Adams Avenue Literary Renaissance Is One for Books

Betty Jurus stood outside the Writers’ Bookstore & Haven, talking about the neighborhood that used to be. Oh, sure, the shoe repair store is still there, as are the Irish bar, the Mexican restaurant and the lawn mower shop. But now there are bookstores and bookstores and bookstores . . . and more on the way.

Adams Avenue in Normal Heights, leading into Kensington, is becoming inundated with small, independent bookstores dealing mostly in used books. Only the Normal Heights Bookstore, at Adams and Felton streets, carries new books.

Jurus, who opened the Writers’ Bookstore & Haven in 1983, calls it “a proliferation,” “a renaissance” and the natural evolution of a “bohemian” neighborhood. Small, independent bookstores are dying across America, but apparently not along Adams, where the merchants view competition more in terms of cooperation and esprit de corps .

No Waldenbooks

“You’re not going to see any Waldenbooks opening up along here,” said Leif Fearn, who owns and operates Kabyn Books, which rents space in the rear of Writers’ Bookstore & Haven. Kabyn Books deals in educational books for children.

“This is not the most commercial area in the world--and that’s what makes it special,” said Fearn, whose store is one of three inside the Writers’ Bookstore and Haven. The other is Jax Photo Books, which deals exclusively in books about photography.

Jack Hastings, who owns the Prince and the Pauper, a children’s bookstore at 3285 Adams Ave., said that last Sunday may have been the culmination of the street’s love affair with books--a book fair that drew more than 2,000 readers, some from as far away as Arizona and Michigan. Hillcrest and downtown share clusters of bookstores, but, as Hastings pointed out, no other area of the city seems to have them all on one street.

Hastings, who opened the Prince and the Pauper in May of last year, said he did so in search of an “avocation” and as a prelude to retirement. He said he’s been startled by the success of the store, which is tucked away in what looks to be a wonderful, magic closet full of some of the classiest books in the history of children’s literature.

He has an 1884 copy of “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, with illustrations by Gustave Dore. In that era, such was considered a children’s book, Hastings said, since no books were written specifically for children. He’ll sell you “The Raven” for $525.

As you enter Hastings’ store, a gigantic green parrot is apt to startle you with his high-pitched voice. His name?

“Prince,” Hastings said, “and I’m the pauper.”

But it isn’t true. Hastings said the store has been so successful that he’s looking for a larger space. He hopes to move within the year but will stay on Adams Avenue--to do otherwise, he said, would be traitorous.

He isn’t the only one looking for larger spaces in which to open bookstores on Adams Avenue. Grounds for Murder, a mystery bookstore in Old Town, is hoping to relocate on Adams, possibly by buying out the building that once housed a movie theater, a fundamentalist church and a punk-rock nightclub, but which now lies dormant.

“Our owner (Phyllis Brown) is considering it,” said Carol Dorman, manager of Grounds for Murder. “It’s not definite yet. I think she’s just ready for a change, as are so many bookstores, and a lot is happening over there on Adams.”

Dorman said bookstore owners--especially owners of the small, independent stores--rarely think in terms of how to one-up the guy next door, mainly because each has a specialty.

“We all want to be in one place,” she said, “because that’s where people who love books are going to be gathered. If anything, small stores usually refer customers among their places. It works better that way.”

Holds Court Over Store

Hal Alexander, who moved here a decade ago from Chicago, is now the proprietor of Writers’ Bookstore and Haven, having recently acquired the store from Jurus. Alexander holds court over a store in which, on a recent drizzly morning, four women sat in “the sanctuary” (a small, private room) reading from a play one had written. Critical comments were followed by hasty revisions and then applause.

Out front, Alexander browsed through shelves that contain books written by people who customarily frequent the store. There was “There Is No Zoo in Zoology (And Other Beastly Mispronunciations),” by Charles Harrington Elster; “Boundless Love,” a romance novel by Laurel Chandler, and “Mission Bay Murder,” by Carlton Williams.

“Our whole focus is for writers who write and read,” Alexander said. “We believe writers are writers before, as well as after, publication. If you’re only interested in writing better letters to a friend, you’re welcome.”

Alexander said any interest in books is “terrific” in a community “with so many distractions that work against reading . . . the beach, the park, the zoo. It makes reading less appealing. If you’re stuck in the middle of Minnesota in the winter, in the woods, and you have a cabin full of volumes by Keats, you’ll read Keats. And you’ll love Keats. In San Diego, many would feel differently. So this interest in books is wonderful.”

Among the seven bookstores clustered within a quarter of a mile, the Normal Heights Bookstore numbers among its new books a healthy stock of science fiction. Safari deals in out-of-print and extremely hard-to-get books through what owner J. R. Bohannon calls its “search service.”

He said “the most fun I have” is looking for books whose authors have lost their copies. He meets these writers through Writers’ Bookstore and Haven. He recently found “The Magic of Herbs” for its local author, Scott Cunningham.

Jurus, who maintains an active interest in the Writers’ Bookstore and Haven as well as the new look of the street itself, said owners of these stores know what they’re up to.

“They’re all individuals and individualists,” she said, “but they know that getting book lovers to go from shop to shop is a great idea that serves everybody well. If the block contained only one store, and it didn’t have the book you wanted, you’d probably just go home. This way, you’ll browse through the other stores. This has become a community of books and bookstores for people who love books. I, personally, can’t think of anything better.”