But if we’re lucky enough to have a local bookstore nearby we ought to do what we can to help keep it alive, right? So I was happy to spend those extra bucks at Mrs. Dalloway’s Books, a special spot in my corner of town.

A homegrown bookshop inspired by Virginia Woolf

My little neighborhood in Berkeley is called the Elmwood.  There are only about three blocks of shops, cafes and restaurants, and one old deco movie theater.

The Elmwood doesn’t quite fit the image of Republic of Berkeley radical politics.

It’s quiet and slow here — practically a throwback to the fifties — though Ozzie’s funky soda fountain has now given way to a new ice cream boutique, called “Ici” – get it?  A little precious, but very popular, judging from the long lines down the block, even when it’s raining.

We know we’re lucky

At a time when independent book stores are shutting down across the country, here in the Elmwood we’re fortunate to have Mrs. Dalloway’s, a homegrown bookshop inspired by the first line of Virginia Woolf’s 1925 literary novel: “Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.”

There’s a resident mannequin in the window representing Mrs. Dalloway, usually dressed in witty outfits that evoke both Virginia Woolf and a spirit of the good green world of flowers and gardening.

It’s not a huge place, but open and airy, with tables of recommended books and walls lined with many more titles spine-out.  There’s a conservatory-like feel with a strong ‘green’ motif: eco-friendly seagrass and slate floor coverings, rattan chairs and the fixtures and wood moldings are painted in earthy natural colors.

Catering to the customer

The store has a distinct attitude and approach, and caters to its customers. In addition to literary fiction, current affairs, mysteries, biography, memoir, travel literature, poetry, and children’s books, there’s a large selection of gardening books chosen for their utility in Berkeley’s Mediterranean climate, plus shelves of books devoted to architecture and design.

Beyond books, Mrs. Dalloway’s sells things related thematically to the store’s concept: potted plants, unusual copper, ceramic, and glass vases to hold cut flowers; original art for hanging, including watercolors, photography and weavings, and also English, French, and German botanical and insect prints.

And Mrs. Dalloway’s offers free same-day delivery in the neighborhood.  Take that, Amazon!

Another indie bookstore perk: local author readings

The owners, two longtime friends, program a regular series of events that focus on mainly local authors of literary fiction, poetry, and topics of special interest to the neighborhood.  Michael Pollan, best-selling author of The Botany of Desire, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and In Defense of Food, has spoken and read there, as have Nafisa Haji, from her novel The Writing on My Forehead, and Eve Pell from her memoir We Used to Own the Bronx: Memoirs of a Former Debutante.

Mrs. Dalloway’s has the occasional sale but doesn’t discount books on a regular basis. I suspect that it’s difficult for them to compete with the big retailers like Barnes & Noble or the giant store-killing colossus of Amazon.

So sure, I could have saved $12 the other day by shopping at Amazon in these tough financial times. But I think it’s worth it to support my neighborhood bookstore, with all its perky charm and passionate devotion to providing what its local customers want.

Do you still have a neighborhood bookstore?

OK. That’s Mrs. Dalloway’s, my neighborhood bookstore. What’s yours? Hope you still have one. Please leave comments and let’s share what we hope will be a continuing tradition of the unique and irreplaceable independent bookstore.

And if you’ve got a photo of your bookstore, send it to alan@alanrinzler.com and we’ll post it along with mine of Mrs. Dalloway’s.  Please write “bookstore photo” in the subject line, and in the email include the name of the store and town.

Your favorite bookstores

Here we go, the first one in from the coastal town of Cannon Beach, Oregon.  The quintessential little independent bookstore, isn’t it?  Makes you want to pull up a chair.  We’d love to see more favorite bookshops, from all corners of the map, so send them over!

D.H. Lawrence and Willa Cather, playwright Thornton Wilder, poet Robinson Jeffers, painter Georgia O’Keefe, and photographer Ansel Adams are among those who arrived here at turning points in their careers and felt the Taos region exert a profound influence on their work.

The separate reality of Taos Pueblo

The undeniable pull of northern New Mexico as a literary destination is often attributed to the presence of the Taos Pueblo, an ancient village where the Red Willow Tribe has lived continuously for more than a thousand years. Members of the tribe who live at the pueblo today have no electricity and for water rely on the river that runs through it.

Taos Pueblo is a stunning sight. When you see the rich brown adobe dwellings stacked five stories high in sharp relief against the brilliant blue sky, you realize that you’re at the source of the famed southwest culture and architecture seen throughout the region and beyond. The thickened walls, organic, rounded edges and the vigas – heavy log rafters that hold up the roofs — are familiar and timeless.

You can feel how the enduring presence and integrity of these people has inspired writers and their readers to believe there’s a separate reality beneath their stoic and serene style of life, layers within layers of mystic truth and knowledge that only the Indians know – and they’re not telling.

Mabel Dodge Luhan, literary muse

Anyone on a literary quest to Taos soon learns about Mabel Dodge Luhan, a wealthy heiress from the East who arrived in 1917 with fistfuls of dollars and a burning desire to become the muse of the high desert.

Luhan tried to fulfill her fabulous visions by building a counterculture paradise that would offer a communal alternative to what she perceived as a failed materialistic Western culture. She married a local Pueblo Indian, Tony Luhan, and valiantly herded famous artistic cats to her home, with mixed results.

D.H. Lawrence, for example, accepted her invitation in 1922 to visit the place she described as “the dawn of the world” as he was coincidentally traveling the globe, looking for a site to establish his own utopian community.

Things fall apart

Lawrence agreed at first with Luhan’s claim that the indigenous culture of the American Southwest should “shift American consciousness towards organic expression.”

But after a few months, relationships turned sour, as Luhan pressured Lawrence to write the ultimate book about Taos that would revolutionize the world.

Instead, the cranky and mercurial Lawrence painted over the open glass windows of her second story bathroom with watercolors “perhaps to avoid having to see Luhan naked,” according to Lynn Cline in her book on the early Taos and Santa Fe writers’ colonies, Literary Pilgrims. You can still see his artwork decorating the windows in Luhan’s private quarters at what is now a B&B called the Mabel Dodge Luhan House.

You too can sleep here

We jumped at the opportunity to spend a weekend there in the Robinson Jeffers room with its traditional mud walls and high wooden ceiling built of log vigas. Through the windows one night we watched a spectacular midnight moonrise worthy of Ansel Adams’ famous 8×10 Land Camera.

On a stormy afternoon we curled up reading in the B&B’s atmospheric library filled with Luhan’s personal photographs and precious artifacts, basically unchanged since she presided over her literary salons of luminaries whose works became associated with the region.

A writer under every stone

Writers and visual artists continue to come to Taos, drawn to the stark beauty and bold forces of nature here.

“The stars are different,” Georgia O’Keefe said. “The air is different here, the wind is different.”

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Look here for more literary destinations

The Vineyard is one of those enchanted places in the world closely associated with writers and publishing. Think of Paris with Joyce, Fitzgerald, and Hemingway drinking absinthe at the Deux Magots. San Francisco has the legacy of City Lights Bookstore, Kerouac, Ginsburg, Ferlinghetti, and the beat generation. East Hampton has been for decades the place where you see editors and authors playing softball and making deals on the beach in August.

In Martha’s Vineyard, residents and summer visitors have been writing about the island’s history, culture, beautiful ponds and shoreline, incredible wildlife, and highly diverse residents for more than 200 years.

Do you like to poke around bookstores when you travel? So do I. I’ve been wandering through antique shows, garage sales, and book shops, discovering obscure out-of-print and self-published titles on the famous and infamous events and personalities of the island.

The best book I came across about the true flavor and personality of the island was a two-volume oral history called Vineyard Voices: Words, Faces and Voices of Island People, a large beautifully produced set, which includes interviews and photographs of a broad variety of local denizens. I found both editions at an antique sale at the West Tisbury Grange for about $120 each, but you can find them for less online.

Many other titles are available, from mysteries to children’s books. One entertaining example for adults is Holly Nadler’s recent Vineyard Confidential, a compilation of Martha’s Vineyard gossip. For example, I read that Nathaniel Hawthorne, here during the summer of 1836 procuring horses for his uncle’s stage company, had a star-crossed love affair with a half-Indian young woman who bore his child and became his inspiration for Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter.

Other notable literary folks are celebrated in Nadler’s book, including Jackie Kennedy, who spent 16 summers here, during the period she was also working as an editor at Doubleday. Jackie met and signed up island resident Dorothy West, a writer who was a charter member of the black literary royalty of the Harlem Renaissance.

Dorothy West had summered at Oak Bluffs on the Vineyard since childhood in 1908, published a semi-autobiographical novel The Living is Easy in 1948 and wrote a column in the venerable local paper The Vineyard Gazette. Jackie O. loved the column and insisted that Ms. West let her publish a long languishing second novel, which was set in the Vineyard in the 1950’s. The Wedding was ultimately released in 1995 with the dedication “To the memory of my editor, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Though there was never such a mismatched pair in appearance, we were perfect partners.”

Nadler skewers Lillian Hellman, author of the Broadway hit play The Little Foxes and the bestselling book Pentimento, who was known as “the meanest woman on Martha’s Vineyard” during the period she lived there with Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon and Red Harvest).

One of Hellman’s regular adversaries on the island was William Styron, author of Sophie’s Choice and Confessions of Nat Turner, and a Vineyard seasonal resident for fifty summers. Styron, who also wrote regularly for the Gazette, claimed at Hellman’s funeral that they fought all the time. Not about literature or politics, but whether a Smithfield ham should be served hot or cold.

Styron called the rambling Bunch of Grapes Bookstore in Vineyard Haven, “the best in the world.” The well-stocked general-interest bookstore also features a section devoted to books by local authors, from self-published cookbooks and bird guides to major histories, memoirs, novels, narrative non-fiction, and is the community center for new and veteran writers who are both year-around residents and summer visitors.

Beyond the scandal and celebrities on Martha’s Vineyard is a powerful respect and dedication to art and literature. You can sense it around you – writers writing. Back in the lush green forests. Along the trails, dunes, and marshes. This is a special place – hard to get to, isolated and magical. The perfect spot to ruminate and enjoy the solitude, read a dozen books or best yet, find your muse and write one yourself.

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News update: A devastating fire on July 4th badly damaged the beloved Bunch of Grapes bookstore described in this post. The fire originated next door in a restaurant, Cafe Moxie, which burned to the ground. The townspeople, who had gathered for the traditional Independence Day street fair, watched in disbelief as firefighters battled the flames. Fortunately no one was injured in the blaze, and the bookstore’s owner has vowed to rebuild.