Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.0901042337580.6694@panix3.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.aol.com>, Wryting-L <WRYTING-L@listserv.wvu.edu>,
Cyberculture <cyberculture@zacha.org>
Subject: Gotham Book Mart Holdings Are Given to Penn (fwd)
Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 23:38:14 -0500 (EST)
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 00:20:11 -0500 From: Joel Lewis <penwaves@GMAIL.COM> Reply-To: "Poetics List (UPenn, UB)" <POETICS@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU> To: POETICS@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Subject: Gotham Book Mart Holdings Are Given to Penn from NY TIMESJANUARY 2, 2009, 12:51 PM By SEWELL CHAN <http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/author/sewell-chan/>Andreas Brown, the last owner of the Gotham Book Mart, readied vintage photos of Arthur Miller and James Joyce in 2004 in preparation for a move to a new location. (Photo: Frances Roberts for The New York Times) Updated, 4:50 p.m. | About 200,000 items from the Gotham Book Mart, which closed in 2007 after 87 years as a New York literary haven of international stature, have been donated<http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/article.php?id=1504> to the University of Pennsylvania. An anonymous donor purchased the store's inventory and donated it to the university, which announced the donation on Dec. 18. The holdings � primarily modern and contemporary poetry and literature, but also including works on art, architecture, jewelry, music, dance and film � will go to Penn's Rare Book and Manuscript Library, which is known for its collection of antiquarian materials from before 1850. Citing experts, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Thursday that the collection was valued at several million dollars<http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20090101_Gotham_Book_Mart_trove_bound_for_U__of_Pennsylvania.html>, but most of the store's inventory was bought at an auction by its landlords for $400,000 in 2007. "We're honored to steward the collection and give it new life as an academic resource," H. Carton Rogers, vice provost and director of libraries at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a statement. The collection includes first editions, experimental literary magazines and books from small presses, including "outsider literature" published by Black Sparrow Press and poetry published by St. Mark's Church, the university said. The collection includes "proofs, advance copies, pamphlets, photographs, posters, reference works, catalogs, broadsides, prints and postcards," the university said. There are books from the personal libraries of Truman Capote<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/truman_capote/index.html> and Ana�s Nin<http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40815F83C5D167493C4A8178AD85F438785F9>, as well as items signed by Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Robinson Jeffers, Woody Allen, Wallace Stevens and John Updike. The Gotham Book Mart was founded on West 45th Street in 1920 by Frances Steloff<http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0712FC3E590C708EDDAC0894D1484D81>. It was the haunt of literary figures like Theodore Dreiser, John Dos Passos, H. L. Mencken, Arthur Miller, John Updike, J. D. Salinger and Eugene O'Neill. Itexhibited<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9500E1DE1431F934A25757C0A9669C8B63> the works of the artist Edward Gorey. Its customers included George and Ira Gershwin, Charlie Chaplin, Alexander Calder, Stephen Spender, Woody Allen, Saul Bellow, John Guare, Katharine Hepburn and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. At various points, Allen Ginsberg, LeRoi Jones and Tennessee Williams (for a day) worked as clerks there. Under Miss Steloff, the store twice moved to larger quarters, but stayed within a two-block area, settling in 1946 at 41 West 47th Street. Miss Steloff sold the Gotham<http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40E16FE3D5C147493C7AB178AD85F4C8685F9> in 1967 to Andreas Brown, another book lover, but continued to live in an apartment on the third floor, above the store, and remained as a working consultant. "Along with its fame and reputation, the Gotham was also a very carefully operated book business," Herbert Mitgang wrote in an obituary<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE2DD113DF935A25757C0A96F948260> of Miss Steloff<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE1D6113BF933A05751C1A961948260>, who died in 1989 at age 101. "As the owner and the person who paid the salaries, Miss Steloff was demanding, irascible, unwearying and unable to understand why no one else was willing to put as many hours or as much concentration into the store as she did." Beloved as it was, the bookstore had many problems over the years. In 1997, Mr. Brown agreed to pay $1.4 million<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02EEDE1E39F930A25756C0A961958260> to Joanne Carson, who had turned over $640,000 in savings to him in 1988 and 1991 to help him buy and repair the brownstone that houses the store. In 1995, she decided she wanted her loan back with interest, and filed suit<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E1DB1130F934A35756C0A961958260> against him. The Gotham Book Mart's final home, at 16 East 46th Street. (Photo: Tina Fineberg for The New York Times) Mr. Brown said he would pay the money back in 2000, after selling the building. But the sale did not occur until 2003, when Mr. Brown sold the building<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9504E0DA163FF931A15754C0A9659C8B63>, a town house in the heart of the diamond district, for $7.2 million. In 2004, the store moved <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/04/books/04goth.html> to the former H. P. Kraus antiquarian bookstore, at 16 East 46th Street<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0CE4DA173CF937A3575BC0A9629C8B63>, which had closed in 2003. It later emerged that two benefactors who had wished to remain anonymous � Leonard A. Lauder<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/leonard_a_lauder/index.html>, the cosmetics heir, who has an interest in antique postcards, and Edmondo Schwartz, a real estate developer � had purchased the East Side building for $5.2 million and leased it to Mr. Brown to save the Gotham. But by 2006, he had fallen behind<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D00EEDB1031F93AA2575AC0A9609C8B63> on his $51,000 monthly rent and owed at least $500,000 in rent, taxes, interest and other fees, and the landlords moved to evict him. The store was on its last legs. In May 2007, many of Gotham's possessions � including books signed by Mr. Updike, letters from D. H. Lawrence, and Andy Warhol's wig rack � were sold at auction <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/nyregion/23gotham.html> to the landlords, who bid $400,000. The store's workers had never finished unpacking the books from the 2004 move. The university said that it knew the identity of the donor but that the donor had insisted on anonymity. Mr. Lauder, former chairman of the Est�e Lauder Companies, graduated from Penn in 1954 and is an emeritus member of its board of trustees. Jonathan J. Faust, a lawyer for Mr. Lauder, declined to comment on Mr. Lauder's involvement with Gotham Book Mart. ================================== The Poetics List is moderated & does not accept all posts. Check guidelines & sub/unsub info: http://epc.buffalo.edu/poetics/welcome.html