6 Plympton Street – Grolier Poetry Book Shop
Founded in 1927 by Adrian Gambet and Gordon Cairnie, Grolier Poetry Book Shop is the oldest continuously run poetry shop in the country. Located on the corner of Mass Ave and Plympton Street, the Georgian Revival building was constructed in 1902 as an exclusive dormitory, known as Hamden Hall, with retail on the bottom floor. The building was remodeled in 1917 for apartments.
The book shop initially stocked mainly private press books, some poetry, and a sampling of avant-garde literature. Poets frequented the 404-square foot spot over the years including Charles Olson, Anais Nin, Seamus Heaney, Frank Bidart, Robert Pinsky, and David Ferry.
In 1976, then owner Louisa Solano developed the Grolier as an exclusive showcase for poetry. According to an article in The Paris Review, Solano had first stepped into the store at the age of fifteen and knew she wanted to own a store like that one day. She stocked around 15,000 current poetry volumes with an emphasis on small press publications. That same year saw the co-sponsorship of the Grolier Poetry Prize with the Blacksmith House Poetry Reading Series. She also introduced the concept of autograph/reading parties. As the audiences increased, the poets moved from inside the store to the stairs. A formal reading series soon developed. In 1986 the Intercollegiate Undergraduate Poetry Reading Series was established. Eleven colleges were represented. For the duration of her ownership, the Ellen La Forge Memorial Poetry Foundation assumed the funding of these activities and the sole responsibility of the Prize. In 1987, Solano received the Women’s National Book Association Award as one of 70 Who Have Made A Difference.
In April 2006 Ms. Solano sold the Grolier Book Shop to Ifeanyi Menkiti, poet and professor of philosophy at Wellesley College. Although the store was in dire financial straits, Menkiti said “…it was a labor of love. It was something that needed to be done to keep a historic place from going under” (The Paris Review, Feb. 2013). In 2008, the corner of Plympton Street and Bow Street was dedicated as Louisa Solano Square.
Mr. Menkiti passed away in June 2019. In an interview with the Harvard Crimson newspaper in 2017, Menkiti considered the appeal of poetry, “After 9/11, people didn’t ask to read a book of history, or a novel—they wanted to read a book of poems,” Menkiti says. “In a time of happiness or discomfort, people seem to fall back on poetry. What is it about poetry that has this hold on us, that allows it to be a source of solace, grief, and celebration?”
Sources
Grolier Book Shop, http://www.grolierpoetrybookshop.org/index.html
Harvard Crimson, https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/11/9/grolier-poetry-shop/
The Paris Review, https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2013/02/26/house-of-poesy/
