Early photo of Cliff Graubart at The Old New York Bookshop.
(Photo from The Old New York Bookshop Press)
This post is part of Julie Valerie's Fiction Writers Monthly Blog Hop. You can find the link to continue to other sites below.
Quirky,
independent bookshops are my favorite. Granted, I fall prey to Barnes &
Noble as a great place to hang out on a dateless Saturday night. I can grab a
quick snack, read my favorite magazines, and see what is trending on the
bestseller list. However, my heart belongs to those small shops where the
personality of the owner shines through. EagleEye in Decatur, a few miles from my house, is top on my current list.
Tucked in a small strip mall, it is a splendid combination of used and new
books, author signings, and other literary events. I met a date (one of those
bad dates you meet online) there in 2009 to attend a screen writing class that was
taking place. While the writers were mostly zombie fans, and I was in the
middle of writing my widow memoir, it was a great fit, although I like to kid
my story was the least gory of all.
The best of the
best, however, was The Old New York Bookshop, a haven to up and coming writers (who became famous
Southern authors) in the 1970’s when I first moved to Atlanta. Close to where I
worked, in the Midtown section of Atlanta, I stumbled upon it by a fortunate
accident. Someone had lifted the wheels off my VW bug and I wandered around
looking for a phone. I met the owner Cliff and fell in love with the shop, an
old Victorian cottage, with lopsided corners and sagging floors. The many
rooms, filled with floor to ceiling bookcases of used, vintage, and antiquarian
books, rambled on like a maze.
Cliff, a small,
funny, Jewish fellow from New York, was (and is) as sarcastic as they come, but
knew how to make you feel at home. Once I found the shop, I stopped by many
times a month to visit on my way home from work. There was a rack of mugs for
the regulars (yes, I had my own mug with my name on it) and a constant pot of
dark black coffee brewing. I’d fill my cup, plop down on one of the comfy,
broken-in sofas, and chat about my day. You never knew who would stop by and
join in the conversation, but Cliff was entertainment on his own. (If you read
this, Cliff, you know you were the funniest guy around and loved by all your
friends.)
The most memorable
moments at the shop were the lavish book-signing parties Cliff gave for local
authors who were just beginning their careers. Champagne flowed freely and
laughter echoed late into the night. If the rooms became too crowded, there was
always the front porch to sit and grab a breath of air and another glass of
bubbly. To name drop, but I have to so you can see how fabulous these events
were, I met the beloved Pat Conroy there along Terry Kay, Anne Rivers Siddons,
Stuart Woods, and so many more of the local authors who became Southern legends
over the years. The Old New York Bookshop was part of the literary history of
Atlanta.
Cliff still sells
books, but mostly at shows and online. The renovated cottage now houses a
trendy, upscale restaurant that fits the gentrified neighborhood. Read about the history of the shop in Cliff's own words on the Georgia Antiquarian Booksellers Association website. Looking for books? Check in with Cliff by clicking Contact info.
Visits to The Old New York Bookshop highlight some
of my best memories from those early years in Atlanta. When I had a shop of my own in Old Town, Lilburn, Georgia, in 2011 (The Little Shop Of Arts and Antiques) I remembered those book
signings of years ago and decided my antique shop should be a place for writers to hang out,
mostly new authors that were self-published. For nine-months, we had a grand
time with author events most every weekend. Then I moved the shop to the square in Lawrenceville, where we had more book signings and writing classes for another five months. Not a business person I ran out of money and closed the shop. Some day I hope to put those crazy times in a memoir, certainly not a how to book!
I pray there will
always be book lovers who keep their shops open. Big name book stores can
produce the goods, but only small owner owned independent shops carry the heart
and soul of readers.
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