The Bookshop

A History of the American Bookstore

By: Evan Friss

Narrated by: Jay Myers

Length: 8 hrs

Publisher's summary

"It is a delight to wander through the bookstores of American history in this warm, generous book."—Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author and owner of Books Are Magic

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 the 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, the 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 the course of more than two centuries—including, for example, a 3,000-pound elephant who signed 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 listening to understand how these vital institutions have shaped American life—and why we still need them.

©2024 Evan Friss (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Bookstores are such idiosyncratic expressions of the humans who run them, and it is a delight to wander through the bookstores of American history in this warm, generous book. I find myself in excellent company amongst the featured booksellers—all fully dedicated, driven by passion, and slightly mad. It's a wonderful business we're in.”—Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author and owner of Books Are Magic

“This bookseller read Evan Friss’s The Bookshop with the greatest delight. Friss’s history of the independent bookshop in the United states is very much like his subject—deeply authoritative, very personal, and very engaging.”—Paul Yamazaki, City Lights Bookseller and Publisher

“Is there anything better than a bookshop? Perhaps, just perhaps, a book about bookshops. This is what Evan Friss has given us, and like its subject, it is a portal to endless discovery. The histories and personalities, the challenges and pleasures, everything happening behind the scenes—all come alive in his marvelous account.”—Glenn Adamson, author of Craft: An American History