Witkower’s Booksellers & Stationers

Witkower’s Booksellers & Stationers was one of Connecticut's most historic literary institutions, tracing an unbroken bookselling lineage in downtown Hartford back to Packard & Brown in 1835. Over the 19th century, the shop evolved through several prominent partnerships—most notably Brown & Gross (which frequently supplied volumes to Mark Twain during his Hartford residency) and later Belknap & Warfield (subsequently G.F. Warfield & Co.). In 1929, longtime associate Israel Witkower acquired full control and renamed the business Witkower’s. For three decades, Witkower’s served as Hartford's premier bookstore and stationer, noted for selling rare books, general literature, custom stationery, and wartime publishing. In 1960, Israel Witkower sold the business to Trumbull Huntington, who absorbed the Asylum Street shop and its West Hartford branch into Huntington’s Book Stores, which operated until its dissolution in the 1990s.