{"id":103509,"date":"2025-07-04T16:00:50","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T16:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=103509"},"modified":"2025-07-03T20:03:30","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T20:03:30","slug":"bookhampton-larry-gagosian-bookstore-grazia-usa-hamptons-gazette","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/bookhampton-larry-gagosian-bookstore-grazia-usa-hamptons-gazette\/","title":{"rendered":"Plot Twist: The Art of the Save"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BookHampton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Words by Aaron Rasmussen<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

L<\/span>arry Gagosian has built a storied career on knowing exactly what\u2019s worth preserving. This spring, the art-world powerhouse\u2014who has lived in Amagansett for 35 years\u2014turned his attention from paintings to pages, stepping in to purchase BookHampton, the beloved independent bookstore that has anchored East Hampton\u2019s Main Street since the 1970s.<\/span><\/p>\n

A voracious reader and frequent customer, Gagosian tells\u00a0Grazia Gazette<\/i>\u00a0that the bookstore is a vital part of the community and that he \u201cfelt it was crucial that it was preserved.\u201d While his gallery\u2019s publishing arm has released more than 600 titles over the years\u2014from art books to catalogues raisonn\u00e9s\u2014he plans to keep BookHampton a general-interest bookstore, albeit with an expanded selection of art and design titles.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI feel confident that he will carry BookHampton into the future while preserving and protecting its almost 50-year legacy,\u201d Carolyn Brody, who owned the store for nearly a decade, recently noted in BookHampton\u2019s \u201cDear Reader\u201d newsletter. \u201cI consider this a win for the Village of East Hampton and the East End. In the face of strong market pressure, an independent bookstore will remain on Main Street. Not a small feat!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Brody, a lifelong book lover who dreamed of running a bookstore since childhood, took action when BookHampton was on the brink of closure in 2015. \u201cWhen I heard the news that the business was for sale, I\u2014like so many others\u2014was bereft and couldn\u2019t imagine our village without a thriving bookstore,\u201d she said at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last fall, Brody decided she was ready to move on from the ink-stained trenches, and whispers circulated: Would BookHampton now become just another boutique? Could an independent bookstore still survive amid the area\u2019s shifting luxury landscape?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Larry
PARIS, FRANCE – FEBRUARY 26: Larry Gagosian attends the Harper’s Bazaar Exhibition as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Fall\/Winter 2020\/2021 At Musee Des Arts Decoratifs on February 26, 2020 in Paris, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Watching closely was Jeffrey Seller, a longtime Hamptons resident and devoted customer. \u201cI love<\/i> the gesture of Larry Gagosian buying the beloved BookHampton,\u201d he tells Grazia Gazette<\/i>. The Hamilton <\/i>producer knows well the fight to save a popular bookstore on the verge of shuttering. In 2019, he joined forces with Hamilton<\/i> composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tony-winning director Thomas Kail, and theatre owner James L. Nederlander to purchase The Drama Book Shop\u2014the beating heart of New York City\u2019s Broadway scene that he first discovered in the 1980s as just another show business hopeful. \u201cWe need bookshops,\u201d Seller says. \u201cThey are essential to civic life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Abby Endler, the fiction and marketing director of Hamptons Whodunit, <\/span>an annual festival celebrating the best in crime fiction and true crime storytelling<\/span>, wholeheartedly agrees. \u201cI love the idea of a \u2018third place\u2019\u2014somewhere that isn\u2019t your home and isn\u2019t your office, somewhere you can go to see a friendly face and connect with people in your community,\u201d she says. <\/span><\/p>\n

For her, BookHampton has often been that place. Endler, who also runs the popular Instagram account Crime by the Book, devoted to thrillers and mysteries, has hosted literary events at the shop with favorites like A.J. Finn, author of The Woman in the Window<\/i> and End of Story<\/i>. She fondly recalls the knowledgeable, welcoming booksellers: \u201cIt was a true delight to swap recommendations and hear from them about what they are excited about in the world of books these days.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So, while much of East Hampton\u2019s coveted Main Street<\/a> real estate may be up for grabs to the highest bidder, one cozy bookstore remains\u2014a quiet chapter where readers, writers, and ideas still gather.<\/span><\/p>\n

BOOKS FOR THE BEACH<\/span><\/h3>\n

Crime by the Book\u2019s Abby Endler is all in on this season\u2019s most-anticipated thrillers. Her top pick: With a Vengeance<\/i> by Riley Sager, a razor-sharp 1950s-set story that unfolds aboard a cross-country train, where revenge is on the itinerary. She\u2019s also eager to dig into\u00a0Our Last Resort<\/i>\u00a0by Cl\u00e9mence Michallon, a psychological thriller about two siblings who flee a cult and reunite at a luxury hotel in the Utah desert\u2014only for their retreat to unravel when a fellow guest turns up dead.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hamilton<\/i> producer Jeffrey Seller just released Theater Kid: A Broadway Memoir<\/i>, a moving reflection on growing up as an outsider and finding belonging through the arts. He wrote it, he says, for anyone who ever felt <\/span>lonely, ashamed, or embarrassed\u2014<\/span>\u201c<\/span>to let them know that there is a path to finally feel whole and \u2018inside.\u2019\u201d <\/span>His top summer book pick? James<\/i>\u00a0by Percival Everett, a reimagining of\u00a0Huckleberry Finn<\/i>\u00a0told from Jim\u2019s point of view. Seller calls this new modern classic \u201ca <\/span>profound story of the flight to freedom\u201d and a powerful portrait of \u201cAmerican suffering.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Read GRAZIA USA\u2019<\/em>s\u00a0Hamptons Gazette<\/a>:<\/h4>\n