway about his years in Paris as part of the American expatriate circle of writers in the 1920s. The book describes Hemingway's apprenticeship as a young writer in Europe during the 1920s with his first wife, Hadley...
.
The Book Man
Compared in a recent article on Canadian Broadcasting CorporationCanadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
as "The Mirror Image to City Lights" The Book Man
The Book Man
The Book Man consists of two secondhand bookstores. The original store is in Chilliwack, British Columbia measuring over , and is noted as the second largest used bookstore in the province. It is located at 45939 Wellington Avenue. Their second branch is located in Abbotsford, British Columbia...
is currently the second largest used bookstore
Used bookstore
Used bookstores buy and sell used and out-of-print books. A range of titles are available in used bookstores, including in print and out of print books. Book collectors tend to frequent used book stores. Large online bookstores offer used books for sale, too...
in the province of British Columbia, and is located in Chilliwack, British Columbia
Chilliwack, British Columbia
Chilliwack is a Canadian city in the Province of British Columbia. It is a predominantly agricultural community with an estimated population of 80,000 people. Chilliwack is the second largest city in the Fraser Valley Regional District after Abbotsford. The city is surrounded by mountains and...
. The Book Man
The Book Man
The Book Man consists of two secondhand bookstores. The original store is in Chilliwack, British Columbia measuring over , and is noted as the second largest used bookstore in the province. It is located at 45939 Wellington Avenue. Their second branch is located in Abbotsford, British Columbia...
was founded in 1990, and is currently owned and managed by David Short
David Short
David Short was an English cricketer. He was a right-handed batsman and a right-arm offbreak bowler who played for Derbyshire....
and Amber Short. W. P. Kinsella
W. P. Kinsella
William Patrick Kinsella, OC, OBC is a Canadian novelist and short story writer who is well-known for his novel Shoeless Joe , which was adapted into the movie Field of Dreams in 1989...
is a long time customer. Other customers include Arthur Black (humorist)
Arthur Black (humorist)
Arthur Black is a Canadian humorist and radio personality, best known as the longtime host of Basic Black on CBC Radio...
, Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer known for his award-winning Mars trilogy. His work delves into ecological and sociological themes regularly, and many of his novels appear to be the direct result of his own scientific fascinations, such as the fifteen years of research...
, Canadian poet/author Dennis Lee (author)
Dennis Lee (author)
Dennis Beynon Lee, OC, MA is a Canadian poet, teacher, editor, and critic born in Toronto, Ontario. He is also a children's writer, well known for his book of children's rhymes, Alligator Pie.-Life:...
, John Ralston Saul
John Ralston Saul
John Ralston Saul, CC is a Canadian author, essayist, and President of International PEN.As an essayist, Saul is particularly known for his commentaries on the nature of individualism, citizenship and the public good; the failures of manager-, or more precisely technocrat-, led societies; the...
, Matt Hughes (writer)
Matt Hughes (writer)
Matthew Hughes is a British-born Canadian author who now lives wherever his secondary career as a housesitter takes him, while continuing to write science fiction under the name Matthew Hughes, crime fiction as Matt Hughes and media tie-ins as Hugh Matthews...
, Simma Holt
Simma Holt
Simma Holt, is a Canadian journalist, author, and a former member of the Canadian House of Commons.Born in Vegreville, Alberta, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1944 from the University of Manitoba. That same year she joined The Vancouver Sun as a reporter, feature writer, and columnist...
, Bill Blass (designer), politician Chuck Strahl
Chuck Strahl
Charles Strahl, PC, MP was a politician in British Columbia, Canada. He was a Member of Parliament in the governing Conservative Party of Canada.-Before politics:...
and Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia
Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia
The Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia is the viceregal representative in British Columbia of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who operates distinctly within the province but is also shared with equally the ten other jurisdictions of Canada and resides predominantly in her oldest...
Steven Point
Steven Point
Steven Lewis Point, is the 28th and current Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia.From 1975 to 1999, Steven Point served as Chief of the Skowkale First Nation...
and author Marianne Williamson
Marianne Williamson
Marianne Williamson is a spiritual activist, author, lecturer and founder of The Peace Alliance, a grass roots campaign supporting legislation currently before Congress to establish a United States Department of Peace. She is also the founder of Project Angel Food, a meals-on-wheels program that...
Financial struggles and notable closures
Since the rise of big chains and online booksellers, independent bookstores have been under considerable financial pressure and many have closed due to their inability to compete. This phenomenon is reflected in the 1998 film You've Got MailYou've Got Mail
You've Got Mail is a 1998 American romantic comedy film directed by Nora Ephron, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. It was written by Nora and Delia Ephron based on the play Parfumerie by Miklós László. The film is about two letter-writing lovers who are completely unaware that their sweetheart is in...
(starring Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...
and Meg Ryan
Meg Ryan
Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra , professionally known as Meg Ryan, is an American actress and producer. Raised in Bethel, Connecticut, Ryan began her acting career in 1981 in minor roles, before joining the cast of the CBS soap opera As the World Turns in 1982...
), which explores the difficulties faced by an independent bookseller competing with a large corporate bookstore.
Notable closures include Kroch's and Brentano's(1995) in Chicago, Gotham Book Mart
Gotham Book Mart
The Gotham Book Mart, in operation from 1920 to 2007, was a famous midtown Manhattan bookstore and cultural landmark. The business was located first in a small basement space on West 45th Street near the Theater District, it then moved to 51 West 47th Street, then spent many years at 41 West 47th...
(2006) in New York, Cody's Books
Cody's Books
Cody's Books was an independent bookstore based in Berkeley, California. It "was a pioneer in bookselling, bringing the paperback revolution to Berkeley, fighting censorship, and providing a safe harbor from tear gas directed at anti-Vietnam War protesters throughout the 1960s and...
(2008) in Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, Printers Inc. Bookstore
Printers Inc. Bookstore
Printers Inc. Bookstore was an independent bookstore in Palo Alto, California, not far from Stanford University.-The Golden Gate:Printers Inc is mentioned in the novel, The Golden Gate. The novel follows the lives of a group of yuppies in San Francisco...
(2001) in Palo Alto, A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books (2006) in San Francisco, Midnight Special (2004) in Santa Monica
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
, Dutton’s Brentwood Books (2008) in Los Angeles, Coliseum Books
Coliseum Books
Coliseum Books was an independent bookstore that opened in 1974 on the northwest corner of 57th Street and Broadway, near Columbus Circle in the Manhattan borough of New York City...
(2007) in New York City and Wordsworth Books (2004) in Cambridge, MA,.
In some cases, the community became involved and prevented an independent bookstore from closing. A notable example is Kepler's Books
Kepler's Books
Kepler's Books and Magazines is an independent bookstore in Menlo Park, California. It was founded on May 14, 1955 by Roy Kepler, who had previously been a staff member of the Berkeley listener-supported radio station KPFA...
in Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City...
. Kepler's closed its doors on August 31, 2005. The local community held demonstrations to protest the closing. Kepler's subsequently re-opened in October 2005 with community investments, volunteers and donations. A similar attempt was made with Printers Inc. Bookstore
Printers Inc. Bookstore
Printers Inc. Bookstore was an independent bookstore in Palo Alto, California, not far from Stanford University.-The Golden Gate:Printers Inc is mentioned in the novel, The Golden Gate. The novel follows the lives of a group of yuppies in San Francisco...
in 1998. In December, Printers Inc. announced that it would be closing. The local community protested the closing and in March 1999 Printers Inc. found new management. This management only lasted a few years, however, and in 2001 Printers Inc. Bookstore closed for good.
The 2008 documentary Paperback Dreams
Paperback Dreams
Paperback Dreams is a documentary film directed by Alex Beckstead. It is part of the KQED documentary film series, Truly CA. The film is "the story of two landmark independent bookstores and their struggle to survive...
is "the story of two landmark independent bookstores and their struggle to survive. The film follows Andy Ross, owner of Cody's Books
Cody's Books
Cody's Books was an independent bookstore based in Berkeley, California. It "was a pioneer in bookselling, bringing the paperback revolution to Berkeley, fighting censorship, and providing a safe harbor from tear gas directed at anti-Vietnam War protesters throughout the 1960s and...
, and Clark Kepler, owner of Kepler's Books
Kepler's Books
Kepler's Books and Magazines is an independent bookstore in Menlo Park, California. It was founded on May 14, 1955 by Roy Kepler, who had previously been a staff member of the Berkeley listener-supported radio station KPFA...
, over the course of two tumultuous years in the book business." http://paperbackdreams.com/index.php/about/the-film/
As independent brick and mortar bookstores have closed, more independent booksellers have turned to selling on the internet. The Independent Online Booksellers Association
Independent Online Booksellers Association
Independent Online Booksellers Association is a trade association of independent used and rare booksellers who sell online.-History:IOBA was founded in 1999 by a group of independent booksellers to address the special opportunities and challenges of the emerging online book selling market...
is an international non-profit trade association promoting their interests.
Bookstore tourism
Bookstore tourism
Bookstore tourism is a type of cultural tourism that promotes independent bookstores as a group travel destination. It started as a grassroots effort to support locally owned and operated bookshops, many of which have struggled to compete with large bookstore chains and online retailers.The...
(2003– ) is a type of cultural tourism
Cultural tourism
Cultural tourism is the subset of tourism concerned with a country or region's culture, specifically the lifestyle of the people in those geographical areas, the history of those peoples, their art, architecture, religion, and other elements that helped shape their way of life...
that promotes independent bookstores as a group travel destination. It started as a grassroots
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
effort to support locally owned and operated bookshops, many of which have struggled to compete with large bookstore chains and online retailers. The project was initiated by Larry Portzline, a writer and college instructor in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Harrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 49,528, making it the ninth largest city in Pennsylvania...
who led "bookstore road trips" to other cities and recognized its potential as a group travel niche and marketing tool.
In 2007, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
argued that the Pioneer Valley
Pioneer Valley
The Pioneer Valley is the colloquial name for the U.S. Commonwealth of Massachusetts's portion of the Connecticut River Valley. The Pioneer Valley consists of three counties in Massachusetts which collectively feature much of New England's most fertile farmland...
in Western Massachusetts
Western Massachusetts
Western Massachusetts is a loosely defined geographical region of the U.S. state of Massachusetts which contains the Berkshires, the Pioneer Valley, and some or all of the Swift River Valley. The region is always considered to include Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden counties, and the...
, is the " most author-saturated, book-cherishing, literature-celebrating place in" the United States. In particular, it discussed three bookshops in the region, Amherst Books in Amherst, Massachusetts
Amherst, Massachusetts
Amherst is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 37,819, making it the largest community in Hampshire County . The town is home to Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts...
, Broadside Bookshop in Northampton, Massachusetts
Northampton, Massachusetts
The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of Northampton's central neighborhoods, was 28,549...
, and The Odyssey Bookshop
The Odyssey Bookshop
The Odyssey Bookshop is an independent bookstore in South Hadley, Massachusetts. In 2001, The Odyssey became the official bookstore for Mount Holyoke College....
in South Hadley, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
.
In 2008, USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
listed nine top bookstore travel destinations in the United States as: Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida
Coral Gables, Florida
Coral Gables is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, southwest of Downtown Miami, in the United States. The city is home to the University of Miami....
, City Lights Books in San Francisco, The Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C., Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, Prairie Lights
Prairie lights
Prairie Lights is an independent bookstore in downtown Iowa City, Iowa, founded in 1978, by Jim Harris.-History:The store's original location was a space on South Linn Street...
in Iowa City, Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, State of Iowa. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total population of about 67,862, making it the sixth-largest city in the state. Iowa City is the county seat of Johnson County and home to the University of Iowa...
, Tattered Cover
Tattered Cover
The Tattered Cover is a bookstore in Denver, Colorado, and one of the largest independent bookstores in the United States.- History :It opened in 1971 in the Cherry Creek district of Denver, as a small . bookshop. It was purchased in 1974 by Joyce Meskis...
in Denver, Colorado, That Bookstore in Blytheville in Blytheville, Arkansas
Blytheville, Arkansas
Blytheville is the largest city in and one of the two county seats of Mississippi County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 15,620 at the 2010 census....
, and the Strand Book Store
Strand Book Store
The Strand Bookstore is an independent bookstore located at 828 Broadway at the corner of East 12th St) in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, near Union Square...
in New York City.
External links
- American Bookseller's Association – a non-profit group which represents independent bookstores
- The Association of Booksellers for Children – a non-profit trade association of independent children's booksellers
- Bookstore Guide – a non-profit site which lists independent bookstores throughout Europe
- The Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA) – a non-profit international trade association of independent internet booksellers]
- The Independent Online Booksellers in Persian language:فروشگاه کتاب ,خرید کتاب