Can This Bookstore Be Saved?
We asked for the clinical details.
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“In most cases that’s probably true,” he said. “The exception to that, probably, is Latin American literature.”
Last spring Guild issued an appeal that promised “for just $10 per month, we can adopt this bookstore” over the signatures of Gwendolyn Brooks, Studs Terkel, Andre Schiffrin, Jonathan Kozol, and Dave Marsh. These are the sorts of writers and editors whose books readers come to Guild to buy. When we talked earlier this fall, Rosenbaum had raised $10,000 and now was touting a $20-a-year membership in the Friends of Guild. “To really pay off our debts, we need $100,000 plus,” he said.
Among the Herald’s advantages was Anne Burris Gasior, a feature writer who happened to be Deputy Police Chief Walt Gasior’s wife. One of Walt Gasior’s duties is to handle the media on big stories.
“The whole issue of whether Gasior was playing favorites with his wife’s newspaper is patently absurd,” says John Lampinen, the Herald’s managing editor. “I can tell you quite honestly the Tribune was upset because we kicked their butts on the story. But we kicked their butts on the story by outhustling them.”
