First Class Bookstore for the Second City

Chicago's The Seminary Co-op Bookstore, housed in the basement of Chicago Theological Seminary, was founded in 1961 when 17 students from the University of Chicago and area seminaries each invested $10 to open a co-operative and, shortly after, the bookstore. It has since expanded and has two more branches -- 57th Street Books and The Newberry Library bookstore -- with each store maintaining its own character and the initial co-operative business plan. The bookstores are owned by their 45,000 members in Chicago, throughout the U.S., and the world.

"When I first started working at the bookstore," said Events Coordinator Pier Petersen, a 10-year veteran, "I was a little astounded by how completely devoted to books it is. Not all bookstores are like that." The 2,800-square-foot bookstore is in "the sort of basement with tennis balls over projecting pieces of pipe," said Petersen, noting that the store focuses its energies less on décor and more on the approximately 100,000 titles in stock. The bookstore is the longstanding tenant of the seminary, but isn't officially connected with it.

Anyone can become a member of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores by purchasing three shares of stock at $10 per share. Benefits include a 10 percent discount on most purchases at any of the three Chicago stores and all books bought online at the Seminary Co-op, a share in the store's earnings, and occasional member-only sales.

Seminary Co-op joined Book Sense last year, is a BookSense.com member, and also signed on for the Book Sense gift card program. The Seminary Co-op Bookstores had used their own gift certificate in the past, but Petersen reported that after introducing the gift cards "sales were up 15 percent over the previous year's Christmas season's sales of gift certificates." She added that the cards are "still outperforming gift certificates by that much or more."

The bookstore specializes in academic titles and boasts the largest collection of academic presses in the U.S. Bookstore sections include social science, philosophy, religion, sociology, history, anthropology, and literary criticism. "We also have an enormous poetry section," said Petersen. "And a lot of literature. We carry many titles that others don't -- foreign literature, literature in translation, critical theory, and deep backlist."

The Co-op bought the 57th Street Store, on the south side of Chicago, in fall of 1983. The general bookstore is about one-third larger than the Seminary branch and emphasizes literary fiction and nonfiction, along with children's literature. It has an extensive events calendar and often co-ordinates readings with the University of Chicago and area libraries. Recent appearing authors were Tom Reiss (The Orientalist, Random House) and David Bodanis (The Electric Universe, Crown).

During February, to mark Black History month, the bookstore held the First Annual African-American History Month Celebration, with 10 authors/illustrators participating in the day's events. Visiting author/illustrators were Darwin Walton (What Color Are You?, Johnson Pub Co.); Claire Hartfield (Me and Uncle Romie, Dial Books); and Janice Harrington (Going North, FSG), among others. Although most of the authors presented children's titles, adult materials were also represented. The store held a Black History trivia quiz with prizes of free books given to those who answered questions correctly.

The third branch of the Co-op bookstores, the Newberry Library Bookstore, is a small store within the Newberry Library in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago, formerly owned by the library. Ten years ago, the library asked the Co-op to take it over; now the Co-op is essentially their tenant, but works closely with the library to coordinate inventory and readings.

The bookstore stocks titles that tie in with the subjects of the library, which include American History, Renaissance History, Native American History, Cartography, and Genealogy. It also offers a select assortment of subject-appropriate sidelines, for example, genealogy charts and trees. Like the other two branches, the library bookstore also has a busy events schedule -- Sherman Alexie (The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Perennial) and Joseph Marshall (The Journey Of Crazy Horse, Viking) recently gave readings at offsite venues.

"Each store serves a distinct and diverse community of customers," said Petersen, who discussed the differences and similarities among the three stores. "The Seminary Co-op serves academics from all over the world; 57th Street Books caters to serious readers from Hyde Park and across Chicago who are looking for general interest titles; and the Newberry Library Bookstore meets the scholarly needs of the Library, and offers a good selection of books and gifts to customers on the city's North Side. But all three stores share a commitment to providing our customers -- who are also our owners -- with the best selection of books available anywhere." --Karen Schechner