Most of my Wisconsin readers are probably already aware of the sad news that the Harry Schwartz Bookshops will be closing at the end of March. Unfortunately, this means that my April 7th visit to the Brookfield store will not go on as scheduled. I know many of you count on my regular visits to the Brookfield store, and I too am terribly disappointed to see those wonderful events sponsored by Schwartz come to an end.

We're working to reschedule an event in the Milwaukee area, and I will post the details here and on my events page as soon as I know more. In the meantime, if you'd like to learn more about the passing of an icon of the independent bookselling world, please see this piece in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"Bookselling was and is for me a cultural and political expression, an expression of progressive change, of challenge to oppressive authority, of a search for a community of values which can act as an underpinning of a better world. The true profit in bookselling is the social profit; the bottom line, the measure of the impact of the bookshop on the community."

-A. David Schwartz (July 15, 1938 - June 7, 2004)