Grolier Poetry Bookshop
2373670
219335213
2008-06-14T19:05:58Z
128.151.180.62
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[[Image:grolerpoetybookshopaug2005.jpg|thumb|242px|Outside Grolier Poetry Bookshop, August 2005]]
The '''Grolier Poetry Bookshop''' ("Grolier's") is an [[independent bookstore]] on Plympton Street near [[Harvard Square]] in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], [[United States]]. Although founded as a "fine-arts" bookstore, its focus today is solely [[poetry]]. A small (404 sq. ft.), one-room store with towering bookcases, it lays claim to being the "oldest continuous bookshop" devoted solely to the sale of poetry and poetry criticism. The only other for-profit store in the United States devoted solely to poetry is Open Books, in [[Seattle]].
Over the years, Grolier's became a focus of poetic activity in the Cambridge area, which itself had, because of the influence of [[Harvard University]], become a magnet for American poets. Grolier's became a point of call for visiting poets as well as a nexus of [[gossip]], [[rumor]] and [[social network|networking]] in the poetry community. Poets such as [[Donald Hall]], [[Robert Creeley]], [[Frank O'Hara]], [[John Ashbery]], and [[Robert Bly]] were regulars at the store during their time as undergraduates at Harvard; the poet [[Conrad Aiken]] lived upstairs from the store in its early days. Numerous other poets, including [[T. S. Eliot]], [[Marianne Moore]], [[E. E. Cummings]] and, later, [[David Ferry]] and [[Adrienne Rich]], have also been noted as store regulars.
==History of the shop==
It was founded in [[1927]] by Adrian Gambet and Gordon Cairnie; the subsequent owner, Louisa Solano, a [[1966]] graduate of [[Boston University]], took over operation of the store in [[1974]] after Cairnie's death. The original owners were independently wealthy and were able to run the business at a loss, giving away books to favoured customers without charge, falling behind with bills and turning a blind eye to theft. Much of the activity at Grolier's under Cairnie's management was of the social kind: visitors lounged on a red couch while sharing drinks with the owners.
[[Image:Louisa-solano.jpg|thumb|Louisa Solano, owner of the store from 1974 to 2006. Portrait taken in 1986 by [[Elsa Dorfman]].]]
Solano was unable to support the store with her own money and turned it into a self-sustaining business. She found innovative ways to promote poetry in the Cambridge community; for many years Grolier's has sponsored an annual, national poetry contest as well as a reading series in nearby [[Adams House (Harvard University)|Adams House]], a dormitory at Harvard. Solano's knowledge of poetry was well known in the Cambridge and Harvard community, and in the era before internet bookselling, she was considered a valuable source for people seeking rare and unusual poetry titles. Under Solano's management, for example, the store was the first to stock ''Language Magazine'', the periodical that launched the [[avant-garde]] [[Language poets|L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E]] poetry movement.
Despite Grolier's fame in poetry circles — a 75th anniversary celebration by the [[Poetry Society of America]] drew a crowd of over 800 people, and Grolier's is listed as a "poetry landmark" by the [[Academy of American Poets]] [http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/196] — Solano announced in [[2004]] that, having lost money for the previous two years [http://www.circlemagazine.com/issuethirtyone/grolier.html], Grolier's would be sold. The causes of Grolier's troubles are numerous: a rise in Internet bookselling that made it easier to find rare titles online, increasing store theft, rising rent from Grolier's landowner (Harvard University), a growth in university-centered, as opposed to community-centered, creative writing opportunities, and the rise of [[chain stores]] in the Harvard Square area that have reduced the area's attractiveness to Grolier's target market.
In March 2006, the store was officially sold, to [[Nigeria]]n poet [[Ifeanyi Menkiti]], a professor at [[Wellesley College]]; the official reason for the sale given by ''[[Publishers Weekly]]'' was Solano's ill-health. Menkiti plans to maintain the store's poetry-only focus while broadening its coverage of overseas poets. [http://www.publishersweekly.com/PWdaily/CA6320035.html]
==External links==
* [http://www.grolierpoetrybookshop.org/ Store website]
* [http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1017/p11s02-bogn.html Oct. 2002 ''Christian Science Monitor'' article on the store]
* [http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=358291 ''Harvard Crimson'' article on the store's imminent closure]
* [http://www.artseditor.com/html/january03/jan03_poetry.shtml The (un)Spoken Word: reviewing Poets on ''Poetry Speaks''] ArtsEditor.com article
[[Category:Cambridge, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Independent bookstores]]
[[Category:Bookstores of the United States]]