Regional and Personal Expression: The Books of DJ Ernst

On a dreary Wednesday afternoon, I walk into DJ Ernst Used and Rare Bookstore. The owner–affectionately known as Homer–greets me from the check-out desk three quarters into the small, one-room store. The walls are lined in red wallpaper, old photos, and clippings from various magazines and newspapers. Busts and memorabilia line the shelves along the walls, and, just like everything else in the store, even the shelves themselves vary in size, shape, and materials. In a display in the middle of the store, books are stacked in make-shift shelves made from vintage wooden orange crates and on a table. The store holds decades of work and dedication to the collectors who come work with Homer online from around the country, the Susquehanna University students who stop in regularly, and especially to the Selinsgrove community that inhabits the land around it.

In regard to the local community, I say especially because of the configuration of the room. As Gilda Bruckman of the feminist bookstore New Words put it, “how we featured books had a big effect on who came in” (Spain 88). The same can be said for DJ Ernst. As mentioned in my last blog post, Homer’s main customers have always been those who wanted to learn more about American–and Pennsylvanian, in particular–history. If this is his main market, it’s no surprise then that the history books should be towards the front of the store and or in the window displays facing Market Street. On the other side of the store, books on hunting, guns, birds, and other subjects a hunter or nature enthusiast needs also sit at the front of the store. This isn’t a coincidence, either; many people in the Susquehanna Valley hunt and fish. In addition to this, being so close to the Susquehanna River increases the need and desire to have these books in stock for the community and to make them easily accessible to customers.

Major community members (regardless of their more temporary living situation) are the Susquehanna University students and faculty, who may come in to peruse Homer’s collection of philosophical texts or his collections of low-price poetry and fiction. He even keeps music books in his stock, and his relationship with the school’s Creative Writing program means that he carries faculty publications, which sit in a shelf in front of his desk. DJ Ernst is a place where students can feel a part of the Selinsgrove community and participate in it, while also providing a place to engage in conversations with the books and with Homer, as the comfy armchair between the shelves and the sales desk suggests. The space is small and meant to facilitate a dialogue regarding the books and what lay between their covers.

Not far from that armchair, I notice the amount of books about ships and the sea on the same wall as the history books. While they fit into the history section, there seems to be a special reason why there are so many. When I talk to Homer about them, he smiles excitedly.

“I’m a really big fan of ships,” he says. “Those are some of my favorites.”

For some reason, this surprises me. Despite knowing his love and enthusiasm for many of the books that come into his store, it still seems like a strange idea that someone would stock their favorite books in their store, even if they may not sell as quickly as everything else. Throughout her book, Reluctant Capitalists, Laura J. Miller talks about chain bookstores and how their book selection process and floor plans have been rationalized and standardized over the years, meaning that, regardless of what state or town I’m in, I can walk into any chain and find a similar layout and similar (if not the exact same) books on the shelves. Often, these books are able to sell quickly and have larger audiences. The chain bookstore stocks what sells in every store, and maybe only provides variation in books about the particular state the store is in. Having grown up in stores like Borders and Books-A-Million, I could always find the same books in the almost the exact same place in any store.

On the other hand, Homer ultimately decides what books are in the store and how they’re set up in the space. This contributes to the idea that DJ Ernst is more than an independent store; it’s a personal store that’s based in a person’s interests and understanding of the community in which it resides. Homer isn’t relying on national bestseller’s lists or national trend studies; his own interests and the books his customers are looking for (as well as whatever used books end up in his possession) create the stock. The bookstore’s personality (a major selling point independents use in competition with the chains) is formed by and for Homer and the community.

Continuing with the previous idea that what’s available and easy to access informs who the customers are, Homer also happens to stock books that only a collector can imagine having. Here, the idea is not so much about what’s in the book, but rather what the book is and how old it is. As I talk to Homer, he points to some books stacked on the floor. He tells me that they’re early-edition Oz books, and my eyes grow wide. Such books would cost a fortune; I know that even if I had my wallet on me, there’s no way I could even afford one of them.

“People are always looking for copies of these books for their collections,” Homer says, delighted that I’m amazed by the bright hardcover books. “These’ll sell quickly.”

It’s clear that these aren’t the paperbacks that I’d find on the floor of the main part of the bookstore. These books are special, almost like gold. They could have serious deformities on the inside–a printer could have messed them up and made them illegible–and someone would still want them because such rare books are unique. Not everyone can say they have a full collection of early-edition Oz books, after all. Sometimes, a book has meaning beyond what’s between the covers. Merely owning these books, knowing their history and how their stories influenced American pop culture, is enough to shell out a thousand or two dollars. The book becomes, as Miller and booklovers the world over call it, a sacred object, something worth special treatment and reverence. Even if these books end up shipped off to another state, just having them there infuses the space with an air of importance.

Before I leave, I take a glance around at the eclectic mix of books along the walls and on the central display table. I look at them and see the imprint of the community and of the uniqueness of the books on the place, and I see how they’ve made the place both communal and personal.

Sources

Floor plan drawn by Erin Reid, edited through ThingLink by Erin Reid

Text

Miller, Laura J. Reluctant Capitalists Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption. University of Chicago Press, 2014.

Spain, Daphne. “Feminist Bookstores: Building Identity.” Constructive Feminism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2016. 84-110.

Literature on Market Street: Understanding DJ Ernst and Its Surroundings

DJ Ernst Books. Photo by me.

It’s a cold, rainy afternoon, and as I walk onto Selinsgrove’s Market Street for the first time in my college career, I notice how quiet it is. The few people that are on the street quickly go from one store to another, or make their way to the cars and trucks parked next to the sidewalk. If this had been a sunny day, like the many I’ve seen on my way to Susquehanna University, there would be students and townspeople alike walking through town, stopping for a bite to eat at The Kind Café, or maybe stopping at DJ Ernst, a used and rare bookstore found on the north side of the street.

Though I’ve been at Susquehanna University for four years, I had never made the connection to Selinsgrove that I’ve made to the campus itself. Out of political geographer John Agnew’s three fundamental aspects of a “meaningful location,” sense of place (i.e. emotional attachment and experience) isn’t something I’ve had much of (Cresswell 7). I have more attachment to the brick buildings of the school than I do the unique mix of the Victorian and–oddly enough–Greek styles found along this major street.

From left to right: Selinsgrove Commons (not shown), Nouveau Ink, an art gallery, and an Allstate Insurance office. Photo by me.
Another section of N Market Street, including the Pink Pin-Up boutique (the building with the Antiquity-inspired columns and pediment) and The kind Café (far right and partially shown). Photo by me.

Despite my comfort zone ending after a fifteen-minute walk on University Avenue, there’s no way I could’ve spent all that time at Susquehanna without hearing about DJ Ernst and its owner Donald Ernst, better known by the student body as Homer. Anyone familiar with the school’s Literature Club knows that DJ Ernst is a staple in the group’s activities, whether taking trips to Market Street to buy books or selling donated books as a fundraiser.

In fact, much of Market Street is deeply connected to Susquehanna University. Selinsgrove is, after all,  a college town, one that mixes tradition, such as the large outdoor markets at Selinsgrove Commons, with the tastes of the regularly-changing population of students. In a town of over 5,000 people, about 34.3% of the total population (as of 2016; see graph below) is between the ages of 18-24, which applies to many of the college students who live there. Selinsgrove’s economic stability also relies on the families, faculty, and staff that visit and work at Susquehanna University every day.

College students like me aren’t the only ones benefitting from DJ Ernst’s low prices on used books. With a median household income of $40,856 (as of 2016, see graph below), the citizens of Selinsgrove have, on average, less money to spend on things like the often expensive books found in the larger, chain bookstores. Market Street provides both unique and affordable places to shop and eat, which is a major reason why groups such as the Literature Club make regular trips into town for book shopping.

Of course, price isn’t everything. As Laura J. Miller, in her book Reluctant Capitalists, explains, the standardization of the chain bookstores created fears about the standardization of appearances and the loss of a sense of place within the communities these stores were set up in (Miller 110). In such a small town, a large store like Barnes & Noble would stand out amongst the homes and small businesses. As a result, it would break up the image the community has created. Small, residential-looking businesses like DJ Ernst fit right into that small-town ideal, making the bookstore another puzzle piece to the whole that is Selinsgrove.

A look at DJ Ernst’s window display. Photo by me.

Another major factor that makes DJ Ernst fit into the Selinsgrove image is the uniqueness of the titles Homer sells. Many of the books sold there are vintage magazines and titles that may not be carried in chain bookstores, either because they’re out of print or because they’re obscure. While some popular books are sold here (see the copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in the picture above), there are plenty of other books many might have never seen without DJ Ernst. This sense of the old and the unique (as opposed to the new, shiny, and easy-to-find) is a quality that used bookstores like this thrive on, and it reminds those who visit Selinsgrove and Market Street that they’re in an old and unique place.

As I walk towards the bookstore, I keep all of this in mind and look forward to exploring DJ Ernst’s collection. That is, until I discover it’s closed today. On the front door, Homer wrote his hours on a white piece of paper. Two days out of the week the store is closed, and the hours shift irregularly. I remember that Homer, unlike the large majority of the population, isn’t as young and eager as he used to be. I remember hearing from friends that he’s thinking of closing up shop soon. Looking at all of the “For Rent” signs that posted in windows along the street–and then seeing the renovated interior of one building and the Subway across from the more local restaurants–remind me that, like Susquehanna, the landscape of Selinsgrove is changing. Maybe my lack of attachment to the places on Market Street will make the changes easier for me, or maybe I’ll long for places that I could’ve been a part of sooner.

Sources:

  • Cresswell, Tim. Place: a Short Introduction. Blackwell, 2010.
  • Miller, Laura J. Reluctant Capitalists Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption. University of Chicago Press, 2014.
  • “Selinsgrove, PA.” Data USA, datausa.io/profile/geo/selinsgrove-pa/#.

 

Connections Over Generations: John K. King Used & Rare Books

Before there were a million books, there were gloves.  Before there were gloves, there were hats.  Before there were hats, there were blouses.  Before John K. King Used & Rare Books took up residence in the four-story building located at 901 West Lafayette Avenue, the building was home to factories for various clothing manufacturing companies.  Advance Glove Company has left the only visible marks on the building, with a large glove painted on the exterior, a floor mat welcoming visitors inside the front door, and signs ordering workers “NO SMOKING” hanging above bookcases.

Advance Glove acquired the Lafeyette building in the 1940s after its previous occupant, the Crown Hat Manufacturing Company went bankrupt in May 1930 like many other businesses in the Great Depression.  Continuing into the building’s past, in 1908 Crown Hat took over from Ste. Claire Manufacturing Company, a maker of women’s blouses, the company for which the building was originally built in 1905.

While the future home of John K. King Used & Rare Books was still in the hands of Advance Glove, construction of the M-10 freeway began in January 1947.  Thousands of houses and businesses met their fate as they were destroyed in order to make room for the new road.  The Advance Glove factory, however, managed to escape such a fate.  The building was jacked up and rolled on logs of Alabama gum wood from the corner of Lafayette and Fourth Street to the corner of Lafayette and Fifth Street and there it has sat ever since.  The two pictures below show the before and after of the blocks where the M-10 was constructed and divided the downtown and light industrial areas.

Lafayette Boulevard block before construction of M-10
Lafayette Avenue block in 1936 before construction of M-10
The same block in 1962 after the construction of the M-10 freeway
The same block in 1962 after the construction of the M-10 freeway

 

John K. King became a bookseller in 1965, establishing his first substantial store in Dearborn, Michigan in 1971.  King has expressed how Detroit “inspired” him to set up shop in the city that some see as in tragic decline.  “[T]his is where I started,” he said in an interview for CBS Detroit.  “This is where I learned the book business. This is where I went to the various old bookstores so I had a loyalty toward Detroit and this is why I’m still here.”

John K. King
John K. King

After his Dearborn store ended up closing, King moved into Downtown Detroit where he set up shop in the iconic Michigan Theatre Building.  While there King’s collection and stock grew exponentially.  At first he rented out more empty offices to store the new books and other historical articles.  But soon that was no longer a financially feasible option.  And so, King began looking for another property to claim for his precious bookstore.

The Advance Glove Manufacturing Company had gone bankrupt, and so vacated its Lafayette factory, in 1981.  The building with its large painted glove on one corner had stood empty for a couple years by the time it caught the attention of John K. King.  Its multiple stories would be perfect to house his expansive collection, and so in 1983 the property became King’s.  The John K. King Used & Rare Books store we know today opened on January 1, 1984.

But that wasn’t the end of expansion for John K. King.  As his collection still grew, he eventually purchased the building behind the old glove factory as well.  This slightly smaller structure had originally been built for the Otis Elevator Company in 1909 and then was home to an architecture firm before it ended up as part of King’s Detroit literary paradise.  Now the second building serves as office space and the home for the rare books collection that requires appointments for viewing.  He’s also opened up two other stores elsewhere in the Detroit metropolitan area: John King Books North in Ferndale, and Big Book Store near Wayne State University.

While John K. King Used & Rare Books is a defining icon of its district today, another bookstore played an important role in West Industrial Side’s history when the zone was still part of the neighboring Corktown.  In the 1950’s, Corktown encompassed the area now known as West Side Industrial but then Detroit city planners decided that part of the residential area would serve the city better as a light industrial zone.

Ethel Claes (right) and her mother Hilja
Ethel Claes (right) and her mother Hilja

A woman named Ethel Claes led the fight of Corktown residents to fight the rezoning and save their homes.  The bookstore she operated with her mother at their own home, The B.C. Claes Book Shop, served as a “rallying point” for the protesters in a similar fashion to how Lewis Michaux would open up his National Memorial African Bookstore as a hub for political activists of color like Malcom X in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement (Emblidge 1).  These bookstores exemplify the idea of being “indigenous organization[s] that foster communal solidarity” that’s been lost due to the rise of chain bookstores and the commercial competition they’ve forced upon independent bookstores (Miller 120).

As can be seen today, even though the residents of Corktown were able to reveal that the city had no hard evidence to show that Corktown was “blighted,” which served as the city council’s primary justification for rebuilding the area, Claes and Corktown lost their fight.  In the late 1950’s, seventy-five acres of land were bulldozed and recreated into what is now West Side Industrial.

The City of Detroit has recently taken interest in West Side Industrial again and been working on more development in the area.  Just before John K. King opened his massive bookstore in an old glove factory, construction was completed on two of the Riverfront Towers just a few blocks away along the bank of the Detroit River.  A decade later, the third Riverfront Tower was added, and the apartment and condominium complex was established as the left end of Detroit’s International Riverfront.  In 2007, the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy purchased a twenty-acre piece of land that was once home to a newspaper printing plant and had been closed since the 1970s and developed it into the sprawling West Riverfront Park, which opened in 2014.  The park is now being advertised as a venue for summer concert festivals to further the city’s attempt to “revitalize” the area.

The buildings that would become home to John King Books as they were in 1966
The buildings that would become home to John King Books as they were in 1966
John K. King Used & Rare Books today
John K. King Used & Rare Books today (the main store is in the background in both photos)

The two buildings that John K. King Rare & Used Books occupies, however, have not changed much on the outside in the past fifty years, as seen in the two photos above.  Different signage grace the buildings, part of a third level has been added to the second building, and some shades have been added to a few windows on the second building as well.  Besides these small details, though, the buildings on West Lafayette have been an anchor in West Side Industrial ever since they were constructed and/or moved there in the twentieth century.  This remarkable bookstore is connected to various pieces of history, both its own and that of its home neighborhood.  The colossal glove that preserves the memory of a factory and the vintage paint schemes and signage provide a piece of nostalgia in an area of Detroit that is receiving increasingly more attention as we enter into a brand new generation.

 

 

Sources

Links

2 Riverfront Towers sold to New Jersey investor. <http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20070723/SUB/707210319/-1/newsletter02>

A 50 Year Staple of Detroit: John K. King Used And Rare Books. <http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/09/22/a-50-year-staple-of-detroit-john-k-king-books/>

Corktown History: Ethel Claes and the West Side Industrial Project. <http://corktownhistory.blogspot.com/2013/02/ethel-claes-and-west-side-industrial.html>

Corktown History: John K. King Books. <http://corktownhistory.blogspot.com/2014/08/john-k-king-books.html>

GC55J62 – Detroit On The Move. <https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC55J62_mh-detroit-on-the-move>

John K. King Used & Rare Books. <http://www.kingbooksdetroit.com/>

West Riverfront Park. <http://www.detroitriverfront.org/riverfront/west-riverfront/west-riverfront-park>

West Riverfront Park launches new concert era in city. <http://www.detroitnews.com/story/entertainment/music/2015/06/02/west-riverfront-park-launches-new-concert-era-city/28392605/>

Photos

Ethel and Hilja Claes. <http://corktownhistory.blogspot.com/2013/02/ethel-claes-and-west-side-industrial.html>

John K. King. <http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5287/5222959902_8577a97c51_b.jpg>

John King Books buildings 1966 – street view. <http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?id=S-VMC-X-47335%5D47335>

John King Books buildings present day – street view. Google Maps Street View.

Lafayette Avenue block 1936 – aerial view. <http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?id=S-VMC-X-435%5D435>

Lafeyette Avenue block 1962 – aerial view. <http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?id=S-VMC-X-201%5D201>

Images in timeline

John K. King Used & Rare Books – 1983 event. <http://www.rarebooklink.com/cgi-bin/kingbooks/index.html>

John K. King Used & Rare Books – 1984 event. <https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2725/4379524678_9ab25b56c9_o.jpg>

Michigan Theatre Building. <http://x.lnimg.com/photo/poster_1920/1c4a72d960a24f0387c7f2f349546bf5.jpg>

Relocation of Advance Glove factory. <http://corktownhistory.blogspot.com/2014/08/john-k-king-books.html>

Text

Emblidge, David. “Rallying Point: Lewis Michaux’s National Memorial African Bookstore.” Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 25 July 2008.

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

Caught in the Middle: John K. King Used & Rare Books

When I think of Detroit, Michigan, I think of “Motor City,” I think of ghettoes full of crime, I think of a dying city.  I would never have guessed that a special place now on my bucket list is located in this seemingly broken city.  With four floors stocked with over a million books, John K. King Used & Rare Books has a larger collection than any chain superstore, but retains the independent bookseller quality of a “distinctive” world with its unique atmosphere (Miller 98).  John K. King Used & Rare Books is a shiny spot in a tarnished region, a hidden gem in Detroit’s unfortunate reputation.

Found in the West Side Industrial area, this remarkable bookstore is located just off the M-10 Lodge Expressway, which separates the old glove factory that houses the bookstore from the skyscrapers of downtown Detroit.  Just drive east from the bookstore under M-10 and you’re a mere half-mile away from central downtown Detroit, and then you can go just a little further to the iconic Renaissance Center.

West Side Industrial’s area is roughly rectangular in shape, with a staircase-like northern border as it travels from Bagley Avenue to Labrosse Street to Porter Street.  Rosa Parks Boulevard and M-10 Lodge Expressway serve as the western and eastern borders respectively.  West Side Industrial then runs from those boundaries down to the Detroit River.

West Side Industrial is a business district, with residences consisting of apartments and condominium towers lining the waterfront.  It is also home to Dean Savage Memorial Park, a small park of less than 3 acres of land, and the much larger 20-acre West Riverfront Park.  The latter is quite new compared to most of the neighborhood, having been constructed within the past few years.  It also just became a new concert venue for summertime shows in 2015, solidifying the riverfront as the more modern area of West Side Industrial.

bookstore assignment 1 race edubookstore assignment 1 ageAlmost 1500 people live in the 2.9 square miles of space that is West Side Industrial.  Basically all of them live in the Riverfront Apartments buildings.  A large majority of the population in West Side Industrial, 60.9% to be exact, is black.  24% are aged 22-29, and combining that with the fact that 28.1% hold a bachelor’s degree suggests that a good portion of West Side Industrial’s residents are recent college graduates. West Side Industrial’s proximity to downtown could explain this, as it would serve as an ideal place to live for commuting to jobs in the central downtown area.

John King Books’s neighbors are the Detroit Transportation Service Center of the Michigan Department of Transportation and a Greyhound bus station.  Like much of the other businesses that occupy West Side Industrial, including John King Books, MDOT and Greyhound inhabit blocky buildings reminiscent of warehouses.  Structure after structure blends into one another in a horizontal blur, the only vertical found in the waterfront towers.

Here on the edge of the realm of municipal departments, contractors, and condo towers stands John K. King Used & Rare Books.  Although it is placed with the other businesses exiled from downtown Detroit for being boring or old, John King Books gets a special spot stuck between two worlds – the modern and the nostalgic.

John K. King Used & Rare Books appears to have decided to embrace the nostalgic with its own charming twist.  A painting of a glove is still visible on one corner of the main warehouse, harkening back to the four-story building’s past as a factory for Advance Glove.  This quirk sets the structure apart from the other similar blocks nearby.

A unique feature of John K. King Used & Rare Books is that their inventory is not computerized except for the rare and valuable collections, and they have a limited presence online.  Traces of technology in general are few and far between inside the store – almost all the signs marking different sections and aisles, announcing specials, and directing patrons are handwritten.  Despite all this, though, the bookstore managed to catch the attention of book lovers from around the country and has become a “meeting place” for them to share the experiences of getting lost in the store’s four floors and finding hidden treasures (qtd. in Cresswell 69).  The adventures this bookstore creates are taken home just like the literary finds of the day, forever connecting those who have the chance to visit John K. King Used & Rare Books and solidifying its place on this bibliophile’s bucket list.

bookstore assignment 1 int

John K. King Used & Rare Books

Sources

Charts

Statistical Atlas, “Race and Ethnicity” chart. <http://statisticalatlas.com/neighborhood/Michigan/Detroit/West-Side-Industrial/Race-and-Ethnicity#figure/race-and-ethnicity>

Statistical Atlas, “Detailed Educational Attainment” chart. <http://statisticalatlas.com/neighborhood/Michigan/Detroit/West-Side-Industrial/Educational-Attainment#figure/detailed-educational-attainment>

Statistical Atlas, “Age Structure” chart. <http://statisticalatlas.com/neighborhood/Michigan/Detroit/West-Side-Industrial/Age-and-Sex#figure/age-structure>

Images

John K. King Used & Rare Books photo <http://www.kingbooksdetroit.com/preview-of-our-store/dimeodichik00zwywcjhmy9lwawno5>

Maps

Statistical Atlas, West Side Industrial map (reference). <http://statisticalatlas.com/neighborhood/Michigan/Detroit/West-Side-Industrial/Overview>

Google Maps: John K. King Used & Rare Books, Michigan Department of Transportation, West Side Industrial

Text

Cresswell, Tim. Place: A Short Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub, 2004.

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