Rick Simonson

Olsson's & Harvard Book Store: A Tale of Two
October 3, 2008

Two of our most venerable and vital independent bookstores reached fateful turning points this week, with very different results.

After 36 years of business - and several months of publicly-acknowledged financial troubles - Olsson's Books and Records closed its five stores for good on September 30. The store's website (www.olssons.com) has a brief, direct statement and acknowledgement of gratitude for the good years there were. More revealing is the link to the blog for testimonials, which exceeded 300 by yesterday afternoon.

Reasons for the closure are parried in the comments - the drop-off in cd business, being spread thin through the various locations (and their rising rents), along with the other competitions (big box, online, reading v. other doings). Underlying most though is a sense of loss ... and fond, life-forming memories, whether from books encountered or people.

The Washington Post's Bob Thompson also has a nice 'appreciation' (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/9/30/AR2008093002658.html). I met him at the Knopf dinner at the 2007 New York BEA. He was following Olsson's head buyer Alexis Akre around the show (which he recounts in this piece). They sat across from me, a table that included authors John Richardson and Mary Gordon, and Knopf editor (and poet) Deborah Garrison.

That show was the first I met Alexis - though we had first encountered each other in a call-in role on a national radio show, talking cross-continentally about books. There was seeing her again at the Winter Institute in Louisville this past January (best, the accidental encounter moments, walking across the Ohio River that last afternoon there, then some mutual airport hanging out time). And a little at this past year's BEA in Los Angeles. Though Olsson's troubles hadn't gone public, she was quietly letting it be known they were in a real battle.

Olsson's closure obviously means the bookselling end for all sorts of people from the stores' staffs. Best wishes for what they find next are there, along with the sympathy.. Alexis, I hope to get to see, meet with, attend some publishing/book event again, some way or another.

With Harvard Book Store, it was news of another sort. After 76 years (and two generations, if I have it right) in the Kramer family,  the store has been bought by high tech executive Jeff Mayersohn and his wife Linda Seamonson. Book lovers over the decades, they have been serious enough about taking this on that he had attended bookseller schools and NEBA trade shows. Everything read anywhere about this sounds good and right (www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/10/02/wellesley_couple_buy_harvard_book_store/). Carole Horne and Company are all very much aboard. An October 21 gathering is scheduled for the community to meet the new stewards - and vice versa. May that all go well and smoothly.

Frank Kramer and his family's part in this transition going so well is not to be overlooked. They have been a great, leading part things there in Cambridge and for the rest of us around the country. They'll be missed by many, though it sounds as though Frank is staying very active with things germane to HBS's well-being (Cambridge's local business campaign).

Posted by Rick Simonson on October 3, 2008 | Comments (2)