Vroman's Bookstore is reportedly the oldest and largest

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, cl ...

in Southern California. The store hosts over 400 free community events a year including children's storytimes, trivia nights, craft classes, bake-offs, and launch parties, and has hosted such authors as

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, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and

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Background

Founded in 1894 by

Adam Clark Vroman Adam Clark Vroman (April 15, 1856, La Salle, Illinois - July 24, 1916, Altadena, California) was an American portrait photographer, known primarily for his portraits of indigenous peoples of the Southwestern United States. He was the founder and p ...

, the original Vroman's Book and Photographic Supply store was located at 60 E. Colorado St in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

. Mr. Vroman loved books and loved giving back to his community. Mr. Vroman was also a passionate photographer, specializing in scenes of the

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and his portraits of Native Americans. When Mr. Vroman died in 1916, he left the bookstore to long-time employees. During World War II, Vroman's donated and delivered books to Japanese Americans interned at nearby camps, such as the

Manzanar Manzanar is the site of one of ten American concentration camps, where more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II from March 1942 to November 1945. Although it had over 10,000 inmates at its peak, it was one o ...

camp in

Owens Valley Owens Valley (Numic Numic is a branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. It includes seven languages spoken by Native American peoples traditionally living in the Great Basin, Colorado River basin, Snake River basin, and southern Great Pl ...

. In 2008, Vroman's was named Bookseller of the Year by ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

'', an international news magazine of book publishing. In 2009, Vroman's bought another beloved independent bookstore,

Book Soup Book Soup is an independent bookstore located at 8818 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, California, and is the largest general interest independent bookstore in Hollywood. The store is "known for its tall, teetering stacks and mazes of shelves c ...

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, after its owner died and the store was in danger of closing. In 2020, Vroman's Bookstore itself was in danger of closing due to a significant drop in sales resulting from the

Covid-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

References

External links

* {{Coord, 34.1461, -118.1361, type:landmark_region:US-CA, display=title Bookstores in California Independent bookstores of the United States Companies based in Pasadena, California Companies based in Los Angeles County, California American companies established in 1894 Retail companies established in 1894 1894 establishments in California Bookstores established in the 19th century