Book Row: An Anecdotal and Pictorial History of the Antiquarian Book Trade

by Marvin Mondlin, Marvin Modlin, Roy Meador

Book Overview

The American Story of the Bookstores on Fourth Avenue from the 1890s to the 1960s.

New York City has eight million stories, and this one unfolds just south of Fourteenth Street in Manhattan, on the seven blocks of Fourth Avenue bracketed by Union Square and Astor Place. There, for nearly eight decades from the 1890s to the 1960s, thrived the New York Booksellers' Row, or Book Row.

This richly anecdotal memoir features historical photographs and the rags-to-riches tale of the Strand, which began its life as a book stall on Eighth Street and today houses 2.5 million volumes (or sixteen miles of books) in twelve miles of space. It's a story cast with characters as legendary and colorful as the horse-betting, poker-playing, go-getter of a book dealer George D. Smith; the irascible Russian-born book hunter Peter Stammer; the visionary Theodore C. Schulte; Lou Cohen, founder of the still-surviving Argosy Book Store; and gentleman bookseller George Rubinowitz and his formidably shrewd wife, Jenny.

Book Row remembers places that all lovers of books should never forget, like Biblo & Tamen, the shop that defied book-banning laws; the Green Book Shop, favored by John Dickson Carr; Ellenor Lowenstein's world-renowned gastronomical Corner Book Shop (which was not on a corner); and the Abbey Bookshop, the last of the Fourth Avenue bookstores to close its doors.

Rising rents, street crime, urban redevelopment, and television are many of the reasons for the demise of Book Row, but in this volume, based on interviews with dozens of the people who bought, sold, collected, and breathed in its rare, bibliodiferous air, it lives again.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1510752552
• ISBN13: 9781510752559
• Release Date: October 2019
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
• Length: 456 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.9" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

New York Bibliomania.

This is a wonderful attempt to look at the century and a quarter of the world of Books,Bookstores,Booksellers,Book Buyers,Rare Book Collectors,Just Plain Avid Readers,The Normal as well as the Eccentric;but all Bibliophiles in one form or another; and what took place in Book Row of New York.What an amazing world it was, and a world that we are not likely to see again. While a street or section occupied by bookstores is not unique to New York,this was one of the most famous in the world. There still places where there are collections of bookstores,even some "Book Villages" that have a nostalgic ring to what Boor Row was,;but Book Row ,and all involved, was the real thing. Most of what is talked about in this book went on long before my time as an avid reader,but I can still appreciate what a thrill it must have been to be a regular visitor to this place. I think that the real value in reading this book is to see how greatly the whole experience of buying and selling of books,be they new,used,rare,expensive,cheap,or whatever;has changed so much and so quickly.About 25 or so years ago,when I seriously searched out books for my collection ,I visited literally hundreds of bookstores,particularly the Used & Rare ,and encountered a wide array of stores and sellers,and what a thrill to find a store that I had never been in;and find a new "treasure".Even when not finding anything,the bookseller and the store was still an experience. However;what I used to call "going book sailing" is nothing what it used to be and many of the stores I used to haunt are "gone with the wind".I guess for the same reasons as with Book Row. The rents kept rising,buildings were demolished for highrises and condos,the Booksellers became old and didn't change with the rapidly changing world of books,the newer sellers who entered the trade have become a totally different breed,the Internet has changed everything and made an unbelievably amount of books and information about books available to any Book Lover,regardless of where he lives or what means are at his disposal.So,one by one the conventional bookstores have just withered and faded away.The price of gas has also made it expensive to run around the country to various bookstores. The publishers are still churning out massive numbers of new titles ,reissues and books at such a rate that there are books everywhere,and at prices that vary all over the map;both for new and used books. For instance,many charities and university alumni groups have seen where they can obtain unlimited amounts of donations of books of every type and along with them lots of volunteers to sort,price and sell them to raise funds.These sales attract huge crowds,who make excellent finds. The curious thing is that a lot of the small time dealers are there scooping up books to sell on the Internet,at obviously much higher prices,and have become the buyers competitor rather than friend.In this book, the authors allude to the fact that many of the bo

A definitive and enthusiastically recommended history

In the last couple of decades of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th century, New York City was home to a series of legendary booksellers who did business on and around Fourth Street south of Fourteenth Street. It came to be called "Book Row" by dedicated bibliophiles and had its own very distinctive culture, aromas, and for the true book lover, an excitement that could not be duplicated in the same quantity, quality, or diversity in any other American city of the time. In Book Row: An Anecdotal And Pictorial History Of The Antiquarian Book Trade, authors Marvin Mondlin and Roy Meador have collaborated to provide a definitive and enthusiastically recommended history of the times and personalities that made Book Row the Mecca for book collectors in search of antiquarian treasures, as well as budget bookaholics looking for something interesting to read.

Bibliophiles

It is refreshing to read books written by bibliophiles who express a true appreciation for fine books. They are true literary aesthetes. I've never known scholars or even poets to express such a love of books. Reading "Book Row" has inspired me to acquire more of the classics in fine editions. I think the authors were a little too dismissive of the Internet which has been a tremendous help to me in finding rare books. I no longer have to settle for what I find on the shelves in bookstores with bad taste in books. I can always find exactly what I want to read. The Internet is the greatest bookman there ever was!

A loving chronicle of a more literate era

Reading Mondlin and Meador's descriptions of the long-gone used-book emporia that once graced Fourth Avenue in New York City both depressed and exhilarated me. Depressed, because I'll never have a chance to browse their musty aisles crowded with books. Exhilarated, because this volume successfully captures the thrill of browsing that I've experienced at the Strand bookstore (the sole Book Row survivor) and a few other stores. It's too bad the mindset of our culture has shifted to one in which an intelligent pleasure like browsing for good, cheap used books--in person, in a physical store--has been marginalized. Yes, Web bookbuying has its advantages, but still...I feel something precious has been lost.