Gotham Book Mart

The store was opened January 1, 1920, by Frances Steloff. Steloff's husband, David Moss, suggested both the store's name and its "Wise Men ..." motto, which was inspired by Washington Irving. Steloff nurtured the store as a literary sanctuary for the avant-garde, distributing copies of the banned Lady Chatterley's Lover, Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, and safeguarded Anais Nin's books when she fled Paris. Under Steloff's oversight, the store became a meeting place for the literati and 20th century cultural icons, essentially serving as a literary salon.

In February 1947, the James Joyce Society was founded at the Gotham; John J. Slocum (a Joyce bibliographer) was its first president and Steloff its first treasurer. The first member was T. S. Eliot.{{Citation

| title = The James Joyce Society: History

| url = http://joycesociety.org/history.html

| access-date = 2008-10-27

| archive-date = 2008-10-28

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081028114612/http://joycesociety.org/history.html

| url-status = dead

}}

File:Frances Steloff 1978 ©Lynn Gilbert.jpg

The success of the store was partly due to Steloff's demanding nature and attention to quality, as well as business acumen. Steloff lived in an apartment above the store and later sold it in 1967 to book lover Andreas Brown. Upon selling the store to Brown, Steloff told him that he was not the owner, but the caretaker or custodian. Steloff continued working at the store as a consultant after selling it.{{Citation

| last = Mitgang

| first = Herbert|author-link=Herbert Mitgang

| title = Frances Steloff Is Dead at 101; Founded the Gotham Book Mart

| newspaper = The New York Times

| date = April 16, 1989

| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE2DD113DF935A25757C0A96F948260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

}}{{Citation

| last = Mitgang

| first = Herbert

| title = Frances Steloff Is Fondly Recalled By Patrons of Gotham Book Mart

| newspaper = The New York Times

| date = May 23, 1989

| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE3DD153DF930A15756C0A96F948260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

}}

Arthur Miller said that the store was an invaluable source of books "... for research of all kinds, and perhaps above all for literature that is more than a few months old. It's impossible to imagine New York City without it."{{Citation

| last = Mitgang

| first = Herbert

| title = Doyenne of Booksellers Is 100

| newspaper = The New York Times

| date = December 30, 1987

| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE1D6113BF933A05751C1A961948260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

}} The director Woody Allen, a frequent customer of film books at the shop, referred to it as "everyone's fantasy of what the ideal bookshop is."{{Citation

| last = Gussow

| first = Mel|author-link=Herbert Mitgang

| title = Literary Fishing Hole Gets a For-Sale Sign; Bookshop Seeking Less Chaotic Home

| newspaper = The New York Times

| date = July 24, 2001

| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05E4DC113AF937A15754C0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

}}

After Steloff died in 1989 at age 101, Brown moved into the apartment above the shop, living there until later selling the building.{{Cite web |url=https://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090112/lf_nm_life/us_books_gotham;_ylt=AgdZkUs4.3hce4vtN8uX0kp34T0D |title="Gotham Book Mart Collection Bought by University of Pennsylvania" Yahoo News, January 12, 2009 |access-date=January 14, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114004730/http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090112/lf_nm_life/us_books_gotham |archive-date=January 14, 2009 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}

The shop was full of photos of the authors and other notable figures who frequented it, as well as signage and other visual puns that were full of literary humor and references, such as the names of Steloff's and Brown's cats: Thornton (Wilder), Christopher (Morley), Mitchell (Kennerley), and (Thomas) Pynchon.{{Citation

| last = Sheehan

| first = Susan|author-link=Susan Sheehan

| title = Nine Lives Dept.: Bookstore Cat

| newspaper = The New Yorker

| date = May 13, 2002

| url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2002/05/13/020513ta_talk_sheehan

}} A great deal of the shop's inventory was in storage unavailable to the general public, as the proprietors obtained stock from literary estates, general overflow stock, and other books set aside for future sale after appreciating. Brown sometimes referred to book storage cellars as "the catacombs".{{Citation

| last = Cohen

| first = Roger

| title = Books: What's Best and Where; In the Stores, A Whole World For the Browsing

| newspaper = The New York Times

| date = December 21, 1990

| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE5DD153CF932A15751C1A966958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2

}}

The Gotham was credited for promoting and building the success and career of author/artist Edward Gorey. Gorey and Brown became friends, so the store favored Gorey after Brown assumed ownership. The store became the commercial flagship of Gorey's works, selling his books, calendars, greeting cards, T-shirts, and other products. The store published 15 of Gorey's books and the store gallery hosted exhibitions of Gorey's illustrations, as well as public signings by the author.{{Citation

| last = Gussow

| first = Mel

| title = Edward Gorey, Artist and Author Who Turned the Macabre Into a Career, Dies at 75

| newspaper = The New York Times

| date = April 17, 2000

| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9500E1DE1431F934A25757C0A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

}} Brown was named as one of the coexecutors of Gorey's estate, after he died in 2000.{{Citation

| last = Gussow

| first = Mel

| title = Master of the Macabre, Both Prolific and Dead

| newspaper = The New York Times

| date = October 16, 2000

| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9404EED9113FF935A25753C1A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

}}{{Citation

| last = Rowe

| first = Peter

| title = Fame thrower: Andreas Brown, owner of the renowned Gotham Book Mart, tries to deflect attention

| newspaper = The San Diego Union-Tribune

| date = April 18, 2004

| url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040418/news_lz1c18brown.html

}}

The history of the store is covered in the documentary film, Frances Steloff: Memoirs of a Bookseller, directed in 1987 by Deborah Dickson.

The building at 41 West 47th Street that housed the Gotham Book Mart for the longest period of its existence was purchased by Steloff from Columbia University in 1946 for $65,000. Somewhere in between, after selling the store to Andreas Brown, Steloff donated the building to the American Friends of the Hebrew University Foundation with the proviso that they give Brown the option to later buy it back at $1,000,000. In 1987, Steloff filed suit to enforce the intended proviso, and the two parties apparently settled. In 1988, Andreas Brown bought the building back from them for $1,000,000 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=1000000|start_year=1988}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}).{{Citation

| last = McIntire

| first = Mike

| title = Veritable Gem of a Bookstore Sells a Venerable Home in the Diamond District

| newspaper = The New York Times

| date = July 22, 2003

| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9504E0DA163FF931A15754C0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

}}

In 1995, Joanne Carson (second wife of Johnny Carson) filed suit against Brown, alleging she had loaned him $640,000 in 1988 and 1991 to purchase and repair the building, and she wanted her money returned with interest. Carson had apparently become acquainted with Brown through their mutual friendship with Truman Capote. Brown and Carson met after Capote's death while Brown was appraising Capote's papers. In 1997, the suit was settled, with Brown agreeing to pay her back $1.4 million by February 28 of the year 2000.{{Citation

| last = Scott

| first = Janny

| title = A Day Into Trial, a Settlement To Save Gotham Book Mart

| newspaper = The New York Times

| date = May 13, 1997

| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02EEDE1E39F930A25756C0A961958260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

}}{{Citation

| last = Scott

| first = Janny

| title = An Auctioneer's Song For a Literary Haven?

| newspaper = The New York Times

| date = May 7, 1997

| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E1DB1130F934A35756C0A961958260

}}

In 2001, Brown put the five-story town house building up for sale with an asking price of $7.9 million (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=7900000|start_year=2001}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}). In 2003, the building was sold for $7.2 million (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=7200000|start_year=2003}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}) to Boris Aranov, who also owned another adjacent building.{{Citation

| last = Dunlap

| first = David|author-link=David W. Dunlap

| title = Column One: Literary Tenants

| newspaper = The New York Times

| date = February 9, 1987

| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE5DD1F3AF93AA35751C0A961948260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

}}

Brown reopened the store under a slightly new name, "The Gotham Book Mart & Gallery", in 2004 just a few blocks away at 16 East 46th Street in the store space previously occupied by the H. P. Kraus rare books store.{{Citation

| last = Gussow

| first = Mel

| title = Where Wise Men Fish? It's Moved Down a Block

| newspaper = The New York Times

| date = August 4, 2004

| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0CE4DA173CF937A3575BC0A9629C8B63

}} Leonard Lauder, a cosmetics industry billionaire and executive of Estée Lauder Companies, and Edmondo Schwartz, a real estate developer, arranged to buy the building for $5.2 million in order to assist the Gotham and Brown by leasing it back to him. In 2006, the store fell behind in its monthly $51,000 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US|value=51000|start_year=2006}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}) rent, and the landlords initiated eviction proceedings. A judge authorized the city marshal to seize the inventory.{{Citation

| last = Hartocollis

| first = Anemona

| title = Again, Gotham Book Mart Finds Itself in Need of Rescue

| newspaper = The New York Times

| date = September 19, 2006

| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/nyregion/19gotham.html

}}{{Citation

| last = Shapiro

| first = Gary

| title = Wise Men May Need a New Fishing Hole

| newspaper = The New York Sun

| date = September 18, 2006

| url=http://www.nysun.com/new-york/wise-men-may-need-a-new-fishing-hole/39811/

}}

There were various stories for why Brown fell behind in the rent. According to him, he had recently endured three hernia operations and was struggling to save the store from closing by inventorying the over $3 million worth of books and posting them on the internet. In the months since the move from the previous location, the staff appeared to have failed to get any of the inventory online. By other accounts, he may have lost momentum after the transition of selling and moving from the old building, and he may have invested too much in more book inventory. Other factors that could have been involved included the fact that Barnes & Noble opened a bookstore just around the corner from the Gotham, and also that general book-buying habits of consumers had shifted with the advent of the internet age.

The primary factors affecting the store appears to have been a combination of the rising rent for real estate in Manhattan, competition from book superstores, and Brown's mismanagement of the business—factors which influenced the closures of a number of other venerable bookstores during the same period.{{Citation

| last =Pasquarelli

| first =Adrianne

| title = Graveyard of indie retailers growing

| newspaper = Crain's New York Business

| date = October 22, 2008

| url=http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081022/FREE/810229969/1061/toc

}}

On May 22, 2007, the city auctioned off the store's inventory to a small crowd each of whom had put down a $1,000 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US|value=1000|start_year=2007}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}) deposit in order to attend. Attendees included book collectors and other book store owners. Ultimately, the estimated $3 million worth of inventory was all bought up in one large lot for a bid of only $400,000 by the representative of the landlords.{{Citation

| last = Wilensky-Lanford

| first = Ethan

| title = Wall-to-Wall Books, and All of Them for the Landlord

| newspaper = The New York Times

| date = May 23, 2007

| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/nyregion/23gotham.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

}}{{Citation

| last = Shuster

| first = Robbert

| title = The Gotham Book Mart's Final Chapter?

| newspaper = The Village Voice

| date = June 12, 2007

| url-status = dead

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090115211416/http://www.villagevoice.com/2007-06-12/books/the-gotham-book-mart-s-final-chapter/

| archive-date = January 15, 2009

| url=http://www.villagevoice.com/2007-06-12/books/the-gotham-book-mart-s-final-chapter/

}}

In late 2008, the University of Pennsylvania received over 200,000 items from the Gotham Book Mart's inventory as an anonymous gift. Penn will catalog the Gotham Book Mart Collection and make it available for teaching and research. Penn will also digitize materials from the Collection, and create public events such as lectures and exhibits based on its contents.{{Citation

| title = Penn Libraries Receive Gotham Book Mart Collection

| date = Dec 15, 2008

| url = http://www.library.upenn.edu/news/540

| access-date = January 30, 2015

| archive-date = December 14, 2017

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171214054523/http://www.library.upenn.edu/news/540

| url-status = dead

}}

In the spring of 2019, Penn Libraries displayed a collection of the Gotham Book Mart collection at the Kislak Center for Rare Books, Collections and Manuscripts. The exhibit, called "Wise Men Fish Here", contained 300 items and was hosted at the Van Pelt Library.{{Citation

| title=Treasures revealed

| date= Feb 27, 2019

| url=https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/treasures-revealed

}}

• New York Magazine's Best of New York: Independent Bookstore, 2000.

Many notable authors, celebrities, and major figures involved in publishing were customers of the store and friends with the owners and staff. The Nobel Prize committee in Stockholm was known to order copies of books from the Gotham when they were considering various authors for the prize.

Authors and celebrities who frequented and shopped at the store:{{Citation

| title = new york > shopping > second-hand: Gotham Book Mart

| url=http://www.meetingsfocus.com/cityguides/shopping.asp?category=Second-Hand&city=New%20York&id=262092

| access-date = 2008-10-24 }}

{{div col|colwidth=18em}}

• Edward Albee
• Woody Allen
• W. H. Auden
• Warren Beatty
• Saul Bellow
• Alexander Calder
• Truman Capote
• Dick Cavett
• Charlie Chaplin
• Ina Claire
• Jean Cocteau
• Melora Creager
• E. E. Cummings
• Don DeLillo
• Theodore Dreiser
• Buckminster Fuller
• Abigail Folger (worked as a clerk at the Gotham)
• Allen Ginsberg (worked as a clerk at the Gotham)
• John Guare
• George Gershwin & Ira Gershwin
• Edward Gorey
• Martha Graham
• Lillian Hellman
• Katharine Hepburn
• LeRoi Jones (worked as a clerk at the Gotham)
• Garson Kanin
• Alison Lurie
• Norman Mailer
• H. L. Mencken
• Arthur Miller
• Henry Moore
• Marianne Moore
• Christopher Morley
• David Nolan
• Eugene O'Neill
• Anaïs Nin
• Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
• John Dos Passos
• George Plimpton
• Ezra Pound
• Man Ray
• Philip Roth
• J. D. Salinger
• Marian Seldes
• Dame Edith Sitwell
• Patti Smith Patti Smith worked at Scribner's, around the corner, as documented in her memoir, Just Kids. She hung out at Gotham Book Mart and they later published her chapbook Witt.
• Stephen Spender
• Gertrude Stein
• Dylan Thomas
• John Updike
• Rudolph Valentino
• Gore Vidal
• Jose Garcia Villa
• Andy Warhol
• Edmund White
• Thornton Wilder
• Tennessee Williams (worked as clerk at the store, lasting less than a day)

{{div col end}}

• Books in the United States

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite web |url= http://franklin.library.upenn.edu/xbrowse.html?xbrowse.term=Gotham%20Book%20Mart%20Collection%20(University%20of%20Pennsylvania) |title= Gotham Book Mart Collection |work= Search |publisher= University of Pennsylvania }}
• {{cite web |url= http://gotham-bookmart-project.tumblr.com/ |title= Gotham Book Mart Collection Digital Images |publisher= University of Pennsylvania |work= Gotham Book Mart Project |format= Tumblr }}

{{Coord|40.7555|-73.9780|type:landmark_region:US-NY|display=title}}

{{Midtown North, Manhattan}}

{{Books}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Bookstores in Manhattan

Category:Independent bookstores of the United States

Category:Antiquarian booksellers

Category:Midtown Manhattan

Category:Retail buildings in New York (state)

Category:Bookstores established in the 20th century

Category:American companies established in 1920

Category:Retail companies established in 1920

Category:Retail companies disestablished in 2007

Category:1920 establishments in New York City

Category:2007 disestablishments in New York City

Category:Defunct companies based in New York City

Category:Defunct retail companies of the United States