Shakespeare & Company Booksellers

Founded in 1981 on Manhattan's Upper West Side at 81st and Broadway, Shakespeare & Co. Booksellers became a defining cultural and intellectual staple of late-20th-century New York literary life. Spanning two packed floors, its flagship hosted prominent readings and served as a beloved neighborhood institution. The shop gained national attention in the mid-1990s when a massive Barnes & Noble superstore opened just one block away at 82nd and Broadway; after a high-profile public outcry and community protests, the original Broadway location was forced to close in 1996 (a David-vs.-Goliath battle that directly inspired Nora Ephron's 1998 film You've Got Mail). Despite losing its original flagship, Shakespeare & Co. maintained its thriving Upper East Side store on Lexington Avenue near Hunter College. In the 2010s, under the leadership of Dane Neller, the brand modernized by integrating the Espresso Book Machine for on-demand self-publishing and print-on-demand services, eventually opening new Manhattan branches including a return to the Upper West Side.