Howard Cohen to Close Evanston Bookstore

EVANSTON, IL - A longtime book-seller in Chicago and Evanston will move his business online at the end of 2015.

Howard Cohen, a Glenview resident who owns Howard’s Books, 2000 Maple Ave. in Evanston, is closing the shop after 15 years at the location. He’ll soon be moving to a location on the Internet.

Before opening the Evanston brick-and-mortar used bookstore, Cohen had been one of the most popular booksellers in Chicago, operating Booksellers Row for more than two decades at the end of the 20th century.

“I’m a horse-and-buggy man in the age of the automobile,” said Howard, which he prefers to be called. “There just isn’t enough general business to keep the doors open.”

Located next to the Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue, Booksellers Row quickly developed a passionate following and was widely known as one of the nation’s best bookstores. Loyal customers still remember the tall, rolling wooden ladders, the intense degree of organization by subject, and the knowledgeable and friendly – if somewhat eccentric – staff.

The popularity grew so much that two satellite locations opened during its heydey, one in the Fine Arts building in the Loop and another in the old People’s Gas building on Milwaukee Avenue in Wicker Park.

“Howard Cohen has been one of the central figures in the Chicagoland bookselling community since the 1960s,” said Jason Smith of The Book Table in Oak Park. “My time with him at Booksellers Row built the foundation of my career. It is hard to imagine the Chicagoland bookselling scene without him in it.”

Howard’s career began during the 1960s at Kroch’s & Brentano’s on State Street, which was the largest bookstore in Chicago at the time.

Since then, Howard has seen dramatic changes in bookselling. Like the winnowing of neighborhood shops, rise of mega-chains like Borders and Barnes & Noble, the growing dominance of online shopping and the emergence of e-books.

“The Internet has revolutionized everything,” said Alison James, Howard’s wife and longtime business partner. “We haven’t begun to catch up with what we’ve gained – and lost – as a result.”

Yet, some will still miss Howard’s Books, which replaced Booknook Parnassus at the corner of Maple and Foster in 2000.

“Howard is one of the last of a kind that is irreplaceable to us all,” customer Will Suther said, adding that he is “saddened that this refuge of learning, camaraderie, decades of a bibliopole’s knowledge and book mites will no longer be available to us.”

But until it closes, there are bargains to be had and treasures to be found, as the brick-and-mortar (or rather, glass-and-clapboard) store goes into 7-day-a-week, bargain-basement mode in an effort to clear the shelves for the move.

Some “never-before-seen-upstairs” items will be available for the first time, Howard said, adding his plans to bring up a stash of “rather special” older leather-bound books and a treasury of vintage curiosities from his basement.

Outdoor Photo by Jonathan Lurie jonathanlurie.com

Other images by Laura Cohen