PW reports that beloved Milwaukee independent bookstore Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops is closing, in part because sales were down 17% in 2008. But it’s not all bad news:
The retailer has 65 employees, and Daniel Goldin, general manager, will open Boswell Books Company in April on the cite of Schwartz’s Downer Avenue location. The store will be owned by Goldin, who has been with Schwartz since 1986. “I’m excited about opening my own bookstore, but it’s still difficult to say goodbye to Schwartz,” Goldin said. The company is also in talks with Lanora Hurley to open her own bookstore, Next Chapter Bookshop, in Schwartz’s Mequon location. Hurley is manager of the Schwartz Bookshop in Mequon and has been with the company since 2002.
Yay for Boswell Books Company, which is a fine name for a bookstore, and let’s hope Milwaukee can keep both new independent bookstores afloat.
“on the cite of”
publishers. awesome.
Speaking of Milwaukee, unlike the eponymous mayor of Portland, you have to be 21 to enter this:
http://www.samueladams.com/verification/…
Schwartz was a great bookstore. I saw many a reading there back in college. This truly sucks.
what made milwaukee famous made a loser out of me.
Thanks for the compliment on the name. Boswell was our on-off logo for the last 35 years, though few people knew who that guy with the book and what looked like a sub sandwich (it was actually a scroll) really was. And yes, it is James Boswell, author of the “Life of Samuel Johnson” and considered to be the first modern biographer. He still captures authors’ imaginations, most recently in the new novel “The Brothers Boswell” by Philip Baruth, coming in April from Soho, a great indie publisher.
–Daniel Goldin, soon-to-be bookseller/proprietor, Boswell Book Company