LGBT Book, Film & Video Blog

PHILADELPHIA—Months before he died in 1987, author James Baldwin showed up, unannounced, at Giovanni's Room, the gay bookstore named after his landmark homosexual love story from the mid-1950s.

"I was flabbergasted," owner Ed Hermance recalls. "He looked around, autographed some books. It was over in 10 minutes."

Ten minutes and 10 years, to be precise. That's how long Hermance and his former business partner, Arleen Olshan, had been after Baldwin to visit Giovanni's, a fixture at 12th and Pine Streets.

"We wrote, we called, we hounded him—just like we did everybody else," Olshan says.

That persistence is what has kept the lights on at Giovanni's in an era when independent bookstores everywhere are going dark. Opened in 1973, Giovanni's marked its 35th anniversary Oct. 1 with a nostalgic soiree.

Most Philadelphians are unaware that Giovanni's is the second-oldest gay-and-lesbian bookstore in the country, behind only New York's Oscar Wilde Bookshop, launched in 1967.

Through six owners, three locations and countless volunteers, Giovanni's has come to represent far more to the city's gay community than a bibliophilic rainbow flag.

"Growing up in the city, it was one of the first places where I found people like me and a sense of community," says Gloria Casarez, 36, the Mayor's Office liaison to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.

Philly gay bookstore celebrates 35 years
York Daily Record, PA