Several bookselling paths crossed to create Howard's Books.


CHICAGO

Howard founded Booksellers Row in the late seventies, on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago . Those were the heady days of Lincoln Park s intellectual, eclectic renaissance -- readers and book-lovers filled neighborhood streets, rents were reasonable, and live music, good food & interesting arts programming at the Biograph Theater made Lincoln Avenue THE hip street.

Old-time customers may even remember the original location, at 2511 North Lincoln and its former faces, John's Bookstore followed by Second-Hand Rose. Howard Cohen brought fresh stock into the old shelves in November, 1978, and named his new enterprise Booksellers Row, after the old-time Chicago book neighborhood downtown.

That first winter was a doozie -- that was the year we had the huge snow (February of seventy-nine) -- and Howard stuck balloons on top of the six-foot snowbanks, with arrows pointing --This Way To Knowledge.--

Three years later the store relocated a block down the street, to 2445, where it remained for another 18 years. (Periwinkle restaurant moved into the 2511 space, by the way, another lamented former glory of Lincoln Avenue!) The 2445 Lincoln store was known for its rolling wooden ladders and amazingly knowledgeable staff. It was also perhaps the best-organized used bookstore on the planet!

Lincoln Avenue was a great book street. At various times, neighbors Guild Books, The Children's Bookstore, Dan Behnke and Powell's Bookstore all operated within a few blocks. Readers found anything they needed in a single shopping trip.

Booksellers Row also opened branches on South Michigan Avenue & Milwaukee Avenue. Through all three locations, countless books found their rightful owners and hundreds of individual collections grew.

Many old customers will remember Howard wearing baby Jeremy or Laura in the Snuggli behind the counter, while pricing books or ringing up sales (with that pencil behind his ear!).

Times changed, and so did the book business. Lincoln Avenue lost its bookstores, one by one. The three Booksellers Row stores are now history -- though they live on in memory and across countless Chicagoland shelves. That is shelves, quite literally -- for many of our favorite customers bought the oak, pine and cherry book-cases for their own libraries when we finally closed our doors! That thought warms our hearts.

EVANSTON

Many Evanston book-buyers will remember Booknook Parnassus, owned and run by Connie Reuveni (Dockterman). Connie first worked for Howard, way back when in the early days of Booksellers Row -- then branched out independently. Named by Connie for the Christopher Morley novel about a traveling bookseller, Booknook Parnassus started out on Clark Street in Evanston , then moved to the corner of Foster & Maple a few years later.

Those were the late, great times of the irreplaceable Great Expectations Bookstore, an Evanston institution for decades. The neighborhood boasted other booksellers too: Europa and Richard Barnes& Loyal customers fondly remember Connie's delight in social and political discussions, her passion for Judaica and philosophy, and her pleasure in the eccentric and eclectic.

THE PATHS JOIN

  Again, times changed. When she became ill, Connie asked her old friend Howard to manage her store for her -- though not the cats! Having closed his own stores by then, he was glad to oblige. After her death, Howard followed her wish by keeping the bookselling tradition going.

Appropriately renamed Howard's Books, the store has been building quality inventory and customers, while keeping Connie's original friendly and quirky neighborhood feel. Many former Booksellers Row customers have been delighted to discover this reincarnation of their favorite old bookstore (and bookseller)!

Howard soon realized that the books needed to --pay their shelf rent-- and devised the Ongoing Sale philosophy of pricing. Under the penciled price, every book has the month and year noted. If it's been in the store more than a year, it's yours for half the marked price. It works for everyone -- keeping the inventory fresh, and releasing a steady stream of bargains all year long. If you're not a regular, you're missing great deals!

The rise of the Internet has opened up the New Arrivals table and the more unusual collector's items to a far wider circle of buyers. A selection of the inventory is now listed online -- see the inventory page for details.