Inspiring Older Readers

posted on 06 Jan 2019

My Years at The Gotham Book Mart with Frances Steloff, Proprietor by Matthew Tannenbaum

The mid-town Manhattan bookstore, The Gotham Book Mart, which was in business from 1920 – 2007,  was one of those venues that  transcended its role as a shop and became a cultural phenomenon – a twentieth century salon. There is something about bookshops that means they can act as the cultural heartbeat of a community – but it can’t be manufactured and there’s no science to explain why this happens with some places and not others.

One element that seems quintessential to the development of such legendary venues is the character and outlook of the owner. The emergence of The Gotham Book Mart as a literary hub certainly rests on the nature of its owner, Frances Steloff and her husband, David Moss who came up with the iconic shop sign with the unforgettable motto ‘Wise men fish here’. It was Steloff however who stamped her personality on the shop – she created the sense of a literary refuge for avant-garde authors, insisted on distributing books other shops were nervous about ( Lady Chatterley, Ulysses, Tropic of Cancer, Delta of Venus etc. etc.) and provided rooms for any number of literary groups to meet.

It seems that the ownership of the building in which the bookstore was located was a complicated thing. Steloff initially purchased the building from Columbia University and later sold it to Andreas Brown who retained an option on it, which he exercised in the late 1980s. Despite this, Steloff remained the moving spirit and continued living in the upstairs rooms, coming down into the shop every day well into her late 80s. In 2001 Brown sold the original building and moved to another venue, opening again with a slightly changed name, The Gotham Book Mart and Gallery, which couldn’t withstand the commercial pressures that pressed in around the new shop.

The literary, cultural and social important of the shop has not been entirely lost in the years after its closure in 2007. An archive has been lodged with the University of Pennsylvania who introduce their site in this way:

“The Gotham Book Mart (1920-2007) was one of the most important bookstores of the 20th century. The entire contents of the store and its archive were donated to the University of Pennsylvania by Edmondo Schwartz and Leonard Lauder. This collection is now being cataloged by Penn Libraries at the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. This blog will mainly focus on the Gotham Book Mart's specialty: modern poetry and the independent presses that specialize in poetry.”   

Matthew Tannenbaum’s short booklet reflects on his time learning a trade at the Gotham Book Mart – the subtitle gives a clear indication of his intentions ‘Recollections about The Pantheon of Writers and Artists Who Passed Through Her Store and How I became a Bookman.’  It’s a subtitle that rather takes the pressure off a reviewer.

Tannenbaum has spent his whole life – 40 years - in the book trade and his shop, The Bookstore  in Lenox is celebrated in this article published in 2016. He is clearly a successful bookman but I can’t in all truth say he’s quite as outstanding as an author – his memoir feels a touch perfunctory in how it deals with lots of promising material and has then been clumsily edited. The booklet is published by Worthy Shorts and I can’t help but wonder whether a much longer manuscript has been chopped down to fit into the allocated 40 pages or so.

Tannenbaum started working in The Gotham Book Mart in 1971 and immediately came under the influence of Steloff:

“I met Miss Steloff the first day I came to work at the Gotham. She was 84 years old and although she didn’t own the place anymore she still came down to work every day.”

He is gauche and rather innocent in the ways of the book trade to begin with and finds himself literally stumbling over famous authors he doesn’t recognise – tripping over Salinger as the reclusive author sat on the floor in front of the bookshelves. He meets authors as diverse as Patti Smith and Tennessee Williams who  shook his hand, “only in response to my shaking his”.

As well as giving him a chance to spend his time meeting authors, Tannenbaum was also learning the tricks of the trade:

“She taught me practical things, as well. ‘Always bring the customer with you back to the shelf when he or she asks for a book which you don’t think you have in stock,’ she said. Then she lowered her glance and her voice, as if someone might overhear her secret. ‘Especially if you know you don’t have it. Your customer is bound to see something else along the way.’”

This little memoir will appeal most to anyone who has worked in a bookshop and now looks back fondly on those times when the books rather than the till dominated the shop. He does, despite all the shortcomings of the pamphlet, capture that moment when the pleasure of working with books becomes so vivid and intense and I’ll leave you with words that echo my own experience in the book trade:

“Was there ever a book boy happier? Was there ever a boy so young nobody else had ever had such luck as he?”

 

Terry Potter

January 2019

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