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September 3, 2024 by

The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore

The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore

$30.00

Categories: History, Nonfiction
  • Description

Description

The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss

An affectionate and engaging history of the American bookstore and its central place in American cultural life, from department stores to indies, from highbrow dealers trading in first editions to sidewalk vendors, and from chains to special-interest community destinations

Bookstores have always been unlike any other kind of store, shaping readers and writers, and influencing our tastes, thoughts, and politics. They nurture local communities while creating new ones of their own. Bookshops are powerful spaces, but they are also endangered ones. In The Bookshop, we see those stakes: what has been, and what might be lost.

Evan Friss’s history of the bookshop draws on oral histories, archival collections, municipal records, diaries, letters, and interviews with leading booksellers to offer a fascinating look at this institution beloved by so many. The story begins with Benjamin Franklin’s first bookstore in Philadelphia and takes us to a range of booksellers including The Strand, Chicago’s Marshall Field & Company, Gotham Book Mart, specialty stores like Oscar Wilde and Drum and Spear, sidewalk sellers of used books, Barnes & Noble, Amazon Books, and Parnassus. The Bookshop is also a history of the leading figures in American bookselling, often impassioned eccentrics, and a history of how books have been marketed and sold over more than two centuries—including, for example, a 3,000-pound elephant who appeared to sign books at Marshall Field’s in 1944.

The Bookshop is a love letter to bookstores, a charming chronicle for anyone who cherishes these sanctuaries of literature, and essential reading to understand how these vital institutions have shaped American life—and why we still need them.

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Bay Books offers a wider selection of both books and Ebooks through Book Shop. We are grateful for Book Shop’s diligent work to connect readers with independent booksellers.

Visit Book Shop through Bay Books. 

 

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July’s book club pick, Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. Join us July 8th at 5:30 pm.

 

All Aboard… for Murder?!
A Killer Evening Awaits at Bay Books
July 17th | 6:00 PM | Bay Books, Suttons Bay, MI

Calling all amateur sleuths, book lovers, and armchair detectives—Bay Books is pulling into the station with a night full of secrets, suspense, and shocking reveals.

 

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