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| Welcome to Hobart, New York: America's burgeoning book village | Welcome to Hobart, New York: America's burgeoning book village |
| (about 4 hours later) | |
| Recently the writer and literary critic Ruth Franklin, author of the forthcoming biography of the writer Shirley Jackson, wanted to take her nine-year-old daughter out of the city for a while. She chose the unassuming Catskills town of Hobart, New York, as her destination. | |
| With six bookstores, an art gallery, a coffee spot that serves breakfast and lunch, and the recent purchase of a building that’s to be renovated into a proper English pub by the new owners, the town has undergone an unlikely transformation into something akin to an English village. | With six bookstores, an art gallery, a coffee spot that serves breakfast and lunch, and the recent purchase of a building that’s to be renovated into a proper English pub by the new owners, the town has undergone an unlikely transformation into something akin to an English village. |
| “At first we were a little disappointed that it was smaller than we expected,” Franklin told the Guardian by email. “But as soon as we started looking in the bookstores, we got pretty excited. My daughter picked up copies of the Green, Yellow and Rose Fairy Books, which she had never encountered before.” | “At first we were a little disappointed that it was smaller than we expected,” Franklin told the Guardian by email. “But as soon as we started looking in the bookstores, we got pretty excited. My daughter picked up copies of the Green, Yellow and Rose Fairy Books, which she had never encountered before.” |
| Her daughter browsed the children’s sections; Franklin found a first edition of Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle from Adams’ Antiquarian. “We spent around $100 and came home with about two dozen books,” Franklin added, a respectable haul. | Her daughter browsed the children’s sections; Franklin found a first edition of Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle from Adams’ Antiquarian. “We spent around $100 and came home with about two dozen books,” Franklin added, a respectable haul. |
| Surrounded by red barns, silos and pasturing animals, and nestled between verdant hills and the west branch of the Delaware River, the main street of Hobart runs parallel to the former railway line turned into the meandering Catskills Scenic Trail. According to Hobart’s one-man booster squad (and real estate investor and bookstore owner), Don Dales, the only business open in Hobart in 1999 was a diner run by an eccentric woman who would duck down behind the counter and turn off the lights if she saw a stranger approaching her establishment. “Hobart was essentially a ghost town,” he says. | Surrounded by red barns, silos and pasturing animals, and nestled between verdant hills and the west branch of the Delaware River, the main street of Hobart runs parallel to the former railway line turned into the meandering Catskills Scenic Trail. According to Hobart’s one-man booster squad (and real estate investor and bookstore owner), Don Dales, the only business open in Hobart in 1999 was a diner run by an eccentric woman who would duck down behind the counter and turn off the lights if she saw a stranger approaching her establishment. “Hobart was essentially a ghost town,” he says. |
| Over the years, Dales began buying up the inexpensive retail storefronts in town, explaining: “I’ve got a bee in my bonnet to do something with Hobart,” and began giving retail space away. But even a year of free rent didn’t lure businesses and many of his renters didn’t pay their electricity bills. | |
| Enter Diana and Bill Adams, a lawyer and a physician, respectively, married New York City residents who drove through Hobart on a weekend trip in 2000, and then again visited the area in 2001 for a wedding. Despite having demanding full-time jobs, they saw a retail space (not owned by Dales) on Hobart’s Main Street and rented it on the spot. Then they made an offer on a house up the road and closed on it the week before 9/11. | Enter Diana and Bill Adams, a lawyer and a physician, respectively, married New York City residents who drove through Hobart on a weekend trip in 2000, and then again visited the area in 2001 for a wedding. Despite having demanding full-time jobs, they saw a retail space (not owned by Dales) on Hobart’s Main Street and rented it on the spot. Then they made an offer on a house up the road and closed on it the week before 9/11. |
| “It was spontaneous,” says Diana Adams of their entry into Hobart and professional book-selling. The Adamses Antiquarian bookshop opened in 2002. “We didn’t know what we were doing. Now retired from their previous careers, and New York City, Bill Adams adds: “Our aim was to buy books and afford to travel and buy new books.” | “It was spontaneous,” says Diana Adams of their entry into Hobart and professional book-selling. The Adamses Antiquarian bookshop opened in 2002. “We didn’t know what we were doing. Now retired from their previous careers, and New York City, Bill Adams adds: “Our aim was to buy books and afford to travel and buy new books.” |
| A few years later Dales decided to get into the book-selling business himself. “The way the Adams tell the story, I was sitting down there having tea one day and said: ‘Well, no one is renting these stores for free, so dammit, I’ll do it myself.’” The Adamses confirm his story. Dales opened two bookstores and when two other bookstores were added to the mix in 2005 Hobart Book Village was born. Since then the bookstores have come and gone, been bought and sold, and merged and melded. | A few years later Dales decided to get into the book-selling business himself. “The way the Adams tell the story, I was sitting down there having tea one day and said: ‘Well, no one is renting these stores for free, so dammit, I’ll do it myself.’” The Adamses confirm his story. Dales opened two bookstores and when two other bookstores were added to the mix in 2005 Hobart Book Village was born. Since then the bookstores have come and gone, been bought and sold, and merged and melded. |
| Dennis Lauchman, owner of Butternut Valley Books, who sells much his selection online and at books and ephemera shows, was convinced to open his Hobart location last year by the Adams. “Selling online is more efficient, but this is much more fun. And the Adamses do so much promotion for the town, it makes it worth it,” he says. | Dennis Lauchman, owner of Butternut Valley Books, who sells much his selection online and at books and ephemera shows, was convinced to open his Hobart location last year by the Adams. “Selling online is more efficient, but this is much more fun. And the Adamses do so much promotion for the town, it makes it worth it,” he says. |
| Now celebrating their 10th anniversary a book village, there are six bookstores, a book village dog and two book village cats, and business has grown every year since the village’s founding. | Now celebrating their 10th anniversary a book village, there are six bookstores, a book village dog and two book village cats, and business has grown every year since the village’s founding. |
| At the Adamses Antiquarian Book Shop, there are three browsable floors of fine books at a variety of price points. The Adamses regularly make buying trips to England, and their special focus is on rare Greek and Latin books. “To say we’re becoming known for them is an overstatement, but they represent a high percentage of our sales,” says Diana Adams. | At the Adamses Antiquarian Book Shop, there are three browsable floors of fine books at a variety of price points. The Adamses regularly make buying trips to England, and their special focus is on rare Greek and Latin books. “To say we’re becoming known for them is an overstatement, but they represent a high percentage of our sales,” says Diana Adams. |
| At Blenheim Hill Books, co-owned by retired Rutgers professors, Barbara J Balliet and poet Cheryl Clarke, the selection is more general, with some collectibles on subjects ranging from gardens to photography. “We bought the stock and weeded it down,” says Clarke. “We also have a barn that’s full of books.” Clarke and Balliet are also the organizers of Hobart’s annual Festival of Women Writers, with Clarke’s sister, the writer Breena Clarke. In its third year, the festival takes place the weekend after Labor Day and in 2014 drew more than 100 writers to the village. | At Blenheim Hill Books, co-owned by retired Rutgers professors, Barbara J Balliet and poet Cheryl Clarke, the selection is more general, with some collectibles on subjects ranging from gardens to photography. “We bought the stock and weeded it down,” says Clarke. “We also have a barn that’s full of books.” Clarke and Balliet are also the organizers of Hobart’s annual Festival of Women Writers, with Clarke’s sister, the writer Breena Clarke. In its third year, the festival takes place the weekend after Labor Day and in 2014 drew more than 100 writers to the village. |
| Liberty Rocks Books opened in 2014 and has a newly renovated 5,000 sq ft space, a broad selection of used and antiquarian books, an art gallery, a small display of contemporary fine press publications from Brooklyn’s Ugly Duckling Presse, and a wing called the Hobart Booksellers Emporium, with shelves available to be rented out by other dealers. One of the first occupants of the wing is a micro-bookstore of six shelves of books by and about James Joyce. | Liberty Rocks Books opened in 2014 and has a newly renovated 5,000 sq ft space, a broad selection of used and antiquarian books, an art gallery, a small display of contemporary fine press publications from Brooklyn’s Ugly Duckling Presse, and a wing called the Hobart Booksellers Emporium, with shelves available to be rented out by other dealers. One of the first occupants of the wing is a micro-bookstore of six shelves of books by and about James Joyce. |
| There are more specialized stores, too. Around the World with Books and Cooks is a bookstore cooperative run by three other sellers and carries foreign language books for adult and children and vintage cookbooks in English. Butternut Valley Books is a small but jam-packed store full of old books, maps and paper ephemera. Lauchman lives 40 miles away, and spent many years selling books outdoors in Haarlem, Amsterdam. Mysteries & More is owned by Don Dales himself and is stocked with vintage mysteries, suspense, thrillers and science fiction. It’s also home to Big Red, the detective cat. Like the other bookstores Dales has owned in Hobart, he notes that Mysteries & More is for sale. | |
| One of the things that both delights and worries the booksellers of Hobart is the frequent comparison to the much larger and well-established book village of Hay-on-Wye in Wales on the English border. They don’t want to disappoint visitors. Even though they took loose inspiration from the village when they started opening bookstores, and like Hay, they added a festival and lecture series to its offerings, the scale is much different and always will be (Hay-on-Wye has a population of 1,900, and over 20 bookstores in town as well as other businesses). Its festival draws thousands. Hobart is a village of 441 and still is seeking a variety of businesses to help fill out the Main Street, like the planned English pub, to truly become a weekend destination. | |
| Despite being three and a half hours from Brooklyn (and a healthy drive beyond the reach of ongoing hipsterfication of Kingston and other similar Catskills towns like Phoenicia and Woodstock), Diana Adams says a significant percentage of their visitors are from Brooklyn, many of whom do make the tie to the Welsh book village. | Despite being three and a half hours from Brooklyn (and a healthy drive beyond the reach of ongoing hipsterfication of Kingston and other similar Catskills towns like Phoenicia and Woodstock), Diana Adams says a significant percentage of their visitors are from Brooklyn, many of whom do make the tie to the Welsh book village. |
| Adams concurs: “You just can’t imagine how much like England it is. It’s beautiful and it’s changed our lives.” | Adams concurs: “You just can’t imagine how much like England it is. It’s beautiful and it’s changed our lives.” |