[Henry , February 26, 2016.]
Department stores used to have a section called Book. Even more exotic: Stamp and Coin.
My first store-bought (not school Book Fair) books came from a department store. Abraham and Straus? Macy’s? I don’t know. But I still have the books: Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe and A Tale of Two Cities (45¢ each).
A reader could even find Shakespearean criticism in a department store: this receipt at least strongly suggests that was the case.
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Friday, February 26, 2016
Henry Book
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comments: 2
I worked in the book department of a now-defunct independent suburban department store for about 15 years, beginning around 1980. The larger part of the store sold stationery, cameras, cigars, and toys. Our part sold books and records, and I'd say we had as good a selection as any bookstore in the county at that time (plenty of university press titles, etc.).
I also remember walking through a local Caldor's (sort of like a K-Mart) and seeing a remainder table with things on it like Alexander Theroux's Darconville's Cat and books on transformational grammar. Caldor's also had a regular book section, though it wasn't very good.
All of this got wiped out by discounting and Amazon, of course.
Thanks for that picture of a gone world, Chris.
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