Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 1608

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

16.7 linear feet (18 boxes)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Karen Burke LeFevre research collection on Frances Steloff and the Gotham Book Mart, 1891-2022 (bulk: 1930-1990), Ms. Coll. 1608, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1891-2022 (inclusive) and 1930-1990 (bulk)

Creator:

LeFevre, Karen Burke

Form:

Audiocassettes, Audiovisual materials, Biographies, Interviews, and Research notes

Abstract:

Throughout the 1980s, Karen Burke LeFevre, a professor of English and an author, researched Frances Steloff and the Gotham Book Mart with the intention of writing a biography of Steloff (1887-1989), who founded the Gotham Book Mart in 1920. This collection documents the research LeFevre undertook for her unfinished book about Steloff and the Gotham Book Mart, using facsimiles of Steloff's diaries from childhood to adulthood, correspondence, and personal photographs, and conducting taped interviews of Steloff and other Gotham Book Mart employees, some of which have been transcribed. The Gotham Book Mart was a gathering place for modernist authors, artists, and booklovers and during its existence, was a center for controversy over banned books, censorship, and ownership. LeFevre's efforts to publish her research on Steloff is contained within the collection, providing a glimpse into the administrative and political sides, as well as the research and writing sides, of publishing biographies in the late 20th century.

Karen Burke LeFevre set out to write a biography of Frances Steloff, founder of the Gotham Book Mart, in 1983. Born in Rochester, NY, she received a BA in English from Skidmore College in 1968 before going on to receive an MA in English at Syracuse University and a Ph.D. from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1984. LeFevre met Steloff in 1968 during her senior year of college after winning the Frances Steloff Poetry Prize for Skidmore undergraduates. Developing a close relationship with her that would last until Steloff's death, LeFevre began work on a draft of her biography of Steloff, possibly titled "One Hundred Years' Words: The Story of Frances Steloff, Gotham's Best-Known Bookseller," even procuring a publishing deal with Ballantyne/Random House until a legal dispute with Andreas Brown led to the contract being canceled in 1990. The book was never published, and LeFevre donated her research materials, including a partial draft of the biography, to the University of Pennsylvania in 2024.

Frances Steloff was born in 1887 to Jewish-Russian parents in Saratoga Springs, where she grew up in severe poverty and had limited formal education. Steloff's parents died young, and, as a result, she was adopted at age twelve by a family in Boston. At age nineteen, she moved to New York City, where she worked in book sections at various department stores where she met David Moss who would later become her husband. Nurturing her love for books, Steloff, in 1920, with "$100 of her own money, a $100 Liberty bond and a small collection of out-of-print books," (Friss) founded the Gotham Art and Book Mart on 128 West 45th. The store later changed its name to the Gotham Book Mart, and, as it grew in popularity, found a bigger home on 51 West 47th Street. The GBM became particularly popular among modernist readers and writers alike, and it eventually became a hub of appreciation for the avant-garde. Furthermore, it was there that Steloff and others founded the James Joyce Society, still running till this day. Because of its involvement with controversial writers such as James Joyce and Henry Miller, the GBM was targeted by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. Steloff fought this censorship in court.

In 1980, when she was 92, Frances Steloff donated the building at 51 West 47th St., worth over $1 million, to Hebrew University of Jerusalem by establishing a charitable remainder unitrust with the American Friends of Hebrew University (AFHU). In 1986, Steloff filed a lawsuit against AFHU alleging that the organization should honor her wishes and sell the building that housed the bookstore on the ground floor to Andreas Brown, the only other resident of the brownstone beside Steloff, for $1 million, a price far below market value, in order to ensure the continued operation of Gotham Book Mart. In late March 1989, the lawsuit was settled out of court, with Andreas Brown purchasing the building for $1 million.

Steloff received an honorary doctorate from Skidmore College in the 1970s for her pioneering work in bookselling, and died in 1989 at the age of 101.

Works cited:

Friss, Evan. "The Bookstore that Helped Create Modern American Literature," Wall Street Journal, 2024 August 2 (https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/the-bookstore-that-helped-create-modern-american-literature-8872f212), accessed 2024 November 12

The bulk of this collection documents the research LeFevre undertook for her unpublished book about Steloff and the Gotham Book Mart. In addition to pursuing more traditional research avenues, LeFevre developed a close relationship to Steloff and was therefore granted access to Steloff's diaries from childhood to adulthood, personal photographs, and correspondence, photocopies of which are included in this collection. LeFevre conducted taped interviews with Steloff and other Gotham Book Mart employees, some of which have been transcribed. The remainder of the collection reflects LeFevre's efforts to publish her research on Steloff as well as some other unrelated publications.

This collection is arranged in three series: I. Karen Burke LeFevre research on Frances Steloff and the Gotham Book Mart; II. Karen Burke LeFevre files relating to publishing her biography of Frances Steloff, titled "One Hundred Years'Words: The Story of Frances Steloff, Gotham's Best Known Bookseller;" and III. Other writings by Karen Burke LeFevre.

The research materials documents the efforts LeFevre made to understand Steloff's background, her personal life, her professional life as the owner of the Gotham Book Mart, and her relationships with the people with whom she worked and promoted through her business. In many ways, the Gotham Book Mart and Steloff are completely intertwined, and therefore, LeFevre's efforts to research Steloff meant that researching the Gotham Book Mart was equally essential. This material is arranged alphabetically and files generally include photocopies of primary sources as well as notes written by LeFevre.

Of particular interest may be the photocopies of Steloff's diaries between 1902-1979; photocopies of letters to and from Steloff, dating from the 1920s to the 1980s; audio recordings and transcriptions of interviews between LeFevre and Steloff as well as between LeFevre and employees of the Gotham Book Mart; newspaper clippings about Steloff and the Gotham Book Mart; research on banned books and the sale of erotica; research notes on 20th century booksellers, modernist publishing, and women and publishing; and research files on two legal cases: John Summers and the New York Society for the Suppress of Vice (which includes the trial of Steloff's husband David Moss) and the American Friends of Hebrew University (which led to the downfall of Andreas Brown and the Gotham Book Mart). This collection does not include any original copies of Steloff's diaries or letters.

The files relating to publishing her proposed biography contain book plans, proposals, and a summary of the book; correspondence with literary agent, Timothy Seldes (1926-2015); permissions for use of primary source material; and Andreas Brown's eventual refusal to provide permissions to use Steloff's primary source material in 1989-1990. Additional material relating to this conflict between LeFevre and Brown remains with the donor. Researchers interested in LeFevre's plans and concept for the biography should consult her summary of the book found in box 10, folder 7; much of which may provide context for the research files found in the first series of this collection.

In addition to the material relating to Steloff, Gotham Book Mart, and the logistics of LeFevre's efforts to publish Steloff's biography; there are two published works written by LeFevre that are not directly related to Steloff and Gotham Book Mart. They include Invention as a Social Act and "The Tell-Tale Heart: Determining 'Fair' Use of Unpublished Texts," in Law and Contemporary Problems , the second of which is almost certainly related to her work on and the copyright challenges she faced in try to publish Steloff's biography.