A Sad Tale from the Publishing World

This item appeared in an industry newsletter called Shelf Awareness the other day:

When Twenty-third Avenue Books, Portland, Ore., closed suddenly last January, Stephanie Griffin lost more than her business. Willamette Week reported that the owner “became homeless after the store closed. Startled neighbors discovered this in June . . . Griffin had started panhandling outside her old store, which was still empty at the time.”

“Most people would ignore me and then say ‘Oh, the bookstore used to be there,’” she said. “I would say, ‘I used to own that store,’ and they would keep walking.”

The Willamette Week article included the photo below:

It’s scary to see how easy it can be for someone’s financial life to fall apart: business owner one day, homeless beggar the next. This person may not have been the most astute business owner, and blaming George Bush certainly oversimplifies the many factors that must have contributed to her store’s demise, but it’s still rather sobering news.

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