Old Harbor Books in Sitka, Alaska

When Don Muller first landed in Sitka in the mid-1970s, he worked as a chemist at the local pulp mill. When he could no longer tolerate the mill's effects on the surrounding Tongass Forest, he left. Muller and his wife, Mary Stensvold, then formed a partnership with two other couples to create Old Harbor Books, a store with a special focus on environmental and other progressive causes. Thirty years later, the successful business partnership -- with Chuck and Alice Johnstone and Lee and Linda Schmidt -- is still intact, and the mill has since closed. Muller and Stensvold oversee the day-to-day operations of the store, which will celebrate its three decades of service to southeast Alaska on May 13.

"The bookstore is seen as a center for environmental activism," said Muller. "We've been involved with anti-war stuff and associated with all kinds of things seen as progressive. We own the building and some of our tenants are the Sitka Conservation Society and the Alaska Rainforest Campaign. We're seen as a lefty kind of place."

Though Old Harbor is known for its activism, Muller stressed that it's a "good, solid general bookstore." About the 10- to 12,000-title inventory, Muller noted, "I think we have a good selection in almost all categories. We have very good literature, poetry, and science sections. In our science section, we have our books on global warming and anything related to environmentalism. We have a really good nautical and fishing section. Our Alaska section is probably the most important. We get so many tourists. And, of course, we'll special order any book for anybody."

The bookstore also distributes the children's and adult Book Sense Picks lists and has a cart with employee and Book Sense Picks near the cash registers.

Old Harbor's varied mix of inventory can trace its beginnings to store mentor Inez Gregg of the now closed Baranof Books in Juneau, Alaska. "We visited her before we opened," Muller explained. "She became the grandmother of our bookstore. She gave help any way she could. We would send her our catalogs, and she would make suggestions and send them back. That's how we chose our direction as a bookstore -- that we should have as many titles and as wide a selection as we could. One piece of advice she gave us that has proven to be true over the years is that the bigger your selection the more you sell."

The 1,200-square-foot store is on the first floor of a two-story peaked-roof building built in the 1890s. Previous tenants include a shoe store, an Elk's Lodge, and a number of bars. More than 100 years after its construction, Muller told BTW, the building is still one of the greatest locations in Sitka -- downtown and in the middle of the city's one main street. Old Harbor shares the first floor with a coffee shop, which has been in business at the back of the store for the past 10 years.

Though Muller was in the midst of planning for Saturday's anniversary party, he still had time to recommend a title about bookselling and its connection to community and cultural integrity -- Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption, by Laura Miller (University of Chicago Press). A must for booksellers, Muller said.

The owners of the coffee shop will be celebrating their store's 10th anniversary this weekend, and the party for the two businesses will include drinks, snacks, prize drawings, and liberal distribution of Old Harbor t-shirts and mugs.

"I think my philosophy has always been, have the best selection of books and let people make up their own minds," Muller said. "We don't take out ads telling people what to read and that such and such book is the best one ever. It's passive capitalism. So far, knock on wood, the [other partners] have not insisted on profit as our main goal. Community service has always been our primary motive." --Karen Schechner