Louisa Solano: The Grolier Poetry Bookshop

By Doug Holder and Steve Glines

The Grolier Poetry Bookshop is the "oldest continuous bookshop" devoted solely to the sale of poetry and poetry criticism, was founded in 1927 by Adrian Gambet and Gordon Cairnie; the subsequent owner, Louisa Solano, a 1966 graduate of Boston University, took over operation of the store in 1974 after Cairnie's death. An interview with Louisa Solano and thoughts about the Grolier by many patrons.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 5, 2011
• ISBN: 9781105008115

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Interview With Louisa Solano

The acclaimed poet Donald Hall said of The Grolier Poetry Bookshop: It is the greatest poetry place in the universe. And this may not be hyperbole. Founded in 1927 by Gordon Cairnie, and Adrian Gambet, it was the first bookstore in the Cambridge area to sell James Joyce's Ulysses. In its salad days the likes of T.S. Eliot, Allen Ginsberg, Marianne Moore, and countless other poets patronized this store. Louisa Solano, the current owner, has been connected with the store for over forty years, first as a worker, and later as an owner. Solano changed the original Grolier, to an all-poetry bookstore, probably the most prominent in the country and perhaps the world. Solano told an interviewer that the bookstore was much more than a seller of books. In its prime Solano said the place was packed with people, reading books and discussing poetry. Due to escalating rents, the Internet, and the difficulty with competing chain bookstores, Solano has been forced to consider selling this haven for poets on Plympton St., in the heart of Harvard Square, Cambridge. I talked with Solano on my Somerville Community Access TV show Poet to Poet/Writer To Writer.

Doug Holder: What was the straw that broke the camel's back that made you feel you might need to put the business up for sale?

Louisa Solano: I essentially have been supporting the store on my charge card for the past two or three years. I have no real money of my own. It came to the point when I had to pay, and I just couldn't. And also one year there was a very heavy theft in the store, and I couldn't recover from it.This store actually existed on mail-order business for many years. In 1998 the Internet started coming up, and gradually ate up my business. Poetry is the texture of life and language, and if you don't