Harry W Schwartz Bookshops: An Appreciation

On Inauguration Day, a day filled with hope and promise as Barack Obama takes office as President in Washington, D.C., I just got the news that this storied bookstore chain in Milwaukee is closing in a couple months. I cut my teeth selling books to A. David Schwartz in the mid 1980s. He was a tough buyer, and always swore by his weekly reports which he poured over while I sat there. I would daydream, staring out the window while he worked, and one time I had the audacity to yawn, and he would look up from his printout and say, “Am I boring you?”

David would mumble things like “unacceptable” as he looked over the printouts, sighing over the poor sales, and getting him to order from certain publishers was like pulling teeth. On the other hand he was a raging lefty, and publishers that had books that were left-of-center he would buy in bulk and load them up in his stores. Sometimes I could not write fast enough ...

He was supportive in other ways. I went to his house on more than one occasion to do holiday title presentations to the bookstore staff. I got up there and gave my spiel, and I remember David once telling me that my talk was laced with equal parts humor and terror. It made me think, and I respected him as an elder statesman in the business, one that we inherited from his father, Harry W. Schwartz.

Over time Schwartz stopped buying books direct from publishers and instead went to Ingram Book Company, a major distributor in Tennessee . They would buy some books direct from publishers, and when they moved into their Third Ward downtown offices it was always a pleasure to meet with them. David sadly passed on, but his wife and daughter took over the business, and they had incredibly loyal employees like Daniel Goldin, senior buyer, Elly Gore, children’s buyer, Nancy Quinn, coop manager, Jason Kennedy, small press buyer, and Jack Covert of 800-CEO-READ. These are all fine people, consummate professionals who know their business inside out.

It’s sad when a bookstore chain dissolves, and this one was extra special. The good news in all of this is that Daniel Goldin is planning to open a store, called Boswell's, in their flagship location on Downer Avenue, doors down from the original Schwartz location that opened in 1925 or 1926. Their Mequon location, a suburban store that always surprized me with the kind of books they could sell, is also being brought back by Lenora Hurley, manager of the Schwartz store there. It will be called Next Chapter Books in the same location. Life goes on, but it's always important to remember the past, as I'm sure President Obama will eloquently reiterate later today in his Inaugural Address.

For more, check out the story in the Miwaukee Journal-Sentinel and ShelfAwareness.