Chicagoans hardly lack for public events involving books and authors, with Women and Children First, Co-op Bookstore and 57th Street Books, the Book Cellar, Unabridged Bookstore and other independent sellers sharing a wealth of book-signings, readings, lectures and other related events.
But it’s Anderson’s Bookshop — with locations in Downers Grove and La Grange as well as its flagship store in Naperville — that straddles the Chicagoland book-tour circuit like a colossus.
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Taken together, the three stores host more book-and-author events than any other local venue. And because of the consistently enthusiastic response that the bookshop’s careful programming (by the store’s Ginny Wehrli-Hemmeter and Candy Purdom) receives from readers, Anderson’s generally has its pick of the book-events litter.
What accounts for the bookshop’s continued success in an era in which reading — and therefore book-buying — is often assumed, erroneously, to be in a steep decline?
“We’re pleased to have wonderful relationships with our publisher partners, and that we’re therefore able to offer such a robust author event calendar,” Wehrli-Hemmeter says. “Of course, a lot of bookstores are always doing great things, too. I think what sets us apart is that we do such a great variety of things.”
That variety includes events by authors in all genres, including major celebrities and political figures from all parts of the political spectrum, including former President George W. Bush, Caroline Kennedy and Newt Gingrich, along with media stars such as Tim Russert, Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews.
On Friday, Anderson’s will host Gingrich and his wife, Calista, and on Nov. 18 the store will stage what’s expected to be one of the biggest draws of recent years: U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“We evaluate a political author based not on their political leanings but on their perceived audience,” Wehrli-Hemmeter says. “Whatever those leanings are, it doesn’t matter to us — we believe in free speech. And when those audiences are large, we’re just happy to be on the shortlist for authors at that level.”
Upcoming celebrity author appearances hosted this month include young adult author Marissa Meyer (Nov. 12), actress Anna Kendrick (Nov. 17) and chef Vivian Howard (Nov. 21).
Why is it that a suburban bookstore — as opposed to a store in Chicago proper — has taken on such an outsized role in the area? Partly it’s a result of the Naperville store’s long partnership with North Central College and Community Christian Church, whose venues house many of the Anderson’s events.
The biggest factor, though, is the store’s long history in the community. Anderson’s roots in Naperville go back to 1875, when the current generation’s great-great-grandfather, W.W. Wickel, founded a pharmacy that also sold books. The first official bookstore, Paperback Paradise, opened above the pharmacy in 1964, and since then, Anderson’s has been in nearly constant expansion mode, opening satellite stores and offering an ever-increasing menu of activities for book lovers.
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“It’s because we have such a history in this community,” Wehrli-Hemmeter says. “And because we’ve developed so many relationships here, we’ve been able to do all these author events because people turn out.”
They sure do. As many as 170,000 people have turned out for Anderson’s events celebrating the release of the Harry Potter series books — the largest crowds in the country — in part because Anderson’s was on board with the author, J.K. Rowling, from the beginning, hosting an event for her in connection with the first book, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” in 1998.
“There are lots of people with a signed first edition of that book because of Anderson’s,” Wehrli-Hemmeter says. “Those are worth a lot of money now.”
Kevin Nance is a freelance writer and photographer.