St. Mark's Bookstore: East Village Culture Hub Closes Its Doors

Entering into the St. Mark's Bookstore, one could tell this shop had seen better days. A handful of customers were perousing through what little the store had left to sell. But in St. Mark's heyday, it was a cultural hub of the East Village, hosting some of the great artistic minds of New York City in the last few decades. Writers and artists like Allen Ginsberg and Phillip Glass frequented the bookstore and had good relationships with its owners Terry McCoy and Bob Contant. 

Bob Contant, librarian and book enthusiast, started the St. Mark's Bookstore on St. Mark's Place in 1977 to cater to the intellectual movement of the time: post-structuralist philosophy. According to Contant, their bestsellers were books by Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, and other French philosophers. He bragged that if you found a New York Times bestseller on their shelves, it was probably a mistake. 

"In those days, we were on St. Mark's Place. It was a bit of a scene and the book store was an oasis in that world," said Contant, "Our job was to discover and present works which we thought were being neglected in the publishing world." 

Contant argued the St. Mark's Bookstore was a center of the artistic wave that was rushing over the East Village. "Around 1980, the punk music scene was here, the art scene was here, the theatre scene was here, and we were a part of that. There was a certain vitality in New York those days. You could be poor and still live a regular life."

Of course, Contant is referencing the marked jump in gentrification in the East Village. About a year ago, St. Mark's Bookstore was priced out of their home on St. Mark's Place by a "greedy" landlord. After moving to Third Street in another part of the Village, the store is closing its doors for good. 

WIth a big sigh, Contant says their store is just another victim of the modern age: "Bookstores are a dying breed. I didn't think we were going to be one of the stores to close, but we were." 

St. Mark's Bookstore holds a place in the history of New York's East Village. Contant wanted to thank patrons of the bookstore after 39 years of operation. "Of course I'm appreciative of it all, but I'm sad to see it go," said Contant.