Frances Steloff ( Ida Frances Steloff ; December 31, 1887 , Saratoga Springs - April 15, 1989 , New York ) is an American entrepreneur, founder of the independent bookstore .
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Biography
Born in a very poor family, was forced to leave school in seventh grade.
From the age of 19 she lived in New York, worked as a saleswoman in Brooklyn , initially in the clothing department, then in various bookstores.
In 1920, she opened her own store, which soon became a prominent center of literary life in the United States.
Among the regular visitors to the store over the years were Theodore Dreiser , John Dos Passos , Eugene O'Neill , Thornton Wilder , Patti Smith , they bought books by Charlie Chaplin , George Gershwin , J. D. Salinger , Saul Bellow , Woody Allen , and Allen Ginsberg in his youth worked here as a seller. Contrary to censorship, Steloff sold the scandalous novels “ Lady Chatterley's Lover ” by D. G. Lawrence and “ Tropic of Cancer ” by Henry Miller .
In 1947, the Steloff Store hosted the constituent assembly of the James Joyce Society (which ordered books by mail from Europe to the Gotham Book Mart), and Steloff became its treasurer.
In 1967, Steloff sold the store, but until the end of her life she lived in an apartment a floor higher, often going down to talk with customers.
In the store hung her enlarged portraits along with visitors to the store - Dylan Thomas , Anais Nin , Jean Cocteau , Salvador Dali and Marianne Moore .
In 1987, a documentary was shot about Steloff and her store ( Eng. Frances Steloff: Memoirs of a Bookseller ), directed by Deborah Dixon .
Gotham Book Mart store existed until 2007, in the 1990s. its actual co-owner was Edward Gorey .
In 2008, the store’s archive fund was acquired by the University of Pennsylvania [1] .
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Links
- New York Times Obituary