Started by a 25-year-old with 600 dollars in the 1920s, the Strand is the only bookshop left of New York’s once-thriving ‘Book Row’. With 18 miles of books, its staff talk about its past and present – and give reading recommendations
Interview with a Bookstore from Literary Hub is part of the Guardian Books Network
- Scroll down for the staff recommendations shelf
The Strand was born in 1927 on Fourth Avenue on what was then called “Book Row.” Book Row covered six city blocks and housed 48 bookstores. Ben Bass, an entrepreneur at heart and a reader by nature, was all of 25 years old when he began his modest used bookstore with 300 dollars of his own and 300 dollars that he borrowed from a friend.
Ben sought to create a place where books would be loved, and book lovers could congregate. He named his bookstore after the London street where writers like Thackeray, Dickens, and Mill once gathered and interesting book publishers thrived. The Strand quickly became a Greenwich Village institution where writers went to converse, sell their books and find a hidden treasure to buy. Today, the Strand is the sole survivor of Book Row’s colorful past, boasting more than 18 miles of new, used, and rare books.
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