The Booksmith is an

independent bookstore An independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned. Usually, independent stores consist of only a single actual store (although there are some multi-store independents). They may be structured as sole proprietorships, ...

located in the

Haight Ashbury Haight-Ashbury () is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight Street, Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called the Haight and the Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of th ...

neighborhood of San Francisco. When first opened in October 1976, the store was located at 1746 Haight Street, below the former I-Beam nightclub. In 1985, the store moved to 1644 Haight Street at Belvedere, about a block and a half from the intersection of Haight and Ashbury. In 2021 the store moved down the street to 1727 Haight, the former site of its sister bookstore, the Bindery, now defunct. The Booksmith caters to neighborhood residents as well as tourists seeking the counter-cultural ambiance of

Haight Street Haight Street () is the principal street in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, also known as the Upper Haight due to its elevation. The street stretches from Market Street, through the Lower Haight neighborhood, to Stanyan Street in th ...

. The Booksmith is general interest shop, and is a member of both the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA) and the

American Booksellers Association The American Booksellers Association (ABA) is a non-profit trade association founded in 1900 that promotes independent bookstores in the United States. ABA's core members are key participants in their communities' local economy and culture, and to ...

(ABA). In June 2007, The Booksmith was sold by its founder Gary Frank to married couple Christin Evans and Praveen Madan. The original business was closed, and a new business, Haight Booksmith LLC, opened in its place. According to media reports at the time, the new owners plan to take the store in a different direction. In May 2011, ''

SF Weekly ''SF Weekly'' is an online music publication and formerly alternative weekly newspaper founded in the 1970s in San Francisco, California. It was distributed every Thursday, and was published by the San Francisco Print Media Company. The paper ha ...

'' in its "Best of San Francisco" issue named Booksmith the city's "Best Reimagined Bookstore". Describing the changes to the bookstore, "The new owners gutted the clogged entranceway, feng shui-ed the interior, and gave it a cool Victorian steampunk black-and-teal paint job... with more than 200 in-store author readings a year, Booksmith is more of a literary mecca than ever."

Authors events

The store is known for its "ongoing celebrated events program." In the past, the series has featured many authors including novelists, poets, science fiction writers, biographers, historians, cartoonists,

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

, and

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

winners. Among the celebrated authors who have appeared at past Booksmith events are the Nobel Prize–winning Polish poet Czesław Miłosz, science fiction great

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury ( ; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, Horror fiction, horr ...

, gonzo journalist

Hunter S. Thompson Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author, regarded as a pioneer of New Journalism along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, and Tom Wolfe. He rose to prom ...

, children's author

Lemony Snicket Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American author Daniel Handler and a fictional character of his creation. Handler has published various children's books under the name, including ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'', which has sold over 60 millio ...

, rock legends

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...

and

Patti Smith Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author, and photographer. Her 1975 debut album '' Horses'' made her an influential member of the New York City-based punk rock movement. Smith has fu ...

, and photographers

Richard Avedon Richard Avedon (May 15, 1923 – October 1, 2004) was an American fashion and portrait photographer. He worked for ''Harper's Bazaar'', '' Vogue'' and '' Elle'' specializing in capturing movement in still pictures of fashion, theater and ...

and

Annie Leibovitz Anna-Lou Leibovitz ( ; born October 2, 1949) is an American Portrait photography, portrait photographer best known for her portraits, particularly of celebrities, which often feature subjects in intimate settings and poses. Leibovitz's Polaroid ...

. Notably,

Beat generation The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-World War II era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by members o ...

poet

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of th ...

gave his last ever reading at The Booksmith, a few months before his death. Located in the heart of the Haight Ashbury, the store has hosted many individuals associated with the 1960s counter-culture. These include sixties icon

Timothy Leary Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from "bold oracle" to "publicity hound". Accordin ...

and one-time Digger

Peter Coyote Peter Coyote (born Robert Peter Cohon; October 10, 1941) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, author, and narrator of films, theater, television, and audiobooks. He worked on films, such as ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (1982), '' C ...

. Among the musicians who have appeared at the store are

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...

band members Phil Lesh and Mickey Hart, as well as

Grace Slick Grace Slick (born Grace Barnett Wing; October 30, 1939) is an American painter and retired musician whose musical career spanned four decades. She was a prominent figure in San Francisco's psychedelic music scene during the mid-1960s to the earl ...

(Jefferson Airplane), and Ray Manzarek (

The Doors The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, comprising vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most influential and controversial rock acts ...

). Some of the Beat-related authors who have appeared at the store include

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021) was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. An author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, and ...

Michael McClure Michael McClure (October 20, 1932 – May 4, 2020) was an American poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. After moving to San Francisco as a young man, he found fame as one of the five poets (including Allen Ginsberg) who read at the famo ...

, and Diane DiPrima.

Other information

Over the years, a number of authors have been employed by The Booksmith, including writer

Lewis Buzbee Lewis Buzbee is a San Francisco based author and poet. He is "a fourth generation California native on his mother’s side, and a Dust Bowl Okie on his father’s." Work He is the author of the novels ''Fliegelman's Desire'' (1990), ''Steinbeck's ...

(author of ''The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop''), novelist

Kiara Brinkman Kiara Brinkman (born November 29, 1979) is an American writer born in Omaha, Nebraska now living in San Francisco, California. Her 2007 novel, ''Up High in the Trees'', was published by Grove Press and was widely reviewed. Brinkman has also author ...

(author of ''Up High in the Trees''), syndicated cartoonist

Tom Tomorrow Dan Perkins (born April 5, 1961), better known by his pen name Tom Tomorrow, is an American editorial cartoonist. His weekly comic strip, '' This Modern World'', which comments on current events, appears regularly in more than 80 newspapers acros ...

(author of the ''This Modern World'' comic strip), ''

San Francisco Bay Guardian The ''San Francisco Bay Guardian'' was a free alternative newspaper published weekly in San Francisco, California. The paper was shut down on October 14, 2014. Parts of the paper were relaunched online in February 2016. History The ''Bay Guar ...

'' contributing writer Todd Lavoie, short story writer Lisa K. Buchanan, and humorist Paco Romane.

References

External links

* {{coord, 37, 46, 11, N, 122, 26, 58, W, region:US-CA_type:landmark, display=title Bookstores in the San Francisco Bay Area Independent bookstores of the United States Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco Commercial buildings in San Francisco Retail buildings in California Companies based in San Francisco Retail companies established in 1976 1976 establishments in California