Michael Seidenberg

{{short description|New York City bookstore owner and salon host}}

{{Infobox person

|name = Michael Seidenberg

|image = Michael Seidenberg.jpg

|caption =

|birth_date = {{Birth date|1954|07|22}}

|birth_place =

|death_date = {{Death date and age|2019|07|08|1954|07|22}}

|death_place =

|other_names =

|known_for =

|occupation = book seller

}}

Michael Seidenberg (July 22, 1954 – July 8, 2019) was a New York City bookstore owner and writer.{{cite web | last=Nawotka | first=Ed | title=Michael Seidenberg, New York City Bookseller, Dies | website=PublishersWeekly.com | date=2019-07-09 | url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/80651-michael-seidenberg-new-york-city-bookseller-dies.html | access-date=2019-07-10}}{{cite web | title=There's No Place Like Here: Brazenhead Books | website=Etsy Blog | date=2011-07-12 | url=https://etsy.me/29ovfy5 | access-date=2019-07-09}} His shop, BrazenHead Books, was a secret bookstore, its last incarnation a by-appointment-only space, hidden behind a door in his Manhattan apartment.{{cite magazine | title=Wanna Buy A Book? | last=Marx|first=Patricia|magazine=The New Yorker | date=2008-06-02 | url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/06/02/wanna-buy-a-book | access-date=2019-07-09}}{{cite web | last=Devers | first=AN | title=Brazenhead: New York's speakeasy bookstore turns a new page | website=the Guardian | date=2015-10-12 | url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/12/brazenhead-new-york-secret-bookstore | access-date=2019-07-09}}{{cite web | title=To Meet: Michael Seidenberg | website=Warby Parker | date=2013-12-04 | url=https://blog.warbyparker.com/michael-seidenberg-brazenhead-books-upper-east-side/ | access-date=2019-07-09}}

The store was described as one of the "world's most stunning bookstores" by Fodor's in 2014.{{cite web |title=World's 20 Most Stunning Bookstores |url=http://www.fodors.com/news/photos/worlds-20-most-stunning-bookstores#!19-brazenhead-books |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140804140756/http://www.fodors.com/news/photos/worlds-20-most-stunning-bookstores#!19-brazenhead-books |url-status=dead |archive-date=4 August 2014 |website=Fodor's |accessdate=9 July 2019}} Seidenberg regularly ran literary salons in the space, described as "more like a salon than a for-profit business" by the New York Times.{{cite web | last=Force | first=Thessaly La | title=The Secret Bookstore | website=The Paris Review | date=2011-07-12 | url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/07/12/the-secret-bookstore/ | access-date=2019-07-09}}{{cite web | title=The Good Host, but Bad Bookseller, of Brazenhead Books | website=The New York Times | date=2015-03-22 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/nyregion/the-good-host-but-bad-bookseller-of-brazenhead-books.html | access-date=2019-07-09}} BrazenHead became known more for its get-togethers and the literary atmosphere than as a bookstore. "Literary culture has become far too corporate — Michael and Brazenhead are reminders of how and why to love books and authors," said novelist Porochista Khakpour.{{cite web | last=Price | first=J.T. |title=The Best Friend There Is: Keeping Time with Brazenhead Books | website=The Millions | date=2015-07-02 | url=https://themillions.com/2015/07/the-best-friend-there-is-keeping-time-with-brazenhead-books.html | access-date=2019-07-09}} Jonathan Lethem was an early bookstore employee as a teenager, and wrote Seidenberg as a character into two of his novels.

Seidenberg wrote a series of advice columns for The New Inquiry called Unsolicited Advice for Living in the End Times which were published in two collected volumes.{{cite web | last=Seidenberg | first=Michael | title=The Collected Unsolicited Advice for Living in the End Times Vol. 2 | website=The New Inquiry | date=2014-01-01 | url=https://thenewinquiry.com/the-collected-unsolicited-advice-for-living-in-the-end-times-vol-2/ | access-date=2019-07-09}}{{cite web | last=Seidenberg | first=Michael | title=The Collected Unsolicited Advice for Living in the End Times Vol. 1 | website=The New Inquiry | date=2012-12-21 | url=https://thenewinquiry.com/free-download-the-collected-unsolicited-advice-for-living-in-the-end-times-vol-1/ | access-date=2019-07-09}}