Globe Corner Blogs

In Madeleine L’Engle’s classic A Wrinkle in Time, characters time travel by way of “tesser.” The shortest distance between two points is a line, Mrs Whatsit explains,  but what if that line could wrinkle? Imagine a length of yarn, and if you folded it in half, the two ends would meet.

This is how I thought of the distance between Seattle and Boston when I chose to move to the East Coast after three years in the Northwest. Fold a map, and the cities kiss. I wouldn’t be that far from the stunning Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges that hemmed me in on either side, Allegro, my favorite hole-in-the-wall cafe, and my closest friends.

On one of my first evenings in Boston–already missing the ship canal that used to flow through my Seattle neighborhood–I took a walk to the Charles River. I approached around sunset, quickening my pace. The sky was turning a lovely pink and I could glimpse the John Hancock and Prudential buildings beginning to reflect the hue. Afraid all the benches along the river would be taken, I hurried on.

The NFT guide to Seattle highlights little known haunts where you can slip away from the fifth dimension.

I should not have worried. Every bench along the bank was free, as everyone within sight was in movement: walking, jogging, sprinting along a path. Even the sailboats in the river were racing in a regatta. I knew then that the pace was different here. I sank down onto a bench, already nostalgic for the cafe culture of Seattle, where one could sit for hours with a good book and cooling cup of coffee without wondering once where else they should be.

So when I noticed a recent slew of Booksmith booksellers taking time off to travel to the Northwest, I understood.  While I’ve come to appreciate the productivity and drive of America’s easternmost cities, sometimes it’s necessary to get away for awhile. If you’re planning a trip to the Pacific Northwest, we’ve got all the guidebooks and maps you need, plus a staff of travelers with recent experiences in Seattle, Portland, even Alaska. We’ll be sharing some of these adventures here at globecorner.com, so tesser back soon.

The story begins with a place. On the corner of Washington and School Streets in Boston, Anne Hutchinson, a woman who became known for her religious dissidence, first took up residence on the property that would become an important crossroads in American literary history. At this time there would have been around thirty booksellers in the immediate Boston area.

In October of 1711, however, a great fire broke out in Boston, consuming the Hutchinson home, the Town House, the Old Meeting House, and over one hundred shops and residences, including almost all of the bookstores. So immense was the extent of the devastation that only one bookstore was left standing.

The tale is not unlike the story we read today, of another bookstore closing, another publisher going under. Fewer and fewer of the bookstores that flourished in a city that was known as the publishing and bookselling center of America are still operating today. Sometimes it can feel that America’s book world is still under fire.

Happily, the story does not end there. In 1712 the building that still stands as the oldest brick structure in Boston was built on the site of Hutchinson’s home, and in 1829 a bookseller named Timothy Carter opened a bookshop there called the Old Corner Bookstore. From 1832-65 William Davis Ticknor and his younger partner, James T. Fields, ran a vibrant publishing house and bookstore on the corner, publishing the writers we now remember as the founders of American literature: Emerson. Thoreau. Hawthorne. Longfellow. Lowell. Boston booksellers were back in business.

A few more tenants, and many decades later, a new bookshop began operating on the site. The Globe Corner Bookstore was opened in 1982 under the guardianship of Pat and Harriet Carrier. While the Downtown Crossing branch closed in 1997, the Globe Corner thrived in other locations around the city, including its most recent home in Harvard Square. Just as the Carriers reached their 30th year of successful travel bookselling, however, they closed the store.

But the story continues. Over the past few months, the Carriers have been advising Booksmith as we expand our travel section and take over globecorner.com. Pat and Harriet have generously opened their inventory and years of experience in the travel industry to us, insuring that the expertise and knowledge cultivated at the Globe Corner can continue to thrive in Boston.

As one of the bookstores left standing, Booksmith is doing its best to meet the needs of our ever-burgeoning community of readers, to fill the void the others have left in a vital marketplace so essential to the growth of our intellectual culture. When Barnes and Noble down the street shut down, we expanded our magazine section. When Bob Slate stores closed, we implemented a Writer’s Corner, increasing our supply of journals and stationary and art supplies. Now as Boston loses its largest supplier of travel books and maps, Booksmith is proud to provide a new space for the literary tradition begun at the corner of Washington and School Streets to continue at the intersection of Beacon and Harvard.

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Brookline Booksmith purchases www.globecorner.com and opens Globe Corner Travel Annex in their Brookline store.

Dana Brigham, the Manager/Co-owner of Brookline Booksmith and Patrick Carrier, president of The Old Corner Bookstore Inc. jointly announced today that Brookline Booksmith has acquired the rights to The Globe Corner Bookstore’s trademarks, trade names, and the web site, www.globecorner.com

The new “Globe Corner Travel Annex” brings a smaller version of the Globe Corner Bookstores’ notable travel stores to Coolidge Corner and features a major expansion of Brookline Booksmith’s travel selection.

The store has added over 2,000 different travel map titles, covering every major city and region of the world – from detailed city maps for Istanbul, to trekking maps for Patagonia, to touring maps for Sicily.

The Globe Corner Travel Annex’s wall map department features the largest wall map selection in New England of country, continental and world maps and the store continues to expand its already substantial coverage of travel guides.  Brookline Booksmith plans further expansion in the areas of travel accessories and outdoor recreation over the coming year.

The web site, www.globecorner.com, was launched in 1995 and is one of the largest travel book and map web sites in North America.  Booksmith will continue operating the web site independently with plans to eventually integrate the travel portal into its current web presence at www.brooklinebooksmith.com.  The Globe Corner Bookstore, founded in 1982 in downtown Boston and owned by the Old Corner Bookstore Inc., was one of the largest travel specialty retailers in the US.

Patrick Carrier, the founder of the Globe Corner, will be providing consulting services to Brookline Booksmith as the company pursues the further expansion into the travel book and map specialty and an integration of the two web sites.

Dana Brigham stated:

“In the months since beginning our collaboration with the Carriers, we have been the recipients of an astounding body of knowledge from them.  It has been our privilege and pleasure to bring their expertise to our shelves.  One of the Globe Corner’s  unique and beautiful carved wooden signs now adorns our travel area.  We’re excited to be folding more of the Globe Corner into what we do and sharing that with our community and beyond.”

Patrick Carrier stated:

“As the Globe Corner celebrates its 30^th anniversary, it is a great pleasure to pass on its “legacy” to an extraordinary local bookseller that is marking its 50^th anniversary.  We could not have found a better home for globecorner.com and I am pleased that greater Boston area travelers will continue to have an opportunity to browse a deep and broad selection of travel books and maps”

Brookline Booksmith is one of the leading independent booksellers in the US, winner of many local, regional and national awards including Publishers Weekly “Bookseller of the Year”.  The bookstore is celebrating its 50^th anniversary, thanks to its extraordinarily loyal customers and its remarkable staff.

For further information, Dana Brigham can be contacted at:

dana@brooklinebooksmith.com

617-566-6660

For further comment or information about The Old Corner Bookstore Inc., Patrick Carrier may be contacted at:

pcarrier@globecorner.com

617-475-0627

Each year, the New York Times publishes their annual list of the 100 Notable Books of the Year along with some additional supplemental lists (Book Critics Top Ten; roundups of major books in categories such as Travel, Cooking, and Photography)

The Globe Corner features those books on the Times lists that fit within the scope of our focus on travel and geographic reference materials.  All books in this category are discounted 15% or more.

The Times posted its list in last Sunday’s Book Review and we’ve posted the Globe Corner selection from the list on a special page on our blog devoted to the annual list.

Each year, Beth Harpaz,  the Associated Press Travel editor rings up The Globe Corner, along with a few other travel booksellers and publishers for her annual article, “Books for the traveler: Holiday gift suggestions”.  Her article started rolling out into newspapers around the country over the past few days — including the Washington Post, the New Orleans Times-Picayne, and the International Times Herald.

Her article begins:

Is there an avid traveler on your gift list? Or even someone who doesn’t go too far from home, but simply loves reading about faraway places and other cultures? Maybe you have a friend or loved one who might enjoy spending a winter’s day gazing at pictures of places they love or long to see. Books with a travel theme — whether practical, beautiful, inspirational or just a good read — make a good holiday gift. Here are a few ideas and recommendations….  For the rest of the article, visit the Washington Post’s version.

The Globe Corner picks  for AP include:

City Secrets Guidebook Series
There’s great news this year for fans of architect Robert Kahn’s City Secrets series. Remarkable contributors (writers, artists, curators, and others) reveal their favorite strolls, hidden gardens, buildings, shops, and restaurants. New editions of City Secrets London, City Secrets Rome, and City Secrets Florence, Venice & the Towns of Italy are available. City Secrets Manhattan, covering Kahn’s home turf, is due just before the holidays.

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City: A User’s Guide to the Past, Present, and Future of Urban Life
By P. D. Smith (hardcover, $40.00)
This collection of essays about urban life worldwide offers wonderful portraits on wide range of topics ranging from downtowns & skyscrapers;  shantytowns and favelas;  graffiti, street food, flash mobs, & skateboarding.

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Mourad: New Moroccan
by Mourad Lahlou (hardcover, $40.00)
Chef Mourad Lahlou, renowned for his Michelin-starred San Francisco restaurant,  presents a new, modern Moroccan cuisine in 100-plus recipes, lavishly illustrated with food and photographs from Morocco.

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Saraban: A Chef’s Journey Through Persia
by Greg and Lucy Malouf  (hardcover, $59.95)
The latest combination cookbook/travel memoir from Chef Greg Malouf and his writer wife Lucy, authors of critically acclaimed previous cookbooks which combine gorgeous photography with personal accounts on culinary travels through other parts of the Middle East (Turquoise (travels/recipes from Turkey) & Saha (travels/recipes from Lebanon & Syria)).  Saraban recounts their  journey through the culinary landscapes of ancient Persia and modern-day Iran.

The October Destination of the Month is South America — offering 15% off on all books and maps for South America.

Our October newsletter features, among other topics, a spotlight on Colombia.

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Cartagena--photo by Harriet

Focus on Colombia:

You know a travel destination has gone “mainstream” when The Boston Globe devotes the front page of its Sunday Travel section to it — as they did to a few weeks ago for a piece mostly focused on the Caribbean coast of Colombia around Cartagena.

Globe Corner customers have been aware for a few years about the positive changes underway in Colombia  and the great travel experiences that abound there.  See our store blog for some past “reports from the field” about Cartagena and Bogotá.

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Michelin Green Guide Colombia

In the lazy, hazy dog days of August, the two company dogs finally set aside Skype and met in the same physical space on neutral ground at the company webmaster’s family camp on a remote pond in the New Hampshire mountains.

Most of the GCB customers are quite familiar with Ulla (the golden retriever whose official title is “store greeter” and “Dog Diva” of Harvard Square). Less visible has been the Kassie (pictured on the dock), the company webmaster’s new Bouvier puppy in Chicago. This blog post announces that Kassie has completed her apprenticeship and is now handling customer care issues when Ulla is napping.

Ulla reviewed all company policies during a dog staff meeting on the dock prior to a mountain hike and has signed off on Kassie’s readiness to step in to handle customer care problems when she is travelling (or just napping).

Our latest newsletter featured the unusually large number of books released this spring on the subject of Paris — either new in hardcover, or newly released in paper.  You can view the full list in the newsletter.

All books on Paris are 15% off through August 15th!

Here’s a sampling of some June new releases of books on Paris:

Greater Journey: Americans in Paris
by David McCullough
McCullough’s latest history is the enthralling and untold story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, architects, and others of high aspiration who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, ambitious to excel in their work.  McCullough’s portraits include Augustus Saint-Gauden, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Samuel F. B. Morse, Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Henry James, Mark Twain and Charles Sumner.+
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Dawn of the Belle Epoque:
The Paris of Monet, Zola, Bernhardt, Eiffel, Debussy, Clemenceau, and Their Friends
by Mary McAuliffe
Paris in 1871 was a shambles following military defeat, siege, and a bloody uprising, and the question loomed, “Could this extraordinary city even survive?” By 1900, the Belle Epoque was in full flower, but the decades between were marked by tension and conflict, as the new challenged the old in everything from politics to art, literature, music, science, and engineering. Mary McAuliffe takes the reader back to these perilous years following the abrupt collapse of the Second Empire and France’s uncertain venture into the Third Republic examining this era through the eyes of Monet, Zola, Debussy, Eiffel, Marie Curie, and others as they struggled with the forces of tradition. Through rich illustrations and evocative narrative, McAuliffe brings this vibrant and seminal era to life.

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Paris to the Past:
Traveling Through French History by Train
by Ina Caro
In one of the most inventive travel books in years, Ina Caro invites readers on twenty-five one-day train trips that depart from Paris and transport us back through seven hundred years of French history. Whether taking us to Orleans to evoke the miraculous visions of Joan of Arc, to Versailles to experience the flamboyant achievements of Louis XIV, or to the Place de la Concorde to witness the beheading of Marie Antoinette, Caro animates history with her lush descriptions of architectural splendors and tales of court intrigue.

Harvard Square customers have inquired about Ulla’s status in the wake of the closing of the Cambridge retail store.  Rest assured that our crack customer care representative is still reporting for duty every day to her cubicle (dog bed) at the GCB web site.  She does miss the visits from her fans in Harvard Square, but the opportunity to go swimming every day at an undisclosed Boston swimming hole is a fringe benefit of her new responsibilities.

The Harvard Square retail store served it’s last customer on July 4th just prior to the start of the Boston Pops Esplanade concert.  We look forward to continuing to serve you online at www.globecorner.com.

We want to thank our Harvard Square customers whose faithful support made possible The Globe Corner’s mission of providing an outstanding selection of materials on travel and geographic awareness.  Thank you to the 2 million plus customers who have shopped in our stores since 1982. We can not fully express our gratitude to all who have shared their enthusiasm for discovery and adventure with us and with fellow travellers.

Our customers know that the heart and soul of The Globe Corner has always been its friendly, knowledgeable and widely traveled staff.  For the legions of extraordinary employees who passed through our doors – thank you!

Finally, a special thanks to Harvard University, whose enthusiastic support for and cooperation with The Globe Corner Bookstore enabled our presence in Harvard Square for the past 24 years.

The online store is open 24/7 and orders are filled 7 days a week.

Abby Cooke at the GCB Order Desk may be reached at 617-505-5467, ext 22.  Her email address is acooke@gcb.com.

Customers who have Gift Certificates may redeem them online.  Simply note the Gift Certificate number in the comments box in the shopping cart and we will apply the value of the certificate to your order prior to charging your credit card.

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