Maia Lafortezza

86 Years and 18 Miles of Books and Counting: The History of Strand Books Where it all began: Bound by a Family The Strand was born in 1927 over on Fourth Avenue on what was then called ”Book Row”. Book Row covered six city blocks and housed forty-eight bookstores. Ben Bass, the father, was all of twenty-five years old when he began his modest used bookstore. An entrepreneur at heart, a reader by nature, this erudite man began with $300 dollars of his own and $300 dollars that he borrowed from a friend. Ben sought to create a place where books would be loved, and book lovers could congregate. He named his bookstore after the London street where avant-garde writers like Thackeray, Dickens and Mill once gathered and interesting book publishers thrived. The Strand quickly became a Greenwich Village institution where writers went to converse, sell their books and find a hidden treasure to buy. Today, the Strand is the sole survivor of Book Row’s colorful past. Ben’s son, Fred, by the age of thirteen was learning the family business. He too a lover of books took quickly to the book trade. After Fred completed a tour of duty in the Armed Forces, he came home to New York where he worked side-by-side with his father. By 1957, Fred moved the store just around the corner, to our current space at 12th Street and Broadway. Fred came to spend most of his time at the buying desk, cultivating relationships with regulars and scoping out the next great find… The next in the Bass family to take to the business was Fred’s daughter, Nancy. After college and a short stint in Louisiana, she came back to her roots and joined the Strand team at the age of 25. Today, she co-manages the store with her father. The jury’s still out on whether one, two or all three of Nancy’s kids will be next in line to join the Strand team.