From Author to Bookseller in a Week
By Bridget Kinsella -- Publishers Weekly, 12/11/2007 6:46:00 AM
Just about a week ago Amy Stewart—author of Flower Confidential and The Earth Moved (both from Algonquin)—was shopping in Eureka Books, an antiquarian bookshop near her home, when the manager told her the store was going to close if no one stepped up to buy it by the end of the year. A week later, Stewart and her husband Scott Brown and their friends Jack and Peggy Irvine formed a corporation and bought the store. Brown, as publisher of Fine Books & Collections magazine, is no stranger to antiquarian books, and all four of the new owners were frequent customers of the store.
All three current employees are staying on at the store. Stewart said that the only down side for her is that the store is “the ultimate procrastinators dream,” and she is working on another book for Algonquin.
Eureka Books is located in the Old Town section of the city just a few doors down from Booklegger, a general used bookstore. In an act of solidarity, Booklegger displayed books in its window promoting the new owners of Eureka Books. “The stores are very complimentary,” said Stewart.
Carlos and Marilyn Beneman founded Eureka Books in 1987 and they plan to retire after seeing the store placed into good hands. With Jack Irvine’s ties to the Humboldt County Historical Society where he is treasurer, the new owners plan to expand the store’s local history and local author section.
