Melville House to Lead The Morley Walk

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On August 18, Mellville House will be leading publishers, authors, and readers on a walking bookstore tour throughout Brooklyn, stopping at five of the area’s indie shops while reading Christopher Morley’s novella The Haunted Bookshop in its entirety.

The event –– which has been dubbed “The Morley Walk” –– has two purposes: to expose readers to the bookstores in Brooklyn, as well as to celebrate Morley’s legacy. “I’d love to see Morley recognized as the patron saint of bookselling,” said Dustin Kurtz, marketing manager at Melville House. “His books are stirring beyond belief.” The Haunted Bookshop and its prequel, Parnassus on Wheels, have been reprinted by Melville House this month as part of its “The Art of the Novella” series. Both books center around a bookselling business in Brooklyn, with emphasis placed on the power of literature.

“These two titles stood out to us as some of the best stuff ever written about bookselling,” said Kurtz. “So it made sense for us to celebrate some of the city’s great bookstores while we read it.” As a former bookseller, Kurtz hopes to expose Brooklyn readers to the indie stores they may not know about.

Those who attend the event will visit the participating businesses: Lark Café (with books provided by WORD ), Community Bookstore, Terrace Books, powerHouse on 8th, Unnameable Books, and Greenlight Bookstore, with an after party being held at Brooklyn’sDer Schwarze Kölner Biergarten. The group will move from store to store, reading aloud near the businesses’ entrances, then taking pause for attendees to browse and shop. Many people throughout the literary community –– publishers, local authors, and booksellers –– have signed on to read at the event.

The Morley Walk is being advertised by each participating business, all of which have displayed posters in their stores, as well as by Melville House, which has included The Morley Walk in its event listings.

When Greenlight co-owner Jessica Stockton Bagnulo first heard of the idea, “honestly, I thought it was kind of crazy,” she said. “But the more I heard about it, and heard Dustin’s enthusiasm and that of fellow booksellers, the more I fell in love with the quixotic, larky nature of the thing.”

Stockton Bagnulo is looking forward to seeing entertaining photos, videos, and live-tweeting of the event, and hopes that its unconventionality will bring some attention to Morley’s work.

“I have a tattered old used copy of The Haunted Bookshop that I read with astonishment and delight long before I had a bookstore in Brooklyn,” she said. “It’s so gratifying that it’s been picked up by Melville House, which creates such beautiful editions. 

“The Morley Walk seems like just the kind of philosophical, idealistic (i.e. crazy) literary thing that Morley himself would have loved,” Stockton Bagnulo continued. “I hope people are talking about it for a long while.”