BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC | Another rose on the vine of independent bookstores has withered. The East Village’s Shakespeare & Co. will close its doors on Sat., Sept. 6.
The bookstore opened at its 716 Broadway location in 1987 and can now no longer afford the rent, said manager Margot Liddell.
In addition to high rent, there are other factors that have played a part in the bookstore’s demise. Textbook sales have been affected by students downloading textbooks or buying secondhand books online.
“That’s hurt too,” said Liddell, who continued to work while she was being interviewed by The Villager. “The Internet definitely has a role in this whole problem.”
While handing bags back to customers and making jokes, Liddell said she would miss talking about books, having access to them and being surrounded by the written word. She started as a night manager in 1981 at the since-closed Shakespeare & Co. store on W. 81st St. and Broadway on the Upper West Side, and helped open the East Village Shakespeare & Co. in 1987. She has been the store’s manager for the past three years.
“It’s kind of like a second home,” said employee Teri Yoshiuchi, a fan of science fiction authors like Isaac Asimov. “I always think of this as my bookstore.”
Liddell said several customers offered to start a fundraising campaign with sites like Indiegogo, but there just wasn’t any way the store could be saved.
One customer paused after a purchase to say how sorry she was to see the bookstore go and that there will be a big hole left behind.
Lee James, 25, attended New York University and still comes to Shakespeare & Co. despite now living in the Ridgewood-Bushwick area.
“In between this and the St. Mark’s [Bookshop], I’m definitely sad to see it go,” said James, who said the bookstore had “a good vibe, offered a nice, comfortable space, and was more curated in its book choices than other stores.
Another former N.Y.U. student and current Upper East Side resident, Jonathan Turner, 34, also kept returning to the bookstore.
“It’s hard not to miss a bookstore,” said Turner, who also said he liked the place’s open space and selection. Turner was disappointed that the store’s downstairs section had already closed.
“The really intelligent selection of books with an edgy, creative focus” was what Steven Stark, 54, said kept him coming to Shakespeare & Co.
“I’m going to miss all the bookstores that have closed,” lamented Stark, a former Chelsea resident who now lives in Connecticut, citing how Rizzoli Bookstore recently shuttered.
Bryce Polk, 25, moved from Virginia to Crown Heights a year ago and got a job at Shakespeare & Co.
“Its been a good team — like a family,” said Polk, who favors classic authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.
Manager Liddell, who talked about her love of authors Stewart O’Nan, Marilynne Robinson and Alice Munro, showed The Villager what made the bookstore famous back in the day: a section of shelves titled “Drinking, Smoking & Screwing,” that featured Beat authors like Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, and Charles Bukowski. The section, explained Liddell, used to fill three large bookcases, but tastes, like the East Village, are a-changin’.
