Linda Bubon, the co-owner of
Women & Children First bookstore, is a busy woman. Her only free time for an interview was the thin time slot between story-hour and a meeting with a book vendor, though she warned me she'd be busy straightening the store while we talked.
Opened in 1979, the bookstore has grown from an 850-square-foot storefront to a 3,500-square-foot bookstore in Andersonville that hosts upwards of 20 author events and several reading groups (like the Intergenerational Feminist Book Group) each month.
Drawing fierce loyalty from both shoppers and authors (past readers have included Hilary Rodham Clinton, Margaret Atwood and Adrienne Rich), her shop has fought to maintain its position as an independent, feminist bookstore. It joined the American Booksellers Association in its successful lawsuit against six publishing houses giving unfair advantage to major chains and it was one of only 26 bookstores nationwide that launched an attack directly at Barnes & Nobles and Borders.
Scurrying behind Bubon as she straightened shelves, I asked her to fill us in on the bookstore's history and (a request she hears a dozen times a day) to throw a few recommendations my way.
How did the idea for Women & Children First come about?
My business partner [Ann Christophersen] and I met at UIC. We were in graduate school in literature and both considering getting PhDs. There was such a glut on the market of English PhDs that there was only something like 60- or 70-percent chance of getting a job. So, though 85 percent of small businesses fail, it didn't seem like the odds were that much worse. We decided that what we really had a passion for was to sell literature by and about women.
And what was that first year like?
We opened first at 922 W. Armitage and we had just no money. I think we had $14,000 to buy all the lumber to make bookshelves and to buy the books. We did everything ourselves...all our own advertising and we made our own stationary. But the good thing about that is it was like creating a piece of artwork or giving birth to a child. It was wholly our own.
That first year we sold something like 79,000 books. At that time, though there were some women writers in print, there weren't a lot. There were classics from the 19th century and there were romance writers and a handful of mystery writers but very little serious literature by women.
Who should we be reading?
I think one of the two best novels I've read recently is Jane Hamilton's When Madeline Was Young. [Alice McDermott's] latest, After This, is just brilliant. Her sensibility is wonderful.
I also just finished Ellen Burstyn's autobiography, Lessons in Becoming Myself and it was profound for me. She was born during the Depression in Detroit to a very harsh mother and mean stepfather, left home at 18, was a model, became an Academy Award-winning actress, her second husband was a paranoid schizophrenic, she adopted a child—I mean, there's many points in which her life is very different than mine but I can't tell you how many passages I marked that I identified with.
What upcoming readings are you most excited about?
I'm pretty excited about Melissa Fay Greene [November 13 at 7:30 pm]. She's a two-time finalist for the National Book Award and she's written some very important non-fiction. Her latest book, There is No Me Without You, is about a woman in Africa who lost her husband and 23-year-old daughter and a priest delivered first one and then another orphan child in her care and soon she had created an orphanage.
I feel like between the important thinkers and the important activists, the universe is saying "You have to stay in business." Because who's going to do these programs if we don't? I don't think Barnes and Nobles. [Chain bookstores] don't create an environment where people are really sitting and listening and where authors are treated with the kind of respect they deserve.
What are your favorite local hangouts?
I just love the Hopleaf. They have the best food and, though the menu changes seasonally, anything stew-like there is wonderful. We do cocktail parties for authors there sometimes. I probably eat at Wickstrom's four days a week. They have great sandwiches and I love their fish sandwiches on Friday. La Tache is really good, too. I'm kind of a foodie so I love good French food.
To see the full event calendar visit www.womenandchildrenfirst.com. Members of the bookstore ($25 annual fee) receive 10% off all books and a free subscription to an online magazine of book reviews.
