We believe that bookstores are essential to a healthy culture.
They’re where authors can connect with readers, where we discover new writers, where children get hooked on the thrill of reading that can last a lifetime. They’re also anchors for our downtowns and communities.
By design, we give away over 80% of our profit margin to stores and affiliates of stores: publications, authors and others who make up the thriving, inspirational culture around books!
As more and more people buy their books online, we wanted to create an easy, convenient way for you to get your books and support bookstores at the same time.
Bookshop is a benefit corporation - a corporation dedicated to the public good.
86 Years and 18 Miles of Books and Counting: The History of Strand Books
Where it all began: Bound by a Family
The Strand was born in 1927 over on Fourth Avenue on what was then called ”Book Row”. Book Row covered six city blocks and housed forty-eight bookstores. Ben Bass, the father, was all of twenty-five years old when he began his modest used bookstore. An entrepreneur at heart, a reader by nature, this erudite man began with $300 dollars of his own and $300 dollars that he borrowed from a friend. Ben sought to create a place where books would be loved, and book lovers could congregate. He named his bookstore after the London street where avant-garde writers like Thackeray, Dickens and Mill once gathered and interesting book publishers thrived. The Strand quickly became a Greenwich Village institution where writers went to converse, sell their books and find a hidden treasure to buy. Today, the Strand is the sole survivor of Book Row’s colorful past.
Ben’s son, Fred, by the age of thirteen was learning the family business. He too a lover of books took quickly to the book trade. After Fred completed a tour of duty in the Armed Forces, he came home to New York where he worked side-by-side with his father. By 1957, Fred moved the store just around the corner, to our current space at 12th Street and Broadway. Fred came to spend most of his time at the buying desk, cultivating relationships with regulars and scoping out the next great find…
The next in the Bass family to take to the business was Fred’s daughter, Nancy. After college and a short stint in Louisiana, she came back to her roots and joined the Strand team at the age of 25. Today, she co-manages the store with her father. The jury’s still out on whether one, two or all three of Nancy’s kids will be next in line to join the Strand team.
Established in 1971, Tattered Cover Book Store is one of America's premier independent bookstores, a Denver institution, a community gathering place, and an experience you can't download!
Tattered Cover is a locally-owned business with an unwavering commitment to the customer and the community, with four unique stores in metro Denver, and three satellite stores at Denver International Airport. Each location offers personal service, a large, well-curated selection of new and used books, an extensive newsstand, and beautifully selected gifts.
Tattered Cover hosts more than 600 authors, illustrators, public figures, community events, book festivals and schools each year!
Readers are invited to join the literary conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and can shop 24 hours a day for books, digital audiobooks, and e-books at www.tatteredcover.com.