The Dynamic Trio: Well-respected, Intellectually Stimulating, and Culturally Diverse


In the late 1800’s to early 1900’s the residents of Washington, D.C. began branching out of the city for more spacious land to build houses and move their families to, so as to get out of the constant hustle and bustle of city life for a more relaxed, slower paced way of living without giving up their careers in the city. The growing popularity of the street car for those who had enough money to afford one made such endeavors possible, as well as the development of the trolley and extension of Connecticut Avenue to allow residents of Chevy Chase a straight shot right into the city. By 1892 the trolley connecting the city to Chevy Chase had been built and by 1902 forty-nine homes had been built in the neighborhood. In the years following, those of the professional middle class were looking for new ways of living other than the cramped conditions of the city; they discovered the beauty of single family homes with room for a yard and garage. As they branched out from the city into the suburbs businesses followed with them.

It was in this growing suburb that Carla Cohen decided to start up an independent bookstore after she had spent three years unemployed after previously working for the Carter administration in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (The Washington Post).

Cohen was born in Baltimore in April of 1936 (maiden name Carla Furstenberg) and was the oldest of six children. She had grown up with a love of books and had been reading since she was a child. She graduated from Ohio’s Antioch College in 1958 and earned her master’s degree in city planning from the University of Pennsylvania. She married David Cohen and had two children.

Cohen partnered up with Barbara Meade, who had owned a bookstore before, and together they opened Politics and Prose in the fall of 1984. When they first opened the store it was only Cohen and Meade and one other part time employee, but as the store grew more employees were hired, more books were provided, and before too long the store was relocated across the street to a larger building.

07/24/89 - Photo of Carla Cohen,the woman seated in photo. Lloyd wants to crop down to her face. 1989 file photo of the owners of Politics & Prose bookstore. They are from left to right: Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade. Photo By Darrel Ellis TWP
The woman sitting is Carla Cohen and the woman standing is Barbara Meade. Picture taken from the Politics and Prose Bookstore website.
Bookstore
Store at 5015 Connecticut Avenue. Picture taken from The Washington Post website.

During the summer of 1989 Cohen and Meade had a small group of neighbors help them move all the store’s merchandise (about 15,000 books) across the street to the new location at 5015 Connecticut Avenue.

In the year 1999 the nearby children’s bookstore, Cheshire Cat, merged with Politics and Prose, which greatly expanded the children’s section of the bookstore.

As bookstore owners, Cohen and Meade “each tried to read as many as five books a week”. They wanted to be able to make recommendations to their customers on what books were worth reading and what books “contributed absolutely nothing to our culture, to the publishing world, and are not that enjoyable to read” Meade told The Washington Post. Cohen and Meade developed a loyal clientele who trusted in their abilities to recommend books that were published to be culturally and intellectually nourishing and not simply looking to make high profits. Both owners took on “the responsibility of the bookseller to act as an intellectual advisor included discouraging people from reading salacious material. But most important, the bookseller was to use his personal familiarity and influence with his customers to encourage them to read, and so learn to prefer, the stuff deemed most nourishing. The bookseller would thus use his knowledge and authority to help mold the tastes of his clientele in a way that was both socially and personally beneficial” (Miller 58). This is a big reason the bookstore has become one of the best literature and cultural hubs of Washington, D.C.

Graham and Muscatine
Lissa Muscatine and Bradley Graham standing outside of their new business. Picture taken from the Politics and Prose Bookstore website.

In 2009 Carla Cohen was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer found in the bile ducts and on October 11, 2010 she passed away. A year after Cohen passed away Meade and Cohen’s husband decided to sell the bookstore; Meade said “…it would be too lonely to run a business by myself”. They received about 50 offers from people wanting to buy the bookstore, but in the end they chose a married couple, Bradley Graham and Lissa Muscatine.

At first Graham was only interested in purchasing the bookstore, but Meade insisted the store cannot be under only male ownership since it had been under female ownership for the past 27 years (Washingtonian). Graham began bringing his wife along to the meetings with Meade and Cohen’s husband and it didn’t take long for her to become interested in owning half the bookstore as well.

Graham and Muscatine were unsure about purchasing a bookstore at first because of the decline in customers shopping in bookstores and the rise of online and electronic book sales. As most people know “economic pressures have always made bookselling a precarious profession…many of those who stay in it…would be richer and less harassed in some other occupation” (Anderson 25), but the couple was not concerned with making high profits but rather determined to keep Cohen and Meade’s legacy alive and thriving. They wanted to continue providing the community with a diverse stock of intellectually stimulating books, and not commercial titles that only look to make money off of customers. Graham and Muscatine had a lot of assistance through the store’s “loyal and large customer base, expert staff, extensive links to other Washington community organizations, and widely respected name”.

10/19/99 - J. K. Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter books, signs books for some of the thousands of fans that visited Politics and Prose today. - Photo By Michael Lutzky TWP
J.K. Rowling signing books at Politics and Prose. Picture taken from The Washington Post website.

Politics and Prose has hosted many highly influential and respectable speakers, authors, and other guests such as J.K. Rowling in 1999 signing 1,200 books in just two hours, Bill Clinton signing copies of his book Back to Work in December of 2011, and Barack Obama shopping with his family in December of 2013 and November or 2014 in honor of “Small Business Saturday”.

Obama and family
President Obama and his family shopping at Politics and Prose Bookstore. Picture taken from Bloomberg website.

 

 

 

Politics and Prose has been a bookstore known to stock books that are intellectually and culturally stimulating, rather than popular commercial books looking to sell high quantities at cheap prices for high profits. Cohen and Meade had set out to create a business in which they could offer books that would contribute to the knowledge and cultural diversity of the residents in Chevy Chase and the city of Washington, D.C.

They wanted to create relationships with their customers in which their customers could come to them for advice on what and what not to read. Both Cohen and Meade saw how chain bookstores were hiring and staffing employees with limited knowledge in the books they were selling: “bookstore patrons indicate that readers today have extremely limited expectations for bookstore employees’ knowledge about books, much less the world of ideas in general. When asked what makes for a good salesperson at a bookstore, the majority of respondents cited friendliness or the simple ability to direct customers to the right location to find a title” (Miller 63). This was the exact opposite type of relationship Cohen and Meade had with their loyal customers; instead both owners attempted to read and stay up to date on as much literature as they could to help inform their customers and offer advice on which books were most fitting.

In the selling of Politics and Prose, Cohen and Meade had both agreed they wanted to find new owners who would continue this strong relationship with the store’s loyal customers, which is why they chose Graham and Muscatine. The new owners must be holding up their end of the deal pretty well since Politics and Prose Bookstore continues to be the highly respected place for many authors and publishers to sell intellectually and culturally stimulating reading material to the diverse community of Chevy Chase and the city Washington, D.C.

 

Sources:

Links:

Fisher, Marc. “Chevy Chase, 1916: For Everyman, A New Lot in Life.” The Washington Post. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/2000/chevychase0215.htm>

 

Chevy Chase Neighborhood Association. “History.” <http://www.chevychaseneighborhood.org/history.html>

 

Brown, Emma. “Carla Cohen Dies; Co-founder of D.C. Bookstore Politics and Prose.” The Washington Post.<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/11/AR2010101102811_2.html?tid=a_inl&sid=ST2010101102828>

 

“The Story of Politics and Prose.” Politics and Prose Bookstore website. <http://www.politics-prose.com/our-history>

 

Parker, Ashley. “Carla Cohen, Owner of Washington Bookstore, Dies at 74.” The New York Times. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/books/12cohen.html>

 

Muscatine, Lissa and Graham, Bradley. “Why We Bought Politics and Prose.” The Washington Post.<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-we-bought-politics-and-prose/2011/04/01/AFDjweJC_story.html>

 

Rosenwald, Michael S. “Barbara Meade Retires from Politics and Prose, Reflects on a Life in Book.” The Washington Post. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/barbara-meade-retires-from-politics-and-prose-reflects-on-a-life-in-books/2013/01/22/e7579214-61e8-11e2-b05a-605528f6b712_story.html>

 

Wilwol, John. “What I’ve Learned: Politics and Prose’s Barbara Meade.” Washingtonian. <http://www.washingtonian.com/2013/03/28/what-ive-learned-politics-and-proses-barbara-meade/>

 

“Children’s Department.” Politics and Prose Bookstore Website. <http://www.politics-prose.com/anniversary/childrens>

 

“Bill Clinton – Back to Work”. Politics and Prose Bookstore Website. <http://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/bill-clinton-back-to-work>

 

Roth, Zachary. “Obama Celebrates Small Business Saturday at D.C. Bookstore.” MSNBC. <http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/obamas-small-business-saturday>

 

Berger, Daniel. “Here are the Books Obama Bought at Politics and Prose.” MSNBC. <http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/obama-buys-books-politics-prose>

 

Photos:

Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade. Politics and Prose Bookstore website.
<http://www.politics-prose.com/our-history>

 

Bookstore at 5015 Connecticut Avenue. “Why We Bought Politics and Prose.” The Washington Post.<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-we-bought-politics-and-prose/2011/04/01/AFDjweJC_story.html>

 

Lissa Muscatine and Bradley Graham. Politics and Prose Bookstore website. <http://www.politics-prose.com/our-history>

 

J.K. Rowling at Politics and Prose. The Washington Post. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2010/06/09/GA2010060904320.html>

 

President Obama at Politics and Prose. Bloomberg. <http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-11-30/potus-reading-list-the-books-obama-bought-at-politics-prose>

 

Texts:

Miller, Laura J. Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.

 

Anderson, Charles B. Bookselling in America and the World: Some Observations & Recollections in Celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the American Booksellers Association. New York: Quadrangle/The New York Times Book, 1975. Print.

Social Politics With a Side of Prose

Bookstore comparison
Above: The original owners, Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade, shown outside of their small bookstore in Forest Hills shortly after opening for business. Below: The bookstore as it appears now on Connecticut Avenue.

If you had taken a stroll through the Politics and Prose bookstore in 1999 and again today, you would naturally see aspects of change present in the bookstore. Carla Cohen, an original co-owner of Politics and Prose, was adamant that change be ever-present in the running of the bookstore. While methods of sales and print calendars were kept fresh under her direction, the community surrounding the bookstore has remained rather consistent. Since Politics and Prose has moved from their smaller lot in Forest Hills to their current, much larger building on Connecticut Avenue in 1999, the storefront and surrounding businesses have seen minimal change. In fact, the commercial life of Connecticut Avenue had already seen its growth and development twenty years prior with the rise of the department store consumerism that swept across America. Rather than examining change throughout the bookstore’s history, we will instead examine the development of the word “politics” and the role it has played within the history of Politics and Prose.

As any common dictionary wielder could tell you, politics is a term used in reference to the doings of a government of a country, especially concerning conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power (Merriam-Webster). Interestingly enough, this textbook definition has little relevance to the Politics and Prose bookstore. The combination of its proximity to Washington, D.C. and the name of the bookstore itself is misleading, especially about the purpose that the bookstore has served to the surrounding community.

 

 

Within the bookstore, the term politics has transformed into a social aspect, rather than a governmental concept. When Cohen was creating Politics and Prose with her business partner Barbara Meade, her intention was not to design a bookstore that solely sought patrons with government jobs. The naming of the store was more of a personal whim, one that Meade remembers as being an initial source of revenue difficulty. You can read about more of Meade’s memories of the early days of Politics and Prose here.

This is not to say that the owners were excluding the political lifestyle of many of their customers. Cohen, being a former political staff member, was highly aware of the political population living just five miles away in the heart of D.C. The important distinction is that Chevy Chase, very much unlike D.C., is a place where the young, ambitious, and high-class political workers go to settle into the domestic stage of their lives. Owning a business in this political-social sphere in the Chevy Chase neighborhood, meant that knowing their customers allowed Cohen and Meade to monitor and refine the selection they offered to patrons. In this regard, I believe Cohen and Meade saw their responsibility as booksellers in the similar manner that Christopher Morley did when he wrote “it s out duty sometimes to enlarge those rather meager escapes into print which are all that the official view of literature is likely to let us have” (Morley 53).

Archibald MacLeish, a more extreme voice among the debate of the role of booksellers, wrote that “All of us will agree that there is no man or group of men of our generation – above all no man or group of men of those who deal with books – who can escape responsibility for the evil which has fallen on our time” (MacLeish 10). Cohen and Meade understood the need to serve the local demographic, particularly during a time when the “Amazon Affect” was a strong rival force to independent bookstores. I certainly do not believe that the owners saw the climate in which Politics and Prose was created as evil and in need of redirection; instead, I believe the owners saw the independent bookstore as a chance to open up avenues to local readers and writers of a wealthier, political-based social class.

In general, Chevy Chase as a place is about the domestic lifestyle of people who work in high-paying government jobs. Consequently this is a community of consumers shaped by politics, but even stronger is the influence of the domestic construct. Families make up a large portion of the population; more specifically, well-to-do families with the iconic 2.5 children, a house with a white picket fence, and a two-car garage make up the majority of the consumer population. Therefore, the definition of politics is skewed by the perception created by this domestic lifestyle. The resulting notion of politics is one that was not likely what the owners originally expected.

Book Collage
The blatant contrast between Hayden’s political book compared to Shea’s illustrated children’s book is a prime example of the variation provided to customers in Politics and Prose.

Cohen and Meade initially intended to sell “Literature,” as imagined by Raymond Williams, in Politics and Prose. Instead, it quickly became evident that the consumer base they were in required books for numerous reasons, not simply the highbrow Literature. These families have little interest in reading solely about politicians and the latest in political movements, particularly when their leisure time is ideally an escape from the topic they face every other day in the workplace. Therefore, the notion of “politics” in the Chevy Chase area, more specifically within Politics and Prose, has transformed to become about social interaction, with an emphasis on creating a space to attract readers of all interests and personalities, resulting in a social atmosphere amongst intellectual individuals.

 

This customer base, primarily made up of families, requires cookbooks to liven the family dinner table night after night, as well as children’s books to further enrich the lives of children whose parents understand the importance of literacy. And what of the fantastical romance novels read by teenagers and housewives alike, or the biographies of big-name sports professionals that can be a source of bonding between a father and his son? I imagine any evening of the work week for the average Chevy Chase family involves the family being well fed, likely from the independent grocery stores dotted along Connecticut Avenue. The children have been tucked into bed after a bedtime story, and the marriage disputes have been settled over a glass of wine, so that fantastical romance novels are no longer needed. After all of these familial needs have been met, only then can the family unit look to the local bookstore for suggestions of books that fit into the Literature with a capital-L category, be it classical novels or the most recent book released on the topic of the presidential election.

The current owners have continued this balance between the social sphere and the political sphere. They host author events such as Bob Shea’s “Ballet Cat” pre-school series, but the day prior they have Michael Hayden talk about his book Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror that touches on controversial political topics post-9/11. They also recently posted to their blog about the political buzz around the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. In this post we can see the interest that current owners Bradley Graham and Lissa Muscatine have in not only informing their customers about a political matter, but also suggesting books to readers in order to create a better-informed public, as MacLeish so adamantly encouraged.

Politics and Prose has a unique opportunity in the Chevy Chase neighborhood to bring an alternative meaning to the word “politics.” As Mark Laframboise says when asked about the nature of the bookstore, “the store has always been about change” (30th Anniversary). Since opening its doors in 1984, that change has been seen in the physical layout of the bookstore, the owners of the store, as well as in the way in which the bookstore has influenced the concept of politics in the Washington, D.C. area. Despite the difficult beginning to the bookstore’s history due to the off-putting name, thirty years of business have proven that the social-political bookstore has found its niche in the Chevy Chase community.

When explaining the change of hands, Muscatine said that it was of great importance to her and Graham that they “retain the ethos of the store, to retain the essence of what makes it great and made it great, to retain what their (Cohen’s and Meade’s) vision was for it” (30th Anniversary). These new owners, as they build on the solid foundation of the bookstore from the last three decades, are looking to develop new ways to interest people in the independent bookstore. The one constant that remains infallible is that the bookstore acts as a place where politics transforms into a social construct.

 

Websites:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/11/AR2010101102811_2.html?sid=ST2010101102828

https://www.facebook.com/ChevyChaseHistory/?fref=nf

http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Magazine/July-August-2012/A-New-Chapter/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/barbara-meade-retires-from-politics-and-prose-reflects-on-a-life-in-books/2013/01/22/e7579214-61e8-11e2-b05a-605528f6b712_story.html

http://www.washingtonian.com/2013/03/28/what-ive-learned-politics-and-proses-barbara-meade/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPhOwiE_vAg

http://www.politics-prose.com/events/detailed-list

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/politics

http://www.politics-prose.com/carla

Texts:

MacLeish, Archibald, and Bruce Rogers. A Free Man’s Books. Mount Vernon, NY: Peter Pauper, 1942. Print.

Morley, Christopher. Ex Libris Carissimis. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania, 1932. Print.