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Loading ...NYC’s Oscar Wilde Bookshop to close
02.04.2009 7:59am EST
(New York City) It has been at the forefront of the gay liberation movement since it opened in in 1967, but New York’s Oscar Wilde Bookshop, the world’s oldest gay bookstore, is about to close – a result of the world economic turmoil.
Founded in Greenwich Village by gay activist Craig Rodwell its first home was on Mercer Street but later moved to its current home at 15 Christopher St.It has faced bomb threats, smashed windows and graffiti with the words “kill fags” written on the walls.
Six years ago, with the growth of major chains and internet bookselling, the shop nearly folded. It was saved at the last minute by a new owner and briefly saw a revival – mainly from tourists from outside the country.
But the global downturn in the economy has virtually ended the visitors from Europe and Asia. In addition internet and big box bookstores have continued to take market share.
In an e-mail to customers owner Kim Brinster said the store will close on March 29.
All that sure, but the fact that so many of us gays are going to the internet to get our gay books, etc to save money here and there. I blame no one for that, but none of that keeps the gay bookstores open.
But Lambda Rising’s owners have had to give up the Oscar Wilde bookstore, the Lamdba Rising bookstore in Baltimore and in VA. and are now down to one in DC and one in DC’s gay summer capital Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. I patronize the one in Rehoboth Beach every time I go to that town and sometimes the one in DC (parking in DC is awful and I can park near the one in RB.)
Why do I avoid buying gay books over the internet to get some savings? Because the 2 remaining Lambda Rising bookstores have a better and bigger selection of gay and lesbian books and of far more different kinds of gay-related merchandise (T-shirts, candles, gay greeting cards, rainbow jewelry, door mats, towels, rainbow car window decals, gay DVD movies, artwork and small statues, all gay themed, items depending on store under one roof than you will find in any one site on the internet Plus these stores are like a community gathering place where gay community members and gay-friendly straights come in (like my very liberal cat-owning (3 kitty cats) and fun-loving straight female friend who loves everythng rainbow and who enjoys the company of gay men) buy stuff chat with the friendly clerk behind the counter and with each other, minus malodorious and cough-producing cigarette smoke.
I don’t get that sense of community from
from ordering gay-related books etc from the internet and I would miss my gay bookstore and its friendly clerk and interesting fellow customers and am aware that I could lose the things I treasure most in my gay community. So I go there and I support my local gay bookstore. I prefer that to being alone in my house shopping off the internet having to search this site and that for what I think I want. When I can just walk into my gay bookstore, browse through books, see other people and buy what I want from under one roof and if I don’t like what I am reading, I can just not buy it and find something else there I really want.
It’s a sad day for us all. I have been buying from Oscar Wilde since the mid 70’s. Whenever I am in the ciyt it is my first place to visit. My partner, of 30 yrs, and I will miss this “bookmark” of gay history!!!
The closing of the Oscar Wilde Bookstore leaves Philadelphia’s Giovanni’s Room as the oldest gay bookstore in the country. If you have never visited Giovanni’s, I recommend that you stop by on your next visit to the City of Brotherly Love. It is an outstanding local landmark with one of the most exhaustive libraries of lgbt history and research.
This is sad. A long time ago in Long Beach there was a cool funky book store on Broadway that had a Gay section (as well as porn). One of the most profound things I ever read was in a book there.
“It is better to be hated for what you are, than to be loved for what you are not.” That bookstore was killed a long time ago by the chains. But I still remember it, when I drive by.
Tom in Long Beach
Sadly, Giovanni’s Room in Philadelphia will probably be next to close now that Robin’s is out.
The disappearance of the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop is indeed a loss. I’m glad I had a chance to buy books there on my visits to New York City starting in the early 1980s.
Here’s one historic footnote: The Oscar Wilde was certainly the oldest gay bookstore still in business — but the frequent claim that it was the first in the United States. The Adonis Bookshop in San Francisco, owned by Harrison Kleinschmidt (“J. D. Mercer”) and Don Lucas opened several months before the Oscar Wilde.
This is very sad…especially to happen in NYC — I agree with the comments of Morgan, and shopping on the Internet for books, etc. For What…to save a dollar or two? These real book stores are our history, these stores support our community, these stores give until it hurts…but we don’t give back…wake up LGBT Community, and realize that the things that we take forgranted will not always be there unless we support them. This includes all LGBT Owned businesses…support our own and not an internet store that you have no idea who and what they are giving their money too, you have no idea who you are talking to…or does that not matter anymore to any of you either? It is sad to hear that the LGBT Community of NYC can’t keep a business open, buy books, eat in our restaurants, shop in our stores, not the Pottery Barn’s of the world…and THINK about where you buy things…GET ACTIVELY INVOLVED…and SUPPORT YOUR LOCALLY OWNED GLBT Businesses, otherwise they will also be closing…and then you get to buy everything at Walmart.