Murphy-Brookfield Books

I was very sad to learn that the 33-year-old Murphy-Brookfield Books, my favorite bookstore in Iowa City, closed last fall.  It sells books online at Abebooks and Alibris.

I posted yesterday on bookstores, and then idly looked up Murphy-Brookfield, which sells Viragos, books by Gilbert Highet about the classics, out-of-print classics, scholarly books, history, biographies, and more.

Martha the bookstore cat

Mark Brookfield said in an Iowa City Press Citizen article, “It’ll be very hard to stop having a bookstore.”

And what was his favorite part of having a bookstore?  “Just working with the books, talking to the people.”

The bookstore cat, Martha, a tortoiseshell, helped out.  I would sit on a stool; she would sit on the stool.  I would crouch to look at books; she would look at books.

She hung out.

I loved Brookfield’s apparent policy of leaving people alone.  He was friendly, but didn’t try to “sell” books.

If a used bookstore cannot survive in Iowa City, a UNESCO City of Literature, it cannot survive anywhere.

Martha

The historic stone building has been sold to The Haunted Bookshop, another used bookstore.

You can see a video about the two bookstores here.

Tell me about any of your favorite bookstores that have closed.