Bookstore: The Life and Times of Jeannette Watson and Books & CoFor twenty years, from 1977 to 1997, Books & Co. was one of the premier independent bookstores in the country. Stocking a wide range of quality fiction and nonfiction, Books & Co. was the kind of bookstore writers and readers dream about: a place where reading was an adventure, where interesting works would always be available, where writers would congregate to share ideas and discuss their writing. Its closing, in a rent dispute with the Whitney Museum of Art, caused a media sensation as readers and book lovers decried the end of a cultural icon. In Bookstore, Lynne Tillman tells the story of this legendary store and its determined founder, Jeannette Watson, with help from the voices of Brendan Gill, Roy Blount Jr., Fran Lebowitz, Calvin Trillin, Susan Sontag, Paul Auster, Simon Schama, Lyn Chase, Susan Cheever, Leila Hadley, J.D. McClatchy, Richard Howard, and many more. And the story goes beyond the walls of the store itself to explore the state of publishing and bookselling in a time when the very landscape of the book world has shifted radically. A fascinating account of business, books, and writerly aspiration, Bookstore is a vital window into a world so many have fantasized about. |
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ALBERT MURRAY Alex ALEXANDER SANGER ALEXANDRA ANDERSON-SPIVY AMY HEMPEL ANDREW BERGEN ANN LAUTERBACH April asked became Books & Co booksellers bought Brendan Gill Burt buyer called copies cultural customers DAVID editor everything Farrar father feel felt fiction FRAN LEBOWITZ friends going Houghton Mifflin independent bookstores interested introduced James Merrill JANE STANTON HITCHCOCK Jeannette Watson Jeannette's John JONATHAN kids kind knew Knopf literary lived look Madison Avenue March MICHAEL mother never night novel party PAUL AUSTER person PETER PHILBROOK Poems poetry Poets Press published Random House reader remember ROY BLOUNT JR Sept signed sold sort started STEVEN VARNI story Straus & Giroux Susan Cheever SUSAN SONTAG talk tell THEODORE WILENTZ there's things thought told upstairs VARNI Viking walk wanted Whitney Museum William window woman wonderful writers wrote York