{"id":21876,"date":"2011-10-05T15:30:15","date_gmt":"2011-10-05T19:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=21876"},"modified":"2011-10-05T22:11:15","modified_gmt":"2011-10-06T02:11:15","slug":"saving-st-marks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/","title":{"rendered":"Saving St. Mark&#8217;s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/st.-marks.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-21882\" title=\"St. Mark's Bookshop\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/st.-marks.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"303\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/st.-marks.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/st.-marks-297x300.jpg 297w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a>St. Mark\u2019s Bookshop is the one of the last booksellers in the East Village. Since 1979 it has been famous for its collection of fiction, poetry, and criticism. With just 2,700 square feet, it always manages to stock the best new books and literary magazines\u2014things that would get buried in a less selective store. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/2011-09-23\/nyc-s-34-year-old-st-mark-s-bookshop-seeks-rent-cut-to-survive.html\"><em>Pace<\/em> the Bloomberg newswire<\/a>, you could find most of these things online. But first you\u2019d have to look\u2014and St. Mark\u2019s teaches you what to look for.<\/p>\n<p>The staff don\u2019t just select the stock, they proselytize on its behalf and, in their small way, help hold the neighborhood together. Once a friend of mine went up to the information desk and asked the clerk to restore his faith in the contemporary novel. Another time, another friend asked where to find flowers on a Sunday. Both left satisfied. That\u2019s the kind of store it is.<\/p>\n<p>Now it seems St. Mark\u2019s Bookshop may close\u2014not for lack of customers, but for the same reason that the East Village lost its Ukrainian diners: if you\u2019re selling pierogi or paperbacks, it\u2019s hard to make $20,000 every month in rent. The owners of St. Mark\u2019s have\u00a0asked the landlord\u2014the Cooper Union\u2014to lower that rent by $5,000. Friends of the bookstore have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.signon.org\/sign\/save-the-st-marks-bookshop\">circulated a petition<\/a> and have gathered some 40,000 signatures supporting this request.<\/p>\n<p>We at <em>The Paris Review<\/em> have a stake in St. Mark\u2019s Bookshop: the store sells between 150 and 200 copies of each issue of <em>The Paris Review<\/em>. That\u2019s more than we sell in most\u00a0<em>cities<\/em>. It\u2019s more than we sell off our own Web site. Magazines like <em>The Paris Review<\/em> need good bookstores, where the staff knows how to spread the word about good writing, face to face, hand to hand. To our way of thinking, New York needs bookstores, too, or it will no longer be New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>St. Mark\u2019s Bookshop is the one of the last booksellers in the East Village. Since 1979 it has been famous for its collection of fiction, poetry, and criticism. With just 2,700 square feet, it always manages to stock the best new books and literary magazines\u2014things that would get buried in a less selective store. Pace [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2559],"tags":[4240,2574,4237,4239,4241,4238],"class_list":["post-21876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulletin","tag-bloomberg","tag-bookstores","tag-east-village","tag-signatures","tag-st-marks-bookshop","tag-the-cooper-union"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Saving St. Mark&#039;s by Lorin Stein<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"October 5, 2011 \u2013 St. Mark\u2019s Bookshop is the one of the last booksellers in the East Village. Since 1979 it has been famous for its collection of fiction, poetry, and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Saving St. Mark&#039;s by Lorin Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"October 5, 2011 \u2013 St. Mark\u2019s Bookshop is the one of the last booksellers in the East Village. Since 1979 it has been famous for its collection of fiction, poetry, and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-05T19:30:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-10-06T02:11:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/st.-marks.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"303\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lorin Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lorin Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lorin Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ccd66e9829fecb87371ce574d778e34b\"},\"headline\":\"Saving St. Mark&#8217;s\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-05T19:30:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-10-06T02:11:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/\"},\"wordCount\":322,\"commentCount\":15,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/st.-marks.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Bloomberg\",\"bookstores\",\"East Village\",\"signatures\",\"St. Mark's Bookshop\",\"the Cooper Union\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Bulletin\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/\",\"name\":\"Saving St. Mark's by Lorin Stein\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/st.-marks.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-05T19:30:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-10-06T02:11:15+00:00\",\"description\":\"October 5, 2011 \u2013 St. Mark\u2019s Bookshop is the one of the last booksellers in the East Village. Since 1979 it has been famous for its collection of fiction, poetry, and\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/st.-marks.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/st.-marks.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Saving St. Mark&#8217;s\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ccd66e9829fecb87371ce574d778e34b\",\"name\":\"Lorin Stein\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/336124c76cd6e539d4400e8b6c72da18130705594d9fe99e18f431d949440f1c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/336124c76cd6e539d4400e8b6c72da18130705594d9fe99e18f431d949440f1c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lorin Stein\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/lstein\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Saving St. Mark's by Lorin Stein","description":"October 5, 2011 \u2013 St. Mark\u2019s Bookshop is the one of the last booksellers in the East Village. Since 1979 it has been famous for its collection of fiction, poetry, and","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Saving St. Mark's by Lorin Stein","og_description":"October 5, 2011 \u2013 St. Mark\u2019s Bookshop is the one of the last booksellers in the East Village. Since 1979 it has been famous for its collection of fiction, poetry, and","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2011-10-05T19:30:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-10-06T02:11:15+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":303,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/st.-marks.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Lorin Stein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lorin Stein","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/"},"author":{"name":"Lorin Stein","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ccd66e9829fecb87371ce574d778e34b"},"headline":"Saving St. Mark&#8217;s","datePublished":"2011-10-05T19:30:15+00:00","dateModified":"2011-10-06T02:11:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/"},"wordCount":322,"commentCount":15,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/st.-marks.jpg","keywords":["Bloomberg","bookstores","East Village","signatures","St. Mark's Bookshop","the Cooper Union"],"articleSection":["Bulletin"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/","name":"Saving St. Mark's by Lorin Stein","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/st.-marks.jpg","datePublished":"2011-10-05T19:30:15+00:00","dateModified":"2011-10-06T02:11:15+00:00","description":"October 5, 2011 \u2013 St. Mark\u2019s Bookshop is the one of the last booksellers in the East Village. Since 1979 it has been famous for its collection of fiction, poetry, and","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/st.-marks.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/st.-marks.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/saving-st-marks\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Saving St. Mark&#8217;s"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ccd66e9829fecb87371ce574d778e34b","name":"Lorin Stein","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/336124c76cd6e539d4400e8b6c72da18130705594d9fe99e18f431d949440f1c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/336124c76cd6e539d4400e8b6c72da18130705594d9fe99e18f431d949440f1c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Lorin Stein"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/lstein\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21876"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21886,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21876\/revisions\/21886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}