#edward prime-stevenson

[renaultphile]

Imre: A Memorandum

I just wanted to shout about this novel by US author Edward Prime-Stevenson, but I'm not sure even where to begin. Thank you to @eclare1000 for recommending it to me.

It was published in 1906, and is frank in its discussion of same-sex attraction between men. But for me it has become more than just a literary/historical curiosity - the book is a fascinating insight into the times, written more like a detective novel than a romance - it is Austen-esque in its dissection of the many and various social niceties that needed to be navigated, and yet (or maybe because).......also rather romantic!

If you know this book, I would love it if you re-blogged and shared your thoughts 💖

It is free on Project Gutenberg

And also, don't forget to take a look at the only fic in the Imre fandom!!! So beautifully done by @black-bentley

[violsva]

I was reading Imre for historical interest, I really did not expect to get into the romance as much as I have.

And I REALLY did not expect to get into the romance right after an extremely Edwardian fifty-page monologue of the narrator's life history.

[thecaptainjacksparrow]

i just finished reading inre: a memorandum (1906) by edward prime-stevenson / xavier mayne.

its a beautiful short novel about two gay men that by chance find eahother in a café in budapest and develop a beautiful friendship and maybe more... the definition of soulmates ♡

this is one of the first gay novels with a happy ending!

some warnings of homophobia (both characters talk about their previous experiences growing up as gay men and having to be closeted to be safe) and obviously obsolete language but mind this is a novel writen before 1906 and in my opinion it STILL HITS HARD.

please read it if you havent.

10/10

[phantomato]

A note on language, from Imre: A Memorandum, by Edward Prime-Stevenson

(Project Gutenberg copy)

[chiropteracupola]

guy who forgets that edward burne jones and edward prime-stevenson were different people

[fitz-higgins]

I will never go away from thee. Thy people shall be mine. Thy King shall be mine. Thy country shall be mine, thy city mine! My feet are fixed! We belong together. We have found what we had despaired of finding... 'the friendship which is love, the love which is friendship'. Those who cannot give it – accept it – let them live without it. It can be 'well, and very well' with them. Go they their ways without it! But for Us, who for our happiness or unhappiness cannot think life worth living if lacking it... for Us, through the world's ages born to seek it in pain or joy... it is the highest, holiest Good in the world. And for one of us to turn his back upon it, were to find he would better never have been born!"

– Imre: A Memorandum by Edward Prime-Stevenson

[ray-the-sad-cat]

QUEER/LGBTQ CLASSIC LITERATURE 📖📚☕🌱🎧

I've been reading more classics/modern classics recently but sometimes I find it difficult to connect with the story, not just due to complex language but also because of the unrelatable subjects of many classics, especially due to the suppression of writers of colour, gender, sexuality, etc. however I have found focusing on queer literature has helped me relate to stories and themes much easier, below is a list of LGBTQ (mostly gay and lesbian) classics and modern classics. keep in mind I haven't read all of these and many may contain violent or uncomfortable themes.

1.the Perks of being a wallflower by Stephen chbosky

2.the secret history by Donna tartt

3.the picture of Dorian grey by Oscar Wilde

4. Sappho (any collection of her poetry)

5. Giovanni's room by James Baldwin

6.carmilla by Sheridan le fanu

7. a portrait of the artist as a young man by James Joyce

8. holding the man by timothy conigrave

9. Annie on my mind by Nancy garden

10. Maurice by e.m Forster

11. oranges are not the only fruit by Jeanette winterson

12. ruby fruit by Rita mar brown

13. nightwood by djuna Barnes

14. confessions of a mask by Yukio Mishima

15. goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood

16.a single man by Christopher Isherwood

17. Christopher and his kind by Christopher Isherwood

18. breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman capok

18. Joseph and his friend by Bayard Taylor

19.imre: a memorandum by Edward irenaeus prime-stevenson

20. in the absence of men by Philippe besson

21. the moustache by Emmanual carrere

[veryvictorian]

Gay Victorian Book List

Hey there! I'm making this collaborative list of novels set in Victorian Age that have some sort of gay, m/m representation. Edwardian Age is fine as well. Please, do leave your recommendations in the comments below, I'd be happy to add them!

I'll mark with an asterisk (*) the books I have read myself.

Written in 19th century

The Sins of the Cities of the Plain, by Jack Saul (1881)*

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde (1890)*

The Green Carnation, by Robert Smythe Hichens (1894)

A Marriage Below Zero, by Alan Dale (1889)

Fridolins heimliche Ehe (Fridolin's Mystical Marriage), by Adolf Wilbrandt (1875)

Written in 20th century

Maurice, by E.M. Forster (1914)*

Imre: A Memorandum, by Edward Prime-Stevenson (1906)

Desire and Pursuit of the Whole, by Frederick Rolfe (1904)

The Prussian Officer, by D. H. Lawrence (1914)

The Garden God: A Tale of Two Boys, by Forrest Reid (1905)

The Immoralist, by André Gide (1902)

Tonio Kröger, by Thomas Mann (1903)

Death in Venice, by Thomas Mann (1912)*

Contemporary

The New Life, by Tom Crewe (2023)

The Invention of Love, by Tom Stoppard (1997)*

An Unseen Attraction, by K.J. Charles (2017). Trilogy.

The Prince of Mirrors, by Alan Robert Clark (2018)

[newty]

i need to sleep but im so overwhelmed. so last year another scholar of edward prime-stevenson (whose dissertation was literally my lifeline when i went to nyc to see eps' music theory) messaged me bc she thought my blog was cool and all my links to eps texts were insane. and she wanted to give me a shout out in her upcoming book, which is out now, and ANOTHER eps scholar ive read messaged me abt it

ty, ,, im cryin

[diceriadelluntore]

Club Interessanti

All’apice del successo del genere, a Londra fu fondato il Detection Club, un club dei più famosi scrittori di romanzi polizieschi: tra gli iscritti Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Henry Wade e molti altri, primo Presidente Gilbert Keith Chesterton. Il club esiste ancora oggi, e attualmente è presieduto da Kenneth Martin Edwards. Fulcro centrale del Club era l’adesione ai Dieci Comandamenti di Ronald Knox, un decalogo per i giallisti nella prefazione della raccolta The best detective stories 1928-1929:

1. Il colpevole dev’essere un personaggio che compare nella storia fin dalle prime pagine; il lettore non deve poter seguire nel corso della storia i pensieri del colpevole.

2. Tutti gli interventi soprannaturali o paranormali sono esclusi dalla storia.

3. Al massimo è consentita solo una stanza segreta o un passaggio segreto.

4. Non possono essere impiegati veleni sconosciuti; inoltre non può essere impiegato uno strumento per il quale occorra una lunga spiegazione scientifica alla fine della storia.

5. Non ci dev’essere nessun personaggio cinese nella storia.

6. Nessun evento casuale dev’essere di aiuto all’investigatore, né egli può avere un’inspiegabile intuizione che alla fine si dimostra esatta.

7. L’investigatore non può essere il colpevole.

8. L’investigatore non può scoprire alcun indizio che non sia istantaneamente presentato anche al lettore.

9. L’amico stupido dell’investigatore, il suo “dottor Watson”, non deve nascondere alcun pensiero che gli passa per la testa: la sua intelligenza dev’essere impalpabile, al di sotto di quella del lettore medio.

10. Non ci devono essere né fratelli gemelli né sosia, a meno che non siano stati presentati correttamente fin dall’inizio della storia.

Voglio precisare due cose: la numero 5, detta anche The Chinaman Rule, fu una reazione all’uso di clichè razzisti molto in voga negli anni ‘20, ed ha un che polemico. Sulla Numero 9, ci sarebbe da dire che il Dottor Watson non è affatto stupido, e qui si capisce che tutto il decalogo fu anche una frecciatina generale a Conan Doyle, il cui lavoro peraltro è stato indirettamente fondamentale per la nascita del club.

Da questo decalogo, Benjamin Stevenson scrive questo libro

dove immagina uno scrittore di manuali gialli in vendita su amazon a 1,99 dollari australiani, Ernest Cunningham, alle prese con il racconto del weekend più pazzo della sua vita: una riunione di famiglia, in concomitanza con l’uscita dal carcere di suo fratello, Michael, incarcerato tre anni per aver commesso un reato, e condannato con la testimonianza decisiva di Ernest. Si scopre tuttavia che la situazione è ben più ingarbugliata, e che tutti i membri di quella riunione hanno qualcosa da nascondere, e probabilmente leggendolo si capisce che la comune qualità del titolo non è nemmeno il primo dei problemi.

Cosa rende un libro giallo memorabile? In fondo, e lo diceva un grande (anche) giallista, Umberto Eco, di un libro del genere sappiamo la struttura: c’è un delitto che si svolge e la sua risoluzione. Tutto il bello è descriverne il come, di tutte e due i momenti. E qui che Stevenson, che è autore, sceneggiatore e soprattutto Stand-up Comedian (mi perdonerete l’anglicismo, ma per me è uno dei pochi termini intraducibili), aggiunge un particolare innovativo: pur rispettando alla lettera i comandamenti di Knox (tranne uno, e lascio alla vostra curiosità scoprire quale è), aggiunge delle singolarità: Ern parla con il lettore anticipando di tutto, ma senza svelare niente che non sia prevedibile (per esempio, indica sin dall’inizio le pagine dove ci sarà un morto, ma non ne anticipa i motivi), gioca con le probabili correzioni degli editor (in una sorta di dialogo sarcastico e irriverente) e soprattutto nei passaggi chiave quasi porta per mano il lettore alle conclusioni. Sebbene alla fine lasci almeno due porte diabolicamente un po’ aperte rispetto alla conclusione delle “indagini”. L’idea che il tutto si svolga in una stazione sciistica australiana (che esiste veramente) mi ha fatto pensare che era un libro da leggere, da amante del genere non mi ha deluso giocando con astuzia non solo con le regole, ma con tutti i cliché dei romanzi gialli (termine che tra l’altro riferisce solo per noi il poliziesco, ciò si deve alla collana Il Giallo Mondadori, ideata da Lorenzo Montano e pubblicata in Italia da Arnoldo Mondadori a partire dal 1929: il termine giallo si riferisce al colore della copertina). Come inizio di letture del ‘23, non è affatto male.

[doitinanotherlanguage]

January 2023: 1900s (+ pre-1900s)

It’s January 1st, which means that I’m kicking off my 2023 reading challenge, Reading Through the Decades! You can read more about the challenge on my previous post. Basically, it’s a year-long reading challenge where we read books (and explore other media) from the 1900s to the 2020s, decade-by-decade.

In January, we’re starting off with the 1900s (1900-1909). I’m also looking at things from the late 1800s and just generally around the turn of the century.

Here are my recommendations for January (all I’ve greatly enjoyed previously!):

📺 Granada Sherlock Holmes (1984-1994) 📖 The Turn of the Screw (1898), Henry James 🎬 Colette (2018), dir. Wash Westmoreland 📖 Три сестры (1901; Three Sisters), Anton Chekhov 📖 A Room with a View (1908), E.M. Forster 📖 Le Fantôme de l'Opéra (1909-1910; The Phantom of the Opera), Gaston Leroux

And here is what I myself am planning to spend time with this month:

📖 The Complete Sherlock Holmes (1887-1927), by Arthur Conan Doyle 🎬 Journal d'une femme de chambre (2015; Diary of a Chambermaid), dir. Benoît Jacquot 🎬 Miss Marx (2020), dir. Susanna Nicchiarelli 📖 Gloriana; or, The Revolution of 1900 (1890), Florence Dixie 🎬 Tesla (2020), dir. Michael Almereyda 📖 Heart of Darkness (1899), Joseph Conrad 🎬 Сере́бряные коньки́ (2020; Silver Skates), dir. Michael Lockshin 📺 The Nevers (2021-) 📺 Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018) 📖 Imre: A Memorandum (1906), Edward Prime-Stevenson 📖 ‏גאט פון נקמה (1907; The God of Vengeance), Sholem Asch 📖 The Longest Journey (1907), E.M. Forster 📖 Рассказ о семи повешенных (1908; The Seven Who Were Hanged), Leonid Andreyev 📖 Emily of New Moon series (1923-1927), L.M. Montgomery (the series is set in the late 1800s/early 1900s)

[docrotten]

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1920) – Episode 160 – Decades Of Horror: The Classic Era

“Damn It! I don’t like your tampering with the supernatural.” What if he just tinkers with it a bit? Join this episode’s Grue-Crew – Daphne Monary-Ernsdorff, Doc Rotten, and Jeff Mohr – as they make the Decades of Horror’s fourth encounter of a strange kind with Robert Louis Stevenson’s story as depicted in Paramount’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920).

Decades of Horror: The Classic Era Episode 160 – Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)

Join the Crew on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel! Subscribe today! And click the alert to get notified of new content! https://youtube.com/gruesomemagazine

ANNOUNCEMENT Decades of Horror The Classic Era is partnering with THE CLASSIC SCI-FI MOVIE CHANNEL, THE CLASSIC HORROR MOVIE CHANNEL, and WICKED HORROR TV CHANNEL Which all now include video episodes of The Classic Era! Available on Roku, AppleTV, Amazon FireTV, AndroidTV, Online Website. Across All OTT platforms, as well as mobile, tablet, and desktop. https://classicscifichannel.com/; https://classichorrorchannel.com/; https://wickedhorrortv.com/

Dr. Henry Jekyll experiments with scientific means of revealing man’s hidden, dark side and releases a murderer from within himself.

  Director: John S. Robertson 

Writers: Robert Louis Stevenson (novella, 1886); Clara Beranger (scenario) (as Clara S. Beranger); Thomas Russell Sullivan (play) (uncredited)

Selected Cast:

John Barrymore as Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Edward Hyde

Brandon Hurst as Sir George Carew

Martha Mansfield as Millicent Carew

Charles Lane as Dr. Lanyon

Cecil Clovelly as Edward Enfield

Nita Naldi as Miss Gina

Louis Wolheim as Music Hall Proprietor

Alma Aiken as Extra (uncredited)

J. Malcolm Dunn as John Utterson (uncredited)

Ferdinand Gottschalk as Old Man at table in music hall (uncredited)

Julia Hurley as Hyde’s Landlady with Lamp (uncredited)

Jack McHugh as Street Kid – Raises Fist to Mr. Hyde (uncredited)

Georgie Drew Mendum as Patron in music hall (uncredited)

Blanche Ring as Woman at table with old man in music hall (uncredited)

May Robson as Old woman outside of music hall (uncredited)

George Stevens as Poole – Jekyll’s Butler (uncredited)

Edgard Varèse as Policeman (uncredited)

The Classic Era Grue Crew takes in another silent scream with this 1920 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, starring John Barrymore. The makeup-lite early versions of Hyde soon develop into something far more terrifying, augmented by Barrymore’s excellent acting and use of body language. Throw in a quality supporting cast and one of the freakiest dream sequences the crew’s ever seen, and you have a top-notch silent scream!

To check out the other Decades of Horror episodes focused on Stevenson’s novella check these out:

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1931) – Episode 122 – Decades of Horror: The Classic Era

DR. JEKYLL & SISTER HYDE (1971) – Episode 175 – Decades of Horror 1970s

THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1968) – Episode 71 – Decades of Horror: The Classic Era

If silent films are your thing, check out these episodes of Decades of Horror: The Classic Era focused on silent screams:

THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920) – Episode 13 

NOSFERATU (1922) – Episode 21

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925) – Episode 42

THE CAT AND THE CANARY (1927) – Episode 60

HÄXAN (1922) – Episode 79

PHANTOM CARRIAGE (1921) – Episode 85

THE GOLEM (1920) – Episode 99

FAUST (1926) – Episode 145

At the time of this writing, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is available to stream from Tubi, Amazon Prime, Hoopla, Kanopy, Screambox, and Crackle. The film is also available as a DVD from multiple sources. Unfortunately, the Kino Classics Blu-ray is no longer available.

Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era records a new episode every two weeks. Up next in their very flexible schedule, as chosen by Doc, is The Alligator People (1959) featuring Lon Chaney Jr., effects makeup by Dick Smith and Ben Nye, and the cinematography of the legendary Karl Struss!! Put your hip-waders on for this trip; they’re going to the swamp!

Please let them know how they’re doing! They want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans: leave them a message or leave a comment on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel, the site, or email the Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast hosts at feedback@gruesomemagazine.com To each of you from each of them, “Thank you so much for watching and listening!”

Check out this episode!

[noctambulatebooks]

Reading 2023

5-January-2023: Tanizaki, Junichirō, The Maids (1963, Japan)

13-January-2023: Tevis, Walter, Mockingbird (1980, USA)

22-January-2023: Snyder, Michael, James Purdy: Life of a Contrarian Writer (2022, USA)

29-January-2023: Pressburger, Emeric, The Glass Pearls (1966, England)

31-January-2023: Mac Orlan, Pierre, A Handbook for the Perfect Adventurer (1951, France)

5-February-2023: Runciman, Steven, The First Crusade (Vol I: A History of the Crusades) (1951, England)

11-February-2023: Babitz, Eve, I Used to be Charming (1975-1997, USA)

15-February-2023: Indiana, Gary, Rent Boy (1994, USA)

26-February-2023: Zola, Émile, The Sin of Abbé Mouret (1875, France)

2-March-2023: Bennett, Alice, Alarm (Object Lessons), (2023, USA)

9-March-2023: Wyndham, John, The Kraken Wakes (1953. England)

17-March-2023: Manchette, Jean-Patrick, The Prone Gunman (1981, France)

17-March-2023: Shawn, Wallace, Night Thoughts: An Essay (2017, USA)

19-March-2023: Runciman, Steven, The Kingdom of Jerusalem (Vol II: A History of the Crusades) (1953, England)

26-March-2023: Carr, David, Final Draft: The Collected Work of David Carr (2020, USA)

5-April-2023: Manzoni, Alessandro, The Betrothed (1840, Italy)

10-April-2023: Childs, Craig, Finders Keepers: A Tale of Archaeological Plunder and Obsession (2010, USA)

16-April-2023: Butler. Octavia, Kindred (1979, USA)

22-April-2023: Liming, Sheila, Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time (2023, USA)

24-April-2023: Manchette, Jean-Patrick, Three to Kill (1976, France)

30-April-2023: Keefe, Patrick Radden, Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty (2021, USA)

7-May-2023: Le Carré, John, Agent Running in the Field (2019, England)

10-May-2023: Dederer, Claire, Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma (2023, USA)

13-May-2023: Mortimer, Penelope, Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting (1956, England)

26-May-2023: Morrison, Toni, Beloved (1987, USA)

30-May-2023: McCarthy, Cormac, The Passenger (2022, USA)

1-June-2023: Lewis, Herbert Clyde, Gentleman Overboard (1937, USA)

6-June-2023: Miéville, China, Embassytown (2011, England)

10-June-2023: McCarthy, Cormac, Stella Maris (2022, USA)

16-June-2023: Ambler, Eric, The Light of Day (1962, England)

23-June-2023: Ambler, Eric, Dirty Story (1967, England)

25-June-2023: Runciman, Steven, The Kingdom of Acre (Volume III, A History of the Crusades) (1954, England)

27-June-2023: Hartley, L.P., The Harness Room (1971, England)

4-July-2023: Motley, Willard, Knock on Any Door (1947, USA)

8-July-2023: Duras, Marguerite, The North China Lover (1991. France)

10-July-2023: Carr, J. L., A Month in the Country (1980, England)

14-July-2023: Thoreau, Henry David, Cape Cod (1865, USA)

18-July-2023: Modiano, Patrick, Missing Person (1978, France)

22-July-2023: Prime-Stevenson, Edward, Left to Themselves: The Ordeal of Philip and Gerald (1891, USA)

24-July-2023: Shakespeare, William, King Lear (1606, England)

6-August-2023: Whitehead, Colson, Crook Manifesto (2013, USA)

11-August-2023: Hampson, John, Last Night at the Greyhound (1931, England)

16-August-2023: Wyndham, John, The Midwich Cuckoos (1957, England)

19-August-2023: Ballard, J. G., The Drought (1965, England)

22-August-2023: Hines, Barry, A Kestrel for a Knave (1968, England)

31-August-2023: McPherson, William, Testing the Current (1984, USA)

10-September-2023: Pamuk, Orhan, Nights of Plague (2021, Turkey)

17-September-2023: Thoreau, Henry David, The Maine Woods (1864, USA)

20-September-2023: Thoreau, Henry David, A Plea for Captain John Brown (and other essays on abolition) (1859, USA)

24-September-2023: Kirino, Natsuo Real Life (2006, Japan)

30-September-2023: Renouard, Maël, Fragments of an Infinite Memory: My Life with the Internet (2016, France)

7-October-2023: Hamilton, Patrick, The Midnight Bell (1929, England)

12-October-2023: Hamilton, Patrick, The Siege of Pleasure (1932, England)

15-October-2023: Hamilton, Patrick, The Plains of Cement (1934, England)

21-October-2023: Kayama, Shigeru, Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again (1955, Japan)

25-October-2023: Malcolm, Janet, Still Pictures: On Photography and Memory (2023, USA)

30-October-2023: Vonnegut, Kurt, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969, USA)

5-November-2023: Warner, Sylvia Townsend, Lolly Willowes (1926, England)

26-November-2023: Ainsworth, William Harrison, The Lancashire Witches (1848, England)

2-December-2023: Ginzburg, Carlo, Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath (1989, Italy)

10-December-2023: Baum, Vicki, Grand Hotel (1929, Germany)

16-December-2023: Sinykin, Dan, Big Fiction: How Conglomerates Changed the Publishing Industry and American Literature (2023, USA)

24-December-2023: Warner, Sylvia Townsend, T.H. White: A Biography (1967, England)

29-December-2023: Undset, Sigrid, Olav Audunssøn, Vol 4: Winter (1927, Norway)

[auspicious-peach]

'Going to the World’s Biggest Bookstore was an event.' 

10 years after closing, it still has a grip on former readers

David Silverberg, Special to the Star

Published: May 26, 2024 Updated: May 27, 2024

I remember that first time I walked into the World’s Biggest Bookstore. It was 1999 and I was a book-loving journalism student at Ryerson (now Toronto Metropolitan University). “Wow!" I thought as I tried to take it all in. "Is this for real?”

What was very real about the sprawling 64,000-square-foot space at 20 Edward St., brimming with 17 miles of shelves, was the sheer selection available to me. It reminded me of Honest Ed’s, urging you to get lost in its maze of products. I wasn’t there that first time to buy anything in particular — I heard from fellow journalism school students about this bookstore I had to check out — but I left with four books I always wanted to read, such as "Slaughterhouse Five" by Kurt Vonnegut, and Joan Didion’s "The White Album."

The World’s Biggest Bookstore closed its doors for good 10 years ago this spring, and the public nostalgia for the store even today is proof of how loved it was, for both casual and passionate readers. And it was the kind of bookstore you don’t see today, where every section overflowed with the latest, greatest and maybe not-so-great. Having everything available at your browsing fingertips felt like a brick-and-mortar Amazon, but with smiling staff whose knowledge of, say, Canadian literature or hip-hop magazines levelled up this bookcore experience.

Valentino Assenza, a Grimsby resident and host of the literary radio show "Howl" on CIUT 89.5FM, remembers the first book he bought at the World’s Biggest — "The Most Beautiful Woman in Town" by poet Charles Bukowski — in 1996, when he was 19 and living in East York. “I knew that if I needed any more Bukowski books, I could go there, thanks to that store having rows and rows of his work,” he says.

Marc Côté, a clerk at the bookstore in 1986, saw first-hand how vast a collection the store carried over the years. “It had by far the largest poetry selection in the country,” he says. “We had a rule of ordering one copy of every poetry book published.”

An exaggeration, maybe, but the bombastic claims of the World's Biggest were part of its charm.

Opened in 1980 in the former Olympia Bowling Alley building, the World’s Biggest Bookstore may not, in fact, have been the world’s biggest bookstore. It was a marketing gambit by Jack Cole, who owned Coles and SmithBooks, and thought “a massive bookstore would do well for Toronto,” as his son David told the National Post in 2014. He paid a reported $2.4 million for the property.

He gambled successfully. Chapters took ownership of the store in 1994 when it acquired and merged Coles and SmithBooks, and business kept booming for the 140,000-title behemoth. Larry Stevenson, founder and then CEO of Chapters, remembers a key statistic: World’s Biggest steadily raked in $5 million a year in revenue, and it was responsible for 100 per cent of Coles profitability prior to the Chapters acquisition, says Stevenson in an interview from his Toronto home.

“You have to remember, going to the World’s Biggest Bookstore was an event for people," Stevenson says, "and I’d estimate around 40 per cent of customers who came to the store were from outside the GTA."

Sitting just west of Yonge Street, it might not have been on prime real estate to attract heavy foot traffic, but it was close enough to the hugely beloved and also now gone Sam the Record Man and Sunrise Records, and was similar in allowing the kind of loitering and browsing as other stores on that Yonge Street strip. Also, Stevenson adds, its sheer size was enough to entice people in. “We had more books here than anywhere else, and Chapters at the time had around 30,000 fewer titles than World’s Biggest, remember,” Stevenson says, “and our customers always loved the remainder bins that had books at $3 or $4.”

Côté, now president and publisher of Cormorant Books in Toronto, remembers how he and other staff, clad in a navy-blue uniform, were expected to know enough about authors and new releases to help customers with any inquiry presented to them. “We got a lot of customers on a Monday asking us if they knew where they could find that book with the blue cover that was just reviewed in the weekend newspaper,” he recalls, adding that, more often than not, the staff would be able to point that reader to the right title.

Côté looks back now and appreciates how staff at the fluorescent-lit, lino-floored bookstore didn’t judge any reader, no matter what kind of book they came in for. “I remember going to another Toronto bookstore after I worked at World’s Biggest Bookstore and I asked the clerk if they had a title about how reading Marcel Proust can change your life, and she sneered at me, and said they don’t carry self-help books there. So, I went to World’s Biggest Bookstore and the employee there was happy to help me.”

“It’s one of those stores that was part of its era in Toronto, and losing it was tough, but it’s something I wouldn’t want to see resurrected,” says Assenza. “I’m just grateful I got to spend time there when it was around.”

What he says resonates with how I view this Toronto landmark. It’s like the TV show we all enjoyed in the 1990s but whose resurrection today would feel forced and strained. Some legacies are meant to be shelved and preserved, available for us to dip back into, as we would with a favourite book.

Correction — May 27, 2024

This article was updated to correct that it was Sunrise Records that was close to the World's Biggest Bookstore and Sam the Record Man, not Tower Records.

David Silverberg is a freelance writer and editor whose writing has appeared in BBC News, The Washington Post, MIT Technology Review and Fast Company.

View on www.thestar.com

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 1.29

Holidays

Axe Day (French Republic)

Blue and Pink Day

Bowling Green Massacre Day

Bubblegum Sculpture Day

Carnation Day (a.k.a. Red Carnation Day)

Curmudgeons’ Day

Feast of Overdue Expectations

Fields Day

Freethinkers’ Day

Gab Union Appreciation Day

Hall of Fame Day (MLB)

Holiday of the Three Hierarchs (Greece)

I Don’t Like Mondays Incident Anniversary Day

Jigsaw Puzzle Day

Martyr’s Day (Nepal)

Milton Friedman Day (California)

National Colin Day

National Day of Remembrance for the Quebec City Mosque Attack (Canada)

National Day of Transgender Visibility (Brazil)

National Lady Gaga Day

National Police Anniversary Day (Philippines)

National Puzzle Day

Nevermore Day

Oprah Winfrey Day

RNLI SOS Day (UK)

Romeo and Juliet Day

Sahid Diwash (Martyrs’ Day; Nepal)

Seeing Eye Dog Day

Thomas Paine Day

Victoria Cross Day

World Automobile Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Gnocchi Day (Argentina)

National Corn Chip Day

Pork Belly Day

Potato Day

Sugar Cone Day

Weisse Beer Day

5th & Last Monday in January

Cyber Monday (Russia)

Aukland Day (New Zealand) [Monday closest to 29th]

Nelson Day (New Zealand) [Monday closest to 29th]

Northland Anniversary Day (New Zealand) [Monday closest to 29th]

Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day [Last Monday]

Independence & Related Days

Constitution Day (Gibraltar)

Kansas Statehood Day (#34; 1861)

Larsonia (Declared; 2017) [unrecognized]

Festivals Beginning January 29, 2024

Bierfest Kunstmann Valdivia (Chile)

Dark Beer Festival (Leighton Buzzard, UK) [thru 2.2]

St. Moritz Gourmet Festival (St. Moritz, Switzerland) [thru 2.3]

WSWA Access Live (Las Vegas, Nevada) [thru 2.1]

Feast Days

Andrei Rublev (Episcopal Church (USA))

Anton Chekov (Writersim)

Aquilinus of Milan (Christian; Saint)

Barnett Newman (Artology)

Blue and Pink Day (Shamanism)

Charge Candles by Moonlight Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Concordia I: Irene’s Day (Pagan)

Constantius of Perugia (Christian; Saint)

Curmudgeons Day (Pastafarian)

Dallán Forgaill (Christian; Saint)

Edward Abbey (Writersim)

The Equiria in the Campus Martius (a.k.a. The Pacalia; Ancient Rome)

Francis of Sales (Christian; Saint)

Gamelion Noumenia (Festival to All Gods & Goddesses; Ancient Greece)

Gildas the Albanian or Scot or the Wise (Christian; Saint)

Gildas the Wise (a.k.a. Badoncius; Christian; Saint)

Happy Hedgehog Day (Pastafarian)

Hesiod (Positivist; Saint)

House Blessing Day (Celtic Book of Days)

Juniper (Christian; Saint)

Paddy Chayefsky (Writersim)

Parade of the Unicorns (Everyday Wicca)

Patrick Caulfield (Artology)

Romain Rolland (Writerism)

Sabinian of Troyes (Christian; Saint)

Sabrina T. Pagebottom (Muppetism)

Samuel Worcester Rowse (Artology)

Sulpicius Severus (Christian; Saint)

Sulpitius I of Bourges (Christian; Saint)

Theo Wujcik (Artology)

Valerius of Trèves (Christian; Saint)

Valero’s Feast (Spain; Saint)

Vasant Panchami (Celebrating Saraswati, Hindu goddess of knowledge)

Willy Wonka Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Lucky Day (Philippines) [6 of 71]

Prime Number Day: 29 [10 of 72]

Shakku (赤口 Japan) [Bad luck all day, except at noon.]

Tycho Brahe Unlucky Day (Scandinavia) [7 of 37]

Very Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [8 of 60]

Premieres

Alice, by Avril Lavigne (Song; 2010)

All My Sons, by Arthur Miller (Play; 1947)

All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque (Novel; 1929)

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Pt. 2 (WB Animated Film; 2013)

The Beggar’s Opera, by John Gay (Ballad Opera; 1728)

Donald’s Tire Trouble (Disney Cartoon; 1943)

Doorway to Danger or Doom in the Room (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S2, Ep. 94; 1961)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louise Stevenson, adapted by J. Comyn’s Carr (Play; 1910)

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Film; 1964)

Fantasia (Animated Disney Film; 1941)

Faust, complete play, by Goethe (Play; 1829)

Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand/Sie Liebt Dice, recorded by The Beatles (Songs in German; 1964)

Kung Fu Panda 3 (Animated Film; 2016)

Matinee (Film; 1993)

Million Dollar Carton or Jack in the Box (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S4, Ep. 199; 1963)

My Little Buckaroo (WB MM Cartoon; 1938)

Out and Out Rout (WB MM Cartoon; 1966)

Peaceful Neighbors (Color Rhapsody; 1939)

Pests for Guests (WB MM Cartoon; 1955)

The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe (Poem; 1845)

Rock-a-Bye Gator (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1962)

The Seapreme Court (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1954)

She’s All That (Film; 1999)

Skelton Frolic (Ub Iwerks Cartoon; 1937)

Sleeping Beauty (Animated Disney Film; 1959)

Two at One Blow or The Devil Beheader (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S4, Ep. 200; 1963)

Up at the Villa, by W. Somerset Maugham (Novella; 1941)

Window Pains or The Moosetrap (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S2, Ep. 93; 1961)

Today’s Name Days

Gerd, Gerhard, Josef, Valerius (Austria)

Tvrtko, Valerije, Zdeslav, Zdravko (Croatia)

Zdislava (Czech Republic)

Valerius (Denmark)

Valmo, Valter (Estonia)

Valtteri (Finland)

Gildas (France)

Gerd, Gerhard, Josef (Germany)

Varsamia (Greece)

Adél (Hungary)

Aquilino, Costanzo, Valerio, Vitale (Italy)

Aivars, Valērijs (Latvia)

Aivaras, Girkantas, Valerijus, Žibutė (Lithuania)

Herdis, Hermann, Hermod (Norway)

Franciszek Salezy, Gilda, Hanna, Walerian, Waleriana, Waleriusz, Zdzisław (Poland)

Ignatie (Romania)

Gašpar (Slovakia)

Valerio, Valero (Spain)

Diana (Sweden)

Gilda, Goldie, Sheldon, Shelley, Shelly, Shelton, Ophrah, Oprah (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 29 of 2024; 337 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 1 of week 5 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Luis (Rowan) [Day 9 of 28]

Chinese: Month 12 (Yi-Chou), Day 19 (Ren-Chen)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 19 Shevat 5784

Islamic: 18 Rajab 1445

J Cal: 29 White; Eightday [29 of 30]

Julian: 16 January 2024

Moon: 86%: Waning Gibbous

Positivist: 1 Homer (2nd Month) [Hesiod)

Runic Half Month: Elhaz (Elk) [Day 5 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 40 of 89)

Zodiac: Capricorn (Day 8 of 28)

Calendar Changes

Homer (Ancient Poetry) [Month 2 of 13; Positivist]

[bnyrbt]

Links to the books mentioned above:

Annie on My Mind: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/annie-on-my-mind_nancy-garden/270180/

Blue is the Warmest Color: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/blue-is-the-warmest-color_julie-maroh/2812244/

We Both Laughed in Pleasure: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-selected-diaries-of-lou-sullivan/20200181/

Stone Butch Blues (PDF): http://www.lesliefeinberg.net/download/661/

Stone Butch Blues (PAPERBACK): https://www.lulu.com/shop/leslie-feinberg/stone-butch-blues-20th-anniversary-author-edition/paperback/product-kjqzjj.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Becoming a Visible Man: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/becoming-a-visible-man_jamison-green/354829/

Butch is a Noun: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/butch-is-a-noun_s-bear-bergman/607104/

Out of the Ordinary: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/out-of-the-ordinary-a-life-of-gender-and-spiritual-transitions_michael---dillon_lobzang-jivaka/11621633/

Imre: https://bookshop.org/p/books/imre-a-memorandum-edward-irenaeus-prime-stevenson/16576347

Links to additional books on related topics:

Gender Outlaw: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/gender-outlaw-on-men-women-and-the-rest-of-us_kate-bornstein/262448/

Gender Outlaws: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/gender-outlaws-the-next-generation_kate-bornstein_s-bear-bergman/465384/

The Will to Change: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-will-to-change-men-masculinity-and-love_bell-hooks/342778/

White Women's Rights (PDF): https://people.clas.ufl.edu/lnewman/files/White_Women_Rights.pdf

White Women's Rights (PAPERBACK): https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/white-womens-rights-racial-origins-of-american-feminism_louise-michele-newman/924268/

Transgender Liberation: A Movement Whose Time Has Come (PDF): https://www.workers.org/books2016/Feinberg_Transgender_Liberation.pdf

Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue (PDF): https://transreads.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/2021-12-29_61cca107e2f6b_leslie-feinberg-trans-liberation-beyond-pink-or-blue.pdf

Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue (PAPERBACK): https://bookshop.org/p/books/trans-liberation-beyond-pink-or-blue-leslie-feinberg/9019618

Women East and West: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/women-east-and-west-impressions-of-a-sex-expert_magnus-hirschfeld/26898795/

Drag King Dreams (PDF): https://archive.org/details/dragkingdreams00fein

Drag King Dreams (PAPERBACK): https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/drag-king-dreams_leslie-feinberg/437731/

The Sexual History of the World War: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-sexual-history-of-the-world-war_magnus-hirschfeld/14258528/

The Testosterone Files: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-testosterone-files-my-hormonal-and-social-transformation-from-female-to-male-max-wolf-valerio/7599004

All About Love: https://bookshop.org/p/books/all-about-love-new-visions-bell-hooks/8888106

Feminism is for Everybody: https://bookshop.org/p/books/feminism-is-for-everybody-passionate-politics-bell-hooks/11024110

The Phallus Palace (PDF): https://archive.org/details/phalluspalacefem0000kotu

The Phallus Palace (PAPERBACK): https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-phallus-palace-female-to-male-transsexuals_dean-kotula/755462/

Transvestites: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/transvestites-the-erotic-drive-to-cross-dress-new-concepts-in-human-sexuality_magnus-hirschfeld/681352/

The Homosexuality of Men and Women: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-homosexuality-of-men-and-women_magnus-hirschfeld/14389680/

Girls Will Be Boys: https://bookshop.org/p/books/girls-will-be-boys-cross-dressed-women-lesbians-and-american-cinema-1908-1934-laura-horak/12329826

i have an opporunity to request books for my high school! no restrictions except hate speech and "porn," but sex education and eroticism without explicit descriptions of sex acts are definitely allowed. for example, they have a copy of "annie on my mind" but not "blue is the warmest color." not sure whether to suggest lou sullivan's diaries... any recs?

I'd definitely suggest recommending anything written by Leslie Feinberg; ik Stone Butch Blues has some sexual events in it but from what I remember nothing is explicit (idk if the queerphobic violence in that would count as "hate speech", but I also feel like Stone Butch Blues is not too shocking compared to a lot of things you read for classes?), and hir nonfiction books like Transgender Warriors would also be good.

I know Jamison Green has a book called Becoming a Visible Man, and there's also Butch is A Noun by S. Bear Bergman (who also has other books which I haven't read but seem interesting). Michael Dillon/Lobzang Jivaka (the first trans man to get phalloplasty) wrote a book called Out of The Ordinary: A Life of Gender and Spiritual Transitions after he converted to Buddhism, and he also wrote a book of poetry.

Also, idk if this would be feasible since its very obscure, but Imre: A Memorandum is (at least one of) the first English books to have gay protagonists who get a happy ending (published in 1907!)