The Strand, the last of Bookseller's Row

Did you know the Lower East Side of Manhattan used to be a Mecca for book-lovers? Today it still has some of the best bookstores in the city.

For more than 80 years, from the 1890s through the 1970s, the Lower East Side was home to the legendary Booksellers Row, which ran along Fourth Avenue and spilled over into the side streets from Union Square to Astor Place. Specializing in used and rare books, the shops had narrow aisles, filled from floor to ceiling with dusty volumes. Tables out front were stacked high with more books, attracting bohemian teenagers, students, the merely curious and owlish old men who passed the afternoons browsing through yellowed copies of everything from classics like “Treasure Island” and “Leaves of Grass,” to obscure volumes about subjects such as the history of medical research about the digestive track.

By 1945 there were 350 independent bookstores in New York—about 50 of them on Fourth Avenue and the surrounding streets. In the 50s and 60s, their numbers began to shrink. When I lived in the Village during the 70s, only a handful of the old Booksellers Row shops were left.

Still I spent many happy hours leafing through their wonderful and peculiar books. You never knew what you were going to find—maybe a signed first edition of “The Selected Poems of Dylan Thomas” or Hart Crane’s “The Bridge,” or a queer little book about secret hoodoo priests of the Old South.  The serendipity of the experience was part of the thrill. And for me, it was sustained by the story of my Great Uncle Maurice, a painter who’d haunted the shops. Once, he found, tucked into a mildewed tome about the old masters, an original etching by Rembrandt. You never know, I always told myself, it could happen again—to me!

Besides the book treasures you could meet wonderful characters in those dusty places: poets, philosophers, tellers of tall tales, unemployed scientists and history buffs.  At the back of one shop, I once met an ancient man dressed in tweeds, who claimed he’d invented more important machines than Thomas Edison but had been swindled out of the patents. My friend, who worked at the Strand, met a beautiful girl there who spent hours every day jitterbugging to an imaginary soundtrack in the bookstore’s basement. She said her father was a famous phenomenologist…and that she herself was nothing more than a phenomenon.

Today there are only about 50 independent bookstores left in all of Manhattan and probably a couple dozen in the boroughs. But—of the shops that exist today—quite a few are wonderful. And, if there are not quite so many eccentrics lurking in the aisles, there are still enough to people more than a few modern-day Dickensian novels.

Below are descriptions of five amazing, eccentric bookstores you can find on the Lower East Side.

The Strand – 828 Broadway (at 12th St.) - 212-473-1452

The last surviving store from Booksellers Row, the Strand has been in operation since 1927. Founded by Ben Bass and named after London’s famous publishing street, the huge Strand is now owned by Ben’s son Fred and granddaughter Nancy. On weekdays Fred can be found at the “buying desk” in the center of the main floor, purchasing used books while Nancy works behind the scenes. The store is staffed by a large cast of book-lovers, all of whom have had to pass a literary test in order to work there.

According to Fred, the Strand now has “18 miles of books”—including those at their Central Park Kiosk, at Fifth Avenue and 60th street. They maintain one of the largest collections of used, rare and out-of-print books in the world and also carry many new ones at deep discounts. The Strand’s most impressive collection is their vast assortment of art books. I have sometimes found obscure, out-of-print volumes that were available nowhere else. If the Strand doesn’t have the book you’re looking for, you can put in an order for it, and they’ll contact you as soon as they spot it.

Insider tip:  The third floor Rare Book Room has collectibles in all price ranges—from $15 for some first editions of contemporary books to $45,000 for a rare copy of James Joyce’s “Ulysses.”

St. Mark’s Bookshop – 31 Third Avenue  –  212-260-7853

Since 1977 St. Mark’s Bookshop has been a literary landmark on the Lower East Side. Located around the corner from St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery—home of the Poetry Project—the bookshop has a superb assortment of poetry books and chapbooks from small presses. They also carry over 2,200 journals and periodicals from around the world. The bookshop’s film studies and cultural theory sections are especially strong, as is its impressive collection of hard-to-find graphic design books.

Over the years, as some of New York’s most serious literary bookstores—like the Gotham Book Mart and the Eighth Street Bookshop—have closed, St. Mark’s Bookshop has become one of the only remaining stores that stocks a truly impressive array of literature. Owners Bob Contant and Terry McCoy have created a little community in their store. And it’s open until midnight, seven days a week, making it the perfect hangout after other evening activities.

Insider tip: St. Mark’s Bookshop now sponsors readings of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, every second Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Solas, the bar around the corner: 232 E. 9th Street (between Third and Second Avenues). Junot Díaz, author of “The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” read there recently. New York performance poet Anne Waldman is coming on February 5th.

Bluestockings – 172 Allen Street (btw. Stanton & Rivington) – 212-777-6028

Bluestockings is a radical bookstore in every sense of the word. On its shelves you’ll find books, magazines and journals covering every sort of political and cultural theory from anarchism and feminism to erotic and queer studies. They have a big “social movements” collection and a large selection of independently-published fiction, erotica and graphic novels. Bluestockings runs a free-trade café on the premises that serves organic, vegan treats. And it hosts events almost every night, including readings, workshops, performances, films and discussions.

But the most unusual thing about Bluestockings is the fact that it’s owned by a five-person workers’ collective and staffed by more than 60 volunteers. Many of these folks are deeply involved in social movements and can give detailed reviews of the books, journals and other products for sale.

Insider tip: Not many businesses these days advertise that the public can use their bathrooms “guilt free—even if you don’t buy anything.” But Bluestockings is one of them.  It’s open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. 360 days a year. So, if you’re on the Lower East Side and suddenly you’ve gotta go, Bluestockings is the place to head for.

East Village Books – 99 St. Mark’s Place (btw. Ave. A & First) – 212-477-8647

Half a block from Tompkins Square Park and down a flight of steps is East Village Books, a small, neighborhoody place, guaranteed never to intimidate with pretensions or pomposity. You’ll find great prices on a random assortment of titles—some gently used bestsellers, some science fiction, literature, art books, scholarly books and lit crit classics, as well as music, DVDs and various knicknacks. The shop has been around since 1994 but has the aura of an establishment dating back several more decades. Owner Donald Davis sometimes puts 60s rock posters in the window and has been known to carry 70s and 80s rock memorabilia.

Insider tip: Davis has three copies of outré photographer Helmut Newton’s giant book, “Sumo,” which he has unbound. The poster-size photos are on sale for $100 each. That’s to compensate for the $3 paperback copies of the collected poems of John Donne and other great, evidently!

Mercer Street Books & Records - 206 Mercer Street (btw. Bleecker and Houston) – 212-505-8615

Wayne Conti opened this unassuming second hand bookshop in a red brick building not far from the Angelika Film Center,18 years ago. He’s built up a nice collection of fiction, literary anthologies, screenplays, books on writing, urban planning, political science and books in the French language. The art, architecture and photography sections are well developed, and there’s an assortment of graphic novels. What doesn’t fit on the packed shelves overflows into plastic milk cartons that line the floor. Besides the books, Mercer sells vinyl LPs. A revolving rack of black and white postcards provides nostalgic glimpses of a long-gone New York and a bulletin board near the door advertises community events.

Insider tip: If this shop looks vaguely familiar the first time you step inside, there’s probably a good reason for that. Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant shot a scene from “Music and Lyrics” (2007) here.

For other articles in this series about the independent bookstores of Manhattan, click on the following links:

Celebrate Obama's eloquence: celebrate your community bookstores: Upper West Side bookshops 1-20-09

Link to:  Independent Booksellers of New York City

Other articles about books:

A Child's Christmas in Wales: searching for Dylan in New York 12-22-09

Bob Dylan and Thomas Hardy--secret soul mates? 12-11-09

By Mona Molarsky © 2009