Square Books: The South From a Postage Stamp

I

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The many facades of literary great William Faulkner, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes and the Nobel Prize.

In March of 2011, the last living descendant of William Faulkner, a niece named Dean Faulkner Wells, held a book signing for her Faulkner-inspired memoir Every Day By the Sun. The signing was held in the same theatre in Oxford, Mississippi where the town first celebrated the 1949 release of the film adaptation of William Faulkner’s novel Intruder in the Dust (Square Books). The event was sponsored by Square Books, a modern local literary empire taking over three buildings around The Square, Oxford’s historic town center, which counts William Faulkner as its greatest muse and most diligent sentry. Within the walls of the flagship store, every day is a tribute to the legacy of William Faulkner, Oxford’s most famous ghost. His portrait stands guard from the top of the main staircase and a collection of his works, along with criticism acting in response, overtakes one of the farthest corners of the store.

For Square Books, drawing people to Faulkner Wells’ book signing was an easy task. Local literarians and far-flung Faulknerphiles gathered to hear her tell tales of “Pappy,” her affectionate name for Bill Faulkner, the Oxford resident who would, after winning two Pulitzers and a Nobel Prize, become better recognized throughout the world as his writing alter-ego William Faulkner (Square Books). The literary community whispers of William Faulkner’s reclusiveness, putting aside copies of As I Lay Dying and The Sound and the Fury to gossip about the happy alcoholic and brothel-lover who hid his private life behind the gated doors of Rowan Oak, his family’s Oxford estate.

Oxford’s Square as Faulkner would have seen it on a Saturday in 1933. Click on the photograph above to open a gallery of historical images of Oxford. (Click on “Images/Media” after clicking on the picture of 1933 Oxford square.)

Before Faulkner Wells metaphorically threw open the doors of Rowan Oak to expose Bill, the man who would one day become William, the world had been given glimpses into Faulkner’s life in Oxford only a few times before. In 1952, he surprised everyone when he invited a broadcast crew sent by CBS to follow him through the streets of Oxford, lovingly capturing his face in profile as he recreated his memories with the help of his boyhood friends (Springer). As the narrator intones over a shot of Faulkner wiping his brow, “Here in Oxford, Lafayette County, Mississippi, we have a citizen who refers to himself as a farmer, a farmer who also writes” (Omnibus, 1952).

Thus the world was introduced to Bill, the Mississippi native and simple farmer who was rarely seen beyond the streets of Oxford.

Acting as the backdrop to Faulkner’s memories were the columned courthouse and whitewashed buildings that inspired the setting of William Faulkner’s fictionalized Yoknapatawpha County, Bill’s stomping ground and often-obsession. A decade and a half after Faulkner’s death, the simplistic storefront of Blaylock Drugstore, seen tucked behind Bill as he leads the camera through Oxford’s cobbled square, would become the flagship storefront of Square Books. Within the store’s walls Faulkner’s voice would forever echo as he tried to conceptualize the way Oxford inspired his work as William Faulkner, once claiming:

“I discovered that my own little postage stamp of native soil was worth writing about and that I would never live long enough to exhaust it” (Springer).

II

Owner Richard Howorth, at home in the third floor of the main Square Books storefront. The shelves devoted to Faulkner’s work and criticism stand behind his shoulder to the right.

On September 14th, 1979, Lisa and Richard Howorth opened the first face of Square Books on the top floor of a building on The Square that they rented from Richard’s aunt (Chamberlin). After spending two years working at the Washington, D.C. location of the struggling Savile Bookshop as a self-assigned apprenticeship, they returned to Richard’s hometown of Oxford and opened Square Books with $10,000 in savings and an equal bank loan (Square Books).

Though the building was primly placed to lure local readers and inquisitive tourists as they strolled through Oxford’s central shopping district, the main door to Square Books wasn’t even visible from the street. The Howorths painted the categories of their book offerings in bright colors up the risers of the stairs, with the hope that people might “stop and look through the glass door,” and recognize that it was “probably a bookstore” (Reisser Winburne). When geographer and historian Tim Creswell considers the way in which people perceive the world around them, he notes a difference between physical locations and their “sense of place.” In considering a “sense of place,” he imagined, we discover the “subjective and emotional attachment people have to place” (Creswell 7).

Within the space of Square Books, the Howorths worked to foster Oxford’s “emotional attachment” to the crowded shelves of their bookstore. They filled the walls with Southern literature and stockpiled copies of William Faulkner’s greatest works, paying homage to the Oxford community by respecting its most mythic resident.

Just as Square Books was building a reputation for hoarding Southern literature, the nearby University of Mississippi, located a five-minute drive from The Square, was making room for the newly-founded Center for the Study of Southern Culture. Oxford’s literary community had felt a kinship with the university since the day in 1929 when Bill Faulkner, then working on-campus as the overnight supervisor at the school’s power plant, kicked over a wheelbarrow and used it as a table to start writing As I Lay Dying (Watson).

People filled the walls of Square Books to hear prominent authors read from their works and give signings. Pictured above is the crowd that gathered for the William Styron reading, the first author to bring in enough locals to fill the store.

Since then, the University of Mississippi, affectionately dubbed Ole Miss, had fostered a relationship with the town, often influencing local demographics. The Ole Miss campus sprawls 3,902-acres to the west of Oxford proper with a student population that matches Oxford’s almost exactly with 24,000 students calling Ole Miss home (University of Mississippi). Locals laughingly complain about students “retiring” to Oxford after graduation, lowering average age and income statistics. While the national median age was recorded to be 35.3 years in 2010 (United States Census Bureau), statistics collected in 2013 noted the median resident age in Oxford to be 26 years (City-Data). The student population is also likely to blame for the town’s lower income figures. In 2013, the median Oxford income was an estimated $31,000 (City-Data), a steep $21,000 below that year’s national average (United States Census Bureau).

Christopher Morley once considered the way “Literature and the great personalities who commit literature start sometimes very strange vibrations” (Morley 47). As he continued, “These vibrations that great books and the personalities behind them set up, may travel a surprisingly long way” (Morley 61). As Square Books was enveloped into the arms of the Oxford intellectual community, inspired by the prevalence of Ole Miss, it found a friend in Bill Ferris, the newly-named director of The Center for the Southern Study of Culture. Working with Ferris, himself a prominent scholar of Southern culture and art, the Howorths fostered the “strange vibrations” at the heart of the Oxford literary community and attracted a parade of Southern writers to the space of Square Books, starting with Mississippi-born Ellen Douglas. Soon, the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Toni Morrison and Alex Haley were walking through Square Books’ front door, giving readings from works reacting to a Southern cultural context from within the crowded walls. Critically-acclaimed writers like James Dickey, George Plimpton and William Styron, with his newly-published literary darling Sophie’s Choice, quickly followed (Square Books).

By 1982, Oxford was being hailed as the cultural Mecca of the South (Flanary).

III

As the reputation of Square Books grew, so did the bookstore’s commitment to providing a collection of Southern literature that offered varying perspectives on the cultural landscape of Mississippi and the greater South. Archibald MacLeish once entreated booksellers to consider their political role as purveyors of knowledge in his essay “A Free Man’s Books,” asking that they recognize whether “in [their] honest judgment, we who dealt with books […] acted as though we thought of books as powerful influences—as instruments by which the lives of men and nations can be shaped—or whether, on the contrary, we thought of books as merchandise-as packages to be sold alongside of rubber tooth-brushes and bottles of hair tonic and packages of proprietary pills” (MacLeish 7).

William Faulkner’s work helped usher in a transformative era of Southern literature, where authors unabashedly gave voice to the racial tensions defining the region’s history, even as they piously celebrated the close community ties unique to traditional Southern culture. Writers like Faulkner broke from the shamed impulses of Southern authors writing in the years following Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin in 1793 (Know Southern History). As the cotton gin forced a surge in Southern plantation owners dependent on slave labor, tensions between the North and South rose as Northern literature offered a caricature of Southern culture as lazy and cruel. In response, Southern authors adopted a tone of pastoral abstraction in their writing, purposefully mystifying setting as distinct from time and place (Know Southern History).

But Bill Faulkner, self-proclaimed simple farmer and Oxford resident, unashamedly wrote about his “little postage stamp of native soil” with an awareness of all its political tensions (Springer). Writing books that could be “powerful influences” helping to change flawed Northern conceptions of the Southern identity, he tirelessly explored all of the sociopolitical impulses of Mississippi culture.

Today Square Books picks up where Faulkner left off, offering readers an inclusive representation of Southern literature and the historical contexts that informed its many faces. Even as the store openly praises Southern culture, owner Richard Howorth is vocal about how he sees the store’s founding as a reactionary ripple to the events of October 1, 1962 (Gurwitt). On that day, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy was forced to relocate 3,000 federal troops to the grounds of Ole Miss when 2,000 angry students blocked the former U.S. Air Force Serviceman James H. Meredith from entering. A black man born in Mississippi, Meredith was fighting to become the first African-American student at Ole Miss following the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark rule against educational and community segregation in 1954 (History).

Whether or not the store’s success came as a community response to its political impulses, by 1986 Square Books had outgrown its walls. The store moved one hundred feet down The Square to 160 Courthouse Square, taking over the two-floor space that Faulkner once knew as Blaylock Drugstore (Square Books). Off Square Books was born seven years later, housing a collection of lifestyle and bargain books in a secondary storefront on The Square. In 2003, Square Books opened its final storefront, Square Books, Jr., to house children’s literature, along with what Archibald MacLeish might label apolitical “merchandise,” including educational games and plush toys. With the expansion of the Square Books empire the space of the flagship storefront emptied of the more apolitical genres. The bookstore became representative of the cultural and social exploration idealized within the Southern Renaissance literary movement and, by extension, William Faulkner’s personal work.

IV

Voyeurs to Faulkner’s memories, we follow the film camera as it roams over the book-filled shelves of Faulkner’s study at Rowan Oak. Faulkner opens the door for his boyhood friend Phil “Moon” Mullen and suddenly it’s easy to envision him as Bill, especially when he snarkily intones, “So you’re the one the trouble begins with” (Omnibus, 1952). What follows is a conversation between equals, where Mullen calmly chastises Faulkner for his turn from the spotlight in the aftermath of his Nobel Prize nomination. Sitting comfortably in the armchair of his study, Bill explains, “Look Phil, I don’t see what my private life inside this house, my family, has got to do with my writing and the Nobel Foundation in Sweden” (Omnibus, 1952).

Thus Faulkner voices the distinction between his identity as Bill, a down-home Oxford resident, and his role as William, the nationally praised literary visionary. Alive in this contrast is some acknowledgement of the way the educated class took ownership of assigning literary taste, defining it as above the simple palates of people like Bill. As Raymond Williams describes this shift, “taste’ and ‘sensibility,” now became a necessarily selective and self-defining area: not all ‘fiction’ was ‘imaginative’; not all ‘literature’ was ‘Literature” (Williams 1572). Even as Faulkner’s writing found a home next to works valued for their “taste” and “simplicity,” he seemed to be aware that William Faulkner could not stand in high regard if not balanced by the private simplicity of Bill.

In the same way that William was balanced by Bill, the main storefront of Square Books is balanced by its satellite stores. Though the flagship store houses a mixed collection of subjects ranging from sexuality to music studies, these genres are held as both physically and intellectually distinct from the collections kept in Off Square Books and Square Books, Jr. With lifestyle books, bargain literature, children’s texts and collectible memorabilia set apart from books of “taste,” the sensibilities of the lofty literary critic are given space to flourish. As much as Bill Faulkner might be alive within the walls of the other stores, it is William Faulkner, with his eyebrow arched, his suit pressed and his arms crossed, whose portrait hangs in the heart of Square Books.

V

Entering through the front doors of Square Books, the shopper takes in the well-worn carpeting and antique tabletops that direct a maze of hardcover and paperback “Just-ins.” Signed copies are interspersed in these high stacks, distinguished only by small tongues of brightly colored paper sticking from between the pages . Seemingly-endless bookshelves devoted to Mississippi literature stretch along the wall to the right of the front door, while shelves of mysteries overtake the wall to the left. A section close to the cash wrap offers the common ground between these seemingly distinct genres—Mississippi mysteries.

Within this mixed bookcase, we begin to understand the odd orientation of this space. In the bounds of the first floor, Square Books pays tribute to Oxford’s most famous exports—William Faulkner, whose metaphorical heart can be found buried in the history of his “little postage stamp of native soil” (Springer), and John Grisham, a native-Mississippian and local resident, whose crime thrillers have dominated bestseller lists for the last few decades.

Moving up the main staircase, which pays tribute to the early location of Square Books with painted risers drawing customers to the genres of the floors above, shoppers find the space of the mezzanine. Lining the narrow hallway between the floor’s two staircases is a wall of bookshelves housing religion, sexuality, and philosophy texts. The area the mezzanine encompasses is small, which, in relation to the other floors, makes it appear as a waste-bin. The way contradictory genres like religion and sexuality are set as neighbors further gives the impression that this exists as a tangential area where genres categorically considered “Literature” but distinct from the store’s sense of valuable books find a home. In Square Books, it seems, texts mirroring the philosophical likes of Foucault and Camus become caught between the seas of more grounded and lofty literature collected above and below.

VI

There must have been a moment when Bill Faulkner looked over his “little postage stamp of native soil” and saw the many lives of Yoknapatawpha County contained in the buildings and the tulips and the cobbled stones of Oxford’s town square (Springer). Maybe he began by exploring the physical and cultural context of Mississippi, and then, through the act of writing, found the mind of William Faulkner, whose lofty “Literature” would become world-renowned.

In the space of Square Books, Faulkner’s intellectual trajectory is replicated. In the store’s spatial orientation, shoppers are forced to start their journey by looking over the many spines of Mississippi texts before moving to the third floor and discovering the fictitious and intellectual work inspired by an understanding of Mississippi cultural context. The third floor holds the loftiest of the genres, with literary fiction and academic texts primarily serving the student and professor interests of Ole Miss taking over most of the floor. Across from the staircase is a section of African-American literature, seeming to indicate that though your introduction to the store might begin with grounded texts exploring Mississippi history and culture, these are best appreciated by experiencing the literature birthed from an understanding of this cultural context. This sense continues throughout the floor, with sections on sociology, history, nature, science and poetry overtaking the shelves surrounding the African-American collection.

The appeal of these intellectual genres are physically set apart from the Literature overtaking the other half of the floor by a café counter and a web of seating. Within this space, Square Books orients itself as a social hub, a sense of the bookstore further supported by the outside balcony, which offers an open space for loud conversation. The way the café and balcony are squeezed between the intellectual genres collected on the first half of the floor and the literary fiction and nonfiction works housed on the other, suggests that the space for conversation exists somewhere between these two impulses—with intellectualism finding a happy place within a general discussion of literary fiction.

Past the café, tucked behind sections devoted to literary nonfiction and writing technique, lies the true heart of Square Books’ flagship store. To the far right of alphabetized bookshelves holding literary fiction is a shelf devoted to William Faulkner and his literary critics. Holed up in the farthest corner of the store, on the loftiest floor, the space of this tribute seems to suggest that, at least in the space of Square Books, literature should begin and end with Faulkner.

old-bookstore-square-books-oxford-ms-rebecca-korpita

A view of the staircase to the mezzanine and second floor in the flagship storefront of Square Books. Notice William Faulkner’s presence at the top of the staircase, following customers as they move from floor to floor.

When William Faulkner asked to be called Bill in his private life, it seems that he did so partly out of respect for Mississippi, and the manner in which its complex story was reduced when referred to simply as “the homeland of William Faulkner.” Square Books takes over where Faulkner left off, prioritizing the Mississippi community and leaving “Literature” for the upper eaves of the store. In this way, the store becomes reflective of the Southern Renaissance values Faulkner once helped foster, where Southern literature is explored in all its cruel and triumphant permutations, even as senses of community, and the way this shared history has born modern value systems, is fiercely celebrated.

VII

Faulkner once described Oxford, Mississippi as “a kind of keystone in the universe; that, small as that keystone is, if it were ever taken away the universe itself would collapse” (Ulin). Interspersing high stacks of literature with signed copies and shellacking hundreds of autographed author photographs to the walls of the main storefront, Square Books proudly displays its literary network, its value as a “keystone” of the national literary community. Where it is seen as culturally valuable and distinct from negative perceptions of the South’s long history of racial inequality.

Though it was the Howorths who named Square Books, who bought the shelves and set the genres in physical conversation, it is Bill Faulkner’s aesthetic that orients the store’s identity. As Walter Benjamin once wrote of book collecting, “one thing should be noted: the phenomenon of collecting loses its meaning as it loses its personal owner” (Benjamin 67). In respecting Faulkner’s sense of Oxford as the “keystone of the universe,” Square Books allows him to act as the “personal owner.”

In the space of Square Books, we find Faulkner alive again, provoking discussions of Mississippi’s complicated history of discrimination even as he praises the sense of community fostered within Oxford’s town limits. As Bill Faulkner once realized, the cultural context of Oxford, Mississippi was so rich that he “would never live long enough to exhaust it” (Springer). Physically, for Faulkner that was true. But in the mind of Square Books, happily celebrating Faulkner and his literary vision from the center of his old stomping ground, Bill Faulkner’s memory continues to explore Oxford a lifetime later.

 

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The many faces of Bill Faulkner, Oxford resident and self-proclaimed farmer, pictured in the center photo at his home in Rowan Oak.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  • Cresswell, Tim. Place: A Short Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2004. Print.
  • Morley, Christopher. Ex Libris Carissimus. New York: A.s. Barnes, 1932. Print.
  • MacLeish, Archibald, and Bruce Rogers. A Free Man’s Books. Mount Vernon, NY: Peter Pauper, 1942. Print.
  • Benjamin, Walter. “Unpacking My Library.” Illuminations. Ed. Hannah Arendt. Trans. Harry Zohn. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 59-67. Print.

VIDEO SOURCE

  • http://www.openculture.com/2013/05/rare_1952_film_william_faulkner_on_his_native_soil_in_oxford_mississippi.html
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8VvNkTXVCM

HYPERLINKS

  • http://www.squarebooks.com/event/dean-faulkner-wells-signs-every-day-sun-memoir-faulkners-mississippi
  • http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/apr/29/book-review-every-day-by-the-sun/
  • http://www.biography.com/people/william-faulkner-9292252
  • http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041513/
  • http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/06/100-best-novels-as-i-lay-dying-william-faulkner
  • http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/faulkner/n-sf.html
  • http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/william-faulkner-draws-mythological-maps-of-yoknapatawpha.html
  • http://museum.olemiss.edu/collection-biographies/dr-william-r-ferris-1942/
  • http://www.mswritersandmusicians.com/mississippi-writers/ellen-douglas
  • https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/allen-ginsberg
  • http://www.biography.com/people/toni-morrison-9415590#synopsis
  • http://www.biography.com/people/alex-haley-39420
  • http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/james-l-dickey
  • http://www.georgeplimpton.net/
  • http://www.biography.com/people/william-styron-9498425
  • http://www.jgrisham.com/bio/
  • http://www.wwnorton.com/college/NRL/epack_ancillaries/LIT11/workshop_faulkner.html
  • http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/01/travel/la-tr-oxford-20110501

IMG SOURCES

  • http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large-5/old-bookstore-square-books-oxford-ms-rebecca-korpita.jpg
  • http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/litweb11/img/workshops/FICTION_Faulkner/large/14_FICTION_Faulkner1i.jpg
  • http://d3eoifnsb8kxf0.cloudfront.net/files/2016/01/06/Shelf_RHoworth_by_Jason_Walls_Photography.PNG
  • http://blueplanettimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Faulkner-bresson-rowan-oak.jpg
  • http://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/faulknerroyal.jpg
  • https://silverbirchpress.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/faulkner_silver.jpg
  • http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/sites/default/files/styles/tall_rectangle_custom_user_large_1x/public/images/contributor/faulkner_360x450.jpg?itok=0ce2lGPr
  • http://www.squarebooks.com/sites/squarebooks.com/files/Styron_signing3.jpg
  • http://www.elizabethfcornell.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/faulkner2011.jpg
  • http://public.media.smithsonianmag.com/legacy_blog/Constant-Traveler-William-Faulkner-Oxford-Mississippi-520.jpg
  • https://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/AR-AD136_Faulkn_P_20130725221114.jpg

OTHER TEXT SOURCES

  • Chamberlin, Jeremiah. “Inside Indie Bookstores: Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi.” Poets & Writers. Poets & Writers, 01 Jan. 2010. Web. 07 May 2016.
  • “Chapter XVI. Age and Sex Composition of the Family.” Family Growth in Metropolitan America (n.d.): n. pag. United States Census Bureau. United States Census Bureau. Web.
  • Flanary, Sara L. “Oxford Remains A Cultural Mecca.” Daily Press. Daily Press Media Group, 03 July 1994. Web. 07 May 2016.
  • Gurwitt, Rob. “Light in Oxford.” Mother Jones. Mother Jones, May-June 2000. Web. 07 May 2016.
  • “A History of Square Books.” Square Books: Blogs. Square Books, n.d. Web. 07 May 2016.
  • “Household Income.” (n.d.): n. pag. United States Census Bureau. United States Census Bureau. Web. 7 May 2016.
  • “Know Southern History :: Southern Literature.” Know Southern History. Know Southern History, n.d. Web. 07 May 2016.
  • “Oxford, Mississippi.” City-Data. Onboard Informatics, n.d. Web. 07 May 2016.
  • Reisser Winburne, Peggy. “Square Books.” WKNO 91.1. WKNO FM, 17 May 2013. Web. 07 May 2016.
  • “Riots over Desegregation of Ole Miss.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 07 May 2016.
  • Springer, Mike. “Rare 1952 Film: William Faulkner on His Native Soil in Oxford, Mississippi.” Open Culture. Open Culture, LLC., 9 May 2013. Web. 07 May 2016.
  • Ulin, David L. “Oxford, Miss.: The Center of William Faulkner’s Cosmos.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 01 May 2011. Web. 07 May 2016.
  • “Under the Spell of a Generator’s Thrum, a Faulkner Masterpiece Was Born.” The Conversation. The Conversation US, Inc., 14 Jan. 2016. Web. 07 May 2016.
  • “The University of Mississippi.” Quick Facts. The University of Mississippi, n.d. Web. 07 May 2016.

INTERACTIVE FLOOR PLAN

  • Fiction/Faulkner: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/511510470153991490/.
  • Faulkner Close: http://deepsouthmag.com/2015/01/21/mississippi-literary-road-trip-part-one/.
  • Cafe: https://shooflyfarmblog.wordpress.com/tag/oxford-ms/.
  • Cafe Doorway: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/416371928024471348/.
  • Above the banister: https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/issue/201004/mississippi-1.phtml.
  • Back store: http://hottytoddy.com/2013/04/03/square-books-named-pw-bookstore-of-the-year-miller-rep/.
  • Back shelves: http://gallivant.com/shop/square-books/.
  • Square Books Deck: http://www.oxfordmississippi.com/relaxing-on-the-square-books-deck-pic/.
  • Square Deck: http://www.jmtohline.com/2013/05/square-books-in-oxford-mississippi.html.
  • Business section: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/551691023073285070/.
  • Storage Area: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g43934-d4261143-Reviews-Square_Books-Oxford_Mississippi.html.
  • Full View: http://www.oxfordmississippi.com/inside-square-books-pic/.
  • Front tables: http://www.yelp.com/biz/square-books-oxford.
  • Outside Square: http://www.yelp.com/biz/square-books-oxford.
  • Mysteries: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g43934-d4261143-Reviews-Square_Books-Oxford_Mississippi.html.

IMAGES ON GOOGLE MAP

  • Off-Square Books: http://visitoxfordms.com/place/off-square-books/
  • Square Books: http://www.mhpbooks.com/mississippis-square-books-named-bookstore-of-the-year-by-publishers-weekly/
  • Square Books, Jr: http://gilbertford.com/news/?p=438
  • Ole Miss Logo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ole_Miss_rebels_Logo.svg

TIMELINE IMAGES

  • Faulkner’s headstone: http://visitoxfordms.com/oxfords-top-10-tourist-attractions/
  • Faulkner portrait: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1949/faulkner-bio.html
  • Ole Miss Riot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ole_Miss_riot_of_1962
  • Off Square Books: http://oxfordmississippi.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/
  • Square Books, Jr.: http://gilbertford.com/news/?m=201004&paged=2
  • Oxford Lyric: http://www.thelyricoxford.com/about/
  • Faulkner accepting NP: http://www.abc.es/fotos-cultural/20120601/william-faulkner-recibe-premio-1502877335294.html
  • Faulkner’s acceptance speech: http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Author-William-Faulkner-Making-a-Speech-Upon-Receiving-the-National-Book-Award-Posters_i5334191_.htm
  • Blaylocks Drugstore: http://hottytoddy.com/2014/01/28/blaylocks-drugs-an-oxford-blast-from-the-past/
  • Square Books: http://fictionwritersreview.com/shoptalk/poets-writers-subscription-deal/
  • Richard & Lisa Howorth: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/02/squarebooks200802

Square Books Space: Floor by Floor Evolution

Square Books, in all its glory.

           The sun is shining, and a calm breeze blows past me as I stand within Courthouse square, located in Oxford, Mississippi. My eyes glance from the Lafayette Courthouse, to the orange, aged building before me; Square Books. The building itself looks spotless, as if it were only there for not even a decade, even though it’s probably older than most. While the building isn’t a skyscraper, it stands tall at three stories. I can see within the window display a sign welcoming any and all who pass the location. In reality, I am sitting atop a comfy computer chair, staring at a zoomed-in version of Google-Maps, with a succulent PBR next to me. Virtually, however, the confines are what we consider place, are distorted, and I am standing right in the heart of Lafayette County. In exploring the independent bookstore that is Square Books, it is important to always pay attention to what each section adds to the overall definition of the stores individual space, and place.

BEFORE READING ON..

           Before stepping foot in any bookstore, let alone any establishment whatsoever, it is important to understand that there is a certain bias to the store itself. Staying in terms of independent bookstores, every single bookstore has an owner, who themselves have their own opinions on literature. As renowned book-collector Walter Benjamin, in his piece Illuminations, every collector has a passion for literature, and said passion “borders on the chaotic” (Benjamin 60). While bigger bookstore chains may have a wider pool to choose from, independent bookstores rely on the collecting of books by a small group of individuals. Selections may vary, and border on the line of obsession. Remember, though, it’s healthy.


 1. The Ground Floor: A Face Full of the South

           The ground floor of a bookstore, in terms of individual expression, shows off the heart of what that specific bookstore entails. Walking into Square Books, at first glance, my eyes quickly skim the surrounding environment. There are intricate carpets amongst the floor, as well as bookshelves as far as the eye can see. Peering at the massive bookshelf on the other side of the bookstore, one can tell how significant “Mississippi Literature” is to Square Books, as it encompasses of the wall. Apart from having its own section, another section of the ground floor is dedicated to“Mississippi Mysteries”, which encompasses mystery novels written by Mississippian authors. Just from looking at these sections alone, one can surmise that the identity of Southern literature—specifically Mississippian literature—is quintessential to the independent bookstore’s identity. Apart from the southern literature, the ground floor itself encompasses a wide variety of texts, such as “Just-in Hardcovers”, and even a section on business. From an entry level glance, Square Books as a place is deeply rooted within Southern literature, yet it offers literature that includes other audiences.There are two staircases that lead to the second level of Square Books, both having artistic steps labeled with the sections that reside at the upper levels of the store.

The rugs guide you throughout the store.

2. The Second Floor: An Ode to Things Forgotten

           In terms of hierarchy, the second floor can be described as “second best”, or rather what is considered the middle-tier of literature. Square Book’s infrastructure, however, does not entail a second floor, but rather a narrow hallway with several bookshelves, overlooking the ground floor. Subjects such as “Religion”, “Sexuality”, and “Philosophy” can be found within narrow walkway between two staircases. The space itself is small, which causes me to perceive the bookstore as not deeming those subjects as important as the other categories in the store. Instead, they have tucked them neatly aside, away from the main gaze of their audience. The works of Foucault, and Camus, are in a manner of speaking forgotten amongst the sea of literature that Square Books possesses.

           Consider, though, the addition that the overlook of the store adds to the definition of Square Book’s place. If the hallway isn’t crowded, one can stand freely, and look out onto the rest of the other occupants of the store, in an anthropological game of sorts. Imagine for a second viewing people walking around the store, and picking out Mississippian mysteries. You can see the type of people that choose certain types of literature, as well as what demographic of individuals frequent the store. While it may seem strange, in this addition of self-reflection, Square Books grows as a place. It is a bookstore that you can not only peruse literature, but also a hub of literary culture, that allows for a special ocular analysis.

The view is breathtaking, to say the least.

3. The Third Floor: Faulkner, and Food

           As with the other floors in the conception of space hierarchy, the third floor signifies the area which should encompass the crème de la crème, or the best of the best. I am met with “Sociology” on my left, and “Music”, “Poetry”, “African-American literature”, “Nature”, and “Science” to my far left. In my own opinion most of these subjects deserve to be at the top, however the order by which they are categorized has left me in a questionable state. Why is “Sociology” the first bookshelf I see? Why are “Nature” and “Science” on opposite sides of the same bookshelf? Furthermore, why is “Nature” at the top of the bookstore, whereas “Philosophy” is only on the second floor? Obviously, Square Books as a place must value Nature above Philosophy, which isn’t necessarily a negative attribute to have. It does however assist in defining where Square Books places emphasis.

The best photograph that could be found of the questionably categorized bookshelves.

           Walking past the questionably ordered bookshelves, as well as the wide exit/entrance staircase, I find myself standing within a cafe within a bookstore. And it isn’t even a Starbucks! The cafe doesn’t take up a majority of the third floor, and even has seating for those who care to chat and drink coffee while they read. As a place, Square Books offers not only literature, but an environment in which one can eat, and interact socially with others. The walls of the cafe, which act as walls for the room past it, are lined with “On Writing”, “Literary Non-Fiction” and “Southern Studies”.

           It is past the cafe, inside of the smaller section where the true treasure of Square Books lies. To my right, I can vividly make out a large display entitled “Faulkner”, where the owner has consciously ordered all of Faulkner’s works into one corner of the floor. Not only do his works garner their own section in Square books, but literature that critiques his own work have their own section as well, appropriately located on the bookshelf right next to it.

Faulkner: King of Oxford, Ms

           Let us take another approach to understanding the attraction that is the Faulkner corner. As Clifford states, in his piece “On Collecting Art and Culture”, a bookstore acts in an ethnographic fashion, as each individual bookshelf acts as “diverse experiences and facts” that are “selected, gathered, detached from their original temporal occasions, and given enduring value in a new arrangement” (Clifford 231). In both collecting, and displaying the works of Faulkner in a special manner, Richard Howarth, owner of Square Books, has detached Faulkner from his original time period, and has instead acts as a new arrangement.  Faulkner acts as an emblem for Square Books, as he emphasizes the literary side of Oxford, Ms in its entirety.


Sources

Written

Benjamin, Walter. “Unpacking My Library.” Illuminations. Ed. Hannah Arendt. Trans. Harry Zohn. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 59-67. Print.

Clifford, James. “On Collecting Art and Culture.”

Floor Layouts

Thinglink.com

 

 

A Look at Square Books: Modern Oxford

 

 

Square Books is a bookstore located in the heart of the south, Oxford, Mississippi. The store opened in the September of 1979, founded by both Richard and Lisa Howorth, as a privately owned bookstore. Oxford is the town that houses the University of Mississippi, a school that has produced many a great writer, including the likes of John Grisham, William Faulkner, and John Faulkner. It comes with no surprise that a town with such great academic history would also house an amazing bookstore that specializes in literary fantasy, works of Southern authors, and books packed with information about the South.

A simple map of the Oxford area, just giving an outline of the size of the town and an easy way to view stores in the area, from Google Maps

From the outside of Square Books, you can see a clear old school traditional bookstore look with the building itself. The building has a distinct smooth brick red color with gray decals towards the top of the building. From the front I was able to see a large glass window spanning the front of the first floor of the two story building, peeking in at the books that are on display to the public. As I used streetview to turn the corner of the street, there is a staircase marked going up to the second floor of the store and the balcony that branches directly off of it for customers to sit outside and enjoy the weather and read a book that they just bought or for groups to meet and discuss or just hang out.

Front shot of the Square Books Building courtesy of Google Maps Street View

Shot from the side of the same building courtesy of Google Maps Street View

The most notable feature of Oxford is undoubtedly Ole Miss. The University of Mississippi is a public university specializing in research with a student body of over 20,000 and an 81% acceptance rate. The facilities of the school take up a large chunk of the cityscape but also add greatly to the amount of people that reside in the town with almost the same population as the school. Oxford has been called one of the six best college towns by USA Today and the county that is resides in, Lafayette County, typically has the lowest unemployment rate per quarter in the state. And while technically the University of Mississippi doesn’t actually reside within the town, instead opting to call the surrounding area “University”, it very much fuels the kind of stores and market of the city. I have personal experience living in a college town, as I reside in Newark, DE, home of the University of Delaware and the Fightin’ Blue Hens so I understand how city culture and the stores around it can almost revolve around the kinds of students there.

The Law Building of Ole Miss, courtesy of law.olemiss.edu

The Law Building of Ole Miss courtesy of their website

While Newark has a heavily asian focused cuisine due to the high amount of transfer students from the East that we have, Oxford seems to have alot more local style creole food and cheap chain restaurants to cater to the residents of the area and the students who are still struggling to make a living there, paying for school. Stores like Little Caesar’s, Starbucks, McDonalds, Taco Bell and the like are focused around the major roads and the school itself while the town center where all of the residents and the bookstore hole themselves up have more local cuisine. This really manifests itself with the stores Boure, Soulshine Pizza Factory, and Rib Cage. All of these stores have a very southern focus, with Boure being a casual creole restaurant, Soulshine Pizza being a store that specializes in serving both pizza and po’ boys (an old cajun tradition that puts meat and condiments on a French baguette that typically has a Louisiana styled hot sauce on it; I would recommend them, catfish po’ boys with melted butter on them are absolutely amazing) and Rib Cage, a shop serving up barbecue, a classic southern staple.

Boure, Creole Restaurant

Soulshine Pizza Factory, Pizzas and Po’ Boys

Rib Cage, Traditional Southern BBQ

Other things of note in the town are the fact that there are over 80 churches of various faiths and denominations spanning the area around the city and the schools of the Lafayette School district residing inside of the city limits that have some of the highest test scores of the entire state, and the county courthouse sitting only across the street. For entertainment outside of the bookstore and watching the Ole Miss Rebels play, there is The Lyric Oxford performing arts theater only two blocks from the bookstore and several strip malls just off 314 to the east.