Hall of Fame
Those who have visited the Grolier Poetry Book Shop, or have established a relationship with it over the years, inlcude: e.e.cummings, Marianne Moore, Conrad Aiken, T.S. Eliot, Robert Lowell, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Mary Oliver, Donald Hall, Robert Creeley, and others. In the words of Robert Creeley, “Poetry is our final human language and resource. The Grolier Poetry Book Shop is where it still lives–still talks, still makes the only sense that ever matters”. Or, as Donald Hall, the 2006-2007 Poet Laureate of the United States, has put it, regarding the book shop, “The Grolier Poetry Book Shop is the greatest poetry place in the universe. If we love poetry, the Grolier is our temple, agora, cottage, mansion, coliseum, and estate. Support it! Support it! Support it! Click here to view a slide show.

History
Founded in 1927 by Adrian Gambet and Gordon Cairnie, the original shop stocked mainly private press books, some poetry, and a sampling of avant-garde literature. Frequented over the years by the poets mentioned above, as well as others such as Charles Olson, Seamus Heaney, Frank Bidart, Robert Pinsky, David Ferry, the literary tradition became well established.

In 1979, then owner, Louisa Solano, started developing the store as an exclusive showcase for the works of poets. Sponsorship of autograph parties and of a reading series soon followed, joined by the founding of the Intercollegiate Undergraduate Poetry Reading Series and the introduction of the Annual Grolier Poetry Prize. The Ellen LaForge Memorial Poetry Foundation became a co-sponsor of the two reading series, the general and the undergraduate, as well as of the Grolier Poetry Prize. Many of the winners of the Grolier Poetry Prize have gone on to establish themselves, and one Natasha Trethewey went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 2007

In 2006 Solano sold the Book Shop to Ifeanyi Menkiti, poet and professor of philosophy at Wellesley College, with the shop opening under new management on May 6, 2006.

Mission Forward

Under the new ownership, the Grolier will continue to advance the cause of poetry, expanding on the foundation laid by the previous owners. It will earnestly work to develop and further interest in poetry among a wider more diversified audience, and will remain a facilitator of poets’ works through the sale of poetry books and the organization of poetry events. By thus promoting the written and spoken art of poetry, the Grolier Poetry Book Shop hopes to remain a key and vibrant player in creating a nourishing environment for the works of poets.

Poetry, we believe, has a lot to offer if only readers can learn to tap its powers by allowing themselves an openness to receive the gifts of its miraculous hand.