The Unlikely Success of a Strange Alabama Bookstore

Jake Reiss got into bookselling for the wealth and the girls. Now that he’s ninety years old, helium cares little astir both, but helium inactive gets up 7 days a week and goes to enactment astatine what mightiness beryllium the strangest bookstore successful America.

Outside, the Alabama Booksmith is truthful unassuming it’s arsenic if Reiss had forgotten that helium was moving a retail business: a two-story, astir windowless structure, surrounded by bureau parks and parking lots, connected a dead-end thoroughfare successful a suburb of Birmingham. Inside, the vibe is fractional 1970, fractional 1870, with wood panelling, rattan chairs, and a drop-tile ceiling—but besides patterned tablecloths, cozy curtains, a functioning fireplace, and an oversized hourglass. As for the books, they beryllium connected uncrowded shelves on the outer walls, astir each facing retired truthful that customers can, indeed, justice them by their covers. Collectively, they are what marque Reiss’s store the lone 1 of its benignant successful this country: the books are each hardcovers, virtually each archetypal printings, each signed, and, but for a fistful acceptable speech connected a tiny shelf, each for merchantability astatine the regular retail price. “Our books don’t outgo more,” Reiss likes to say, “but they are worthy more.”

Reiss has a roster of specified slogans, immoderate of which he’s enactment connected small placards astir the store. Boosterism comes people to him: helium has been moving successful retail since helium was six years old, though it took him fractional a period to find his mode into the publication trade. He’d ne'er been overmuch of a reader, adjacent aft helium opened the Booksmith, but determination on the mode helium became one—a salesman truthful bully that helium sold himself connected the books helium was selling.

Reiss is the 3rd Jacob Reiss to telephone Alabama home. The archetypal was a autochthonal of Budapest, calved successful 1861, the twelvemonth the American Civil War started. Twenty years aft the warfare ended, helium made his mode to the reunited States, yet becoming 1 of the biggest men successful Mobile: an Elk, a Mason, a Shriner, a Rotarian, a trustee of his synagogue, a subordinate of the section lodge of B’nai B’rith, and the proprietor of a sprawling store connected Dauphin Street. Despite the Ashkenazi customized of not naming children aft a surviving relative, helium gave 1 of his sons his name—oddly, the youngest of his 3 boys, who became the 2nd Jacob Reiss. Junior inherited the family’s concern sense, moving his ain covering shop, and its important Southern pride, starring Mobile’s Mardi Gras celebrations and passing connected the patronym erstwhile more.

But Jacob Reiss III seldom uses his Roman numerals, and helium prefers to beryllium called Jake. The nonagenarian has an improbable ponytail and an ornery smile, which helium flashed passim a caller visit. While I signed books, helium told maine that his relation exemplary was not anyone connected his father’s broadside of the household but alternatively his maternal grandfather, Isadore Prince, who was calved successful Romania and immigrated to America arsenic a teen-ager. “He came connected a vessel to Canada, past walked from Canada, pushing a handcart each the mode to Mobile. Can you imagine?”

Prince joined a Jewish pistillate whose household had fled the Pale of Settlement, and the 2 raised 9 children supra a humble Army-Navy store that helium had opened successful downtown Mobile. Reiss started moving successful that store erstwhile astir children commencement schoolhouse and learned conscionable astir everything helium needed for a beingness successful sales. When it came to a accepted education, though, helium was little interested; helium did yet springiness assemblage a effort but soon dropped retired and came location to his father’s covering store, wherever helium worked for astir a decennary earlier opening his ain tailoring store successful Mobile: J. Reiss, Gentlemen’s Attire.

Reiss loved customized tailoring, and helium became known arsenic the Tailor to the Pros erstwhile helium developed a specialty successful outfitting nonrecreational athletes, making suits for the likes of Jack Kemp, Tommie Agee, and Lee Roy Jordan, a Dallas Cowboy who aboriginal served arsenic the featured exemplary successful the advertizing for a short-lived task that Reiss branded “the world’s largest turtleneck store.” Turtlenecks turned retired to beryllium a fad of the sixties, though, and nevertheless amusive it was to pal astir with sports legends, taking measurements successful locker rooms astir the region did not wage arsenic overmuch arsenic Reiss thought it might, truthful helium tried expanding his customized tailoring to different cities successful the South. “Sadly,” helium said, “I discovered custom-tailoring stores bash not franchise arsenic good arsenic hamburger stores.”

By then, Reiss had a girl and 2 sons, but helium and his woman had separated, and soon she and their children moved to Atlanta to beryllium with her family. One of his sons, Jacob Reiss IV, followed him into customized tailoring; the other, Frank, wanted to beryllium a writer, and near Georgia for San Francisco, wherever helium collected rejection letters and paid rent with a occupation astatine an antiquarian bookstore. “My member and my dada came retired to sojourn me,” Frank told me. “And, you person to understand, my dada was the slightest literate idiosyncratic connected the planet—he didn’t adjacent similar reading. They lone came retired West to spell skiing and to spell gambling. But helium came into the store, and helium saw each these leather-bound books that were hundreds of years old, and they were selling for thousands of dollars, and helium started quizzing maine astir however it each worked.” Reiss was struck by the economics of the secondhand-book business: “It seemed to maine similar these radical were buying books for pennies and selling them for dollars, and I thought, I could bash that.”

Eventually, Frank Reiss moved backmost to Atlanta and opened A Cappella Books, a shoebox of a store successful Little Five Points, and Reiss watched his son’s occurrence with admiration and adjacent immoderate envy. “I followed Frank to room income to bargain books,” helium told me, “and past I asked him for a database of the apical 1 100 writers, and I started going to store income connected my own, looking for those 100 writers, spending 10 cents oregon a 4th buying each book, filing up my spare closet and past the full spare bedroom. And erstwhile I had done that, I started looking for a location.”

Reiss brought the aforesaid flair to bookselling that he’d utilized elsewhere: the support labels were made with the tailor shop’s monogram machine; bolts of paisley necktie silk were made into deluxe buying bags. But helium recovered the existent selling of utilized books to beryllium a small boring, truthful different signifier of arbitrage helium exploited was the surfeit of literati who felt that getting to walk their days successful a bookstore was practically paycheck enough: successful those aboriginal years, the employees helium hired each knew much astir books than helium did and astir ran the spot themselves. He mostly amused himself playing softball, tennis, and interaction football.

Like the Jacob Reisses who’d travel before, helium seemed to cognize everyone successful town, truthful it wasn’t astonishing erstwhile helium yet figured retired a mode to marque his bookstore into its ain benignant of civic institution. That began successful 1995, erstwhile Reiss learned that the section vigor property Don Keith was astir to people a caller and was hoping to bash an lawsuit for it. “We said we’d bash a publication signing, immoderate that is,” Reiss remembered. What it was was successful: “We sold a clump of books and we had a bully time, truthful we thought, Let’s bash that again, and that was the commencement of our signed books.”

For astir people, signed archetypal editions conjure images of achromatic gloves and Plexiglas-protected show cases, but Reiss doesn’t mostly woody successful uncommon oregon adjacent aged books. Some of his biggest sellers implicit the years see Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Be Useful,” Debbie Harry’s “Face It,” Joe Namath’s “All the Way,” and, arsenic of this month, Governor Gavin Newsom’s “Young Man successful a Hurry.” Like those books, astir of his inventory was precocious published, and astir of his authors are inactive with us. The Booksmith’s shelves diagnostic an eclectic premix of poesy and literate fiction, positive section and determination titles, on with immoderate different nonfiction Reiss has a caput to sell. It mightiness beryllium the lone bookstore successful Alabama wherever you can’t find a transcript of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and the lone 1 successful the satellite wherever you cannot bargain a Bible, not to notation thing by J. K. Rowling.

How Reiss manages to get capable autographed books from actors, athletes, and best-selling authors to banal an full store involves a premix of courtship, logistics, and luck. He won’t merchantability thing signed that isn’t a book, and the books are each archetypal editions—almost nary reprints, and ne'er immoderate paperbacks. He has long-standing relationships with publishers and tiny presses, truthful he’s often archetypal successful enactment for the signed copies that they administer astir the work of large titles, though those are somewhat little collectible since they mostly diagnostic “tip-in” signatures: pages, signed by authors astatine location oregon wherever they want, that are past bound into the publication later. Because Reiss guarantees income of respective 100 copies, helium tin sometimes person publicists to adhd a book-tour halt successful Birmingham, adjacent if it’s conscionable for a lightning signing during which helium and his squad service arsenic a benignant of quality conveyor belt, shuffling signature-ready books by truthful speedily that the writer tin marque it to a adjacent metropolis for different lawsuit that aforesaid night. When that strategy doesn’t work, he’s not supra begging authors directly.

Sometimes it seems similar authors are the lone radical who sojourn the Booksmith these days. The bulk of Reiss’s customers are remote, and it is not a motion that the concern is suffering erstwhile helium says “nobody calls and cipher ever comes by.” That’s conscionable the world of being online, wherever the Booksmith is unfastened “24/7” with a bare-bones website but with thorough entries for each book, including a photograph of the author’s signature and a statement of wherever they signed it. The time I visited, conscionable 1 idiosyncratic called, but it was the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Rick Bragg, 1 of Reiss’s closest friends, and 1 idiosyncratic walked done the door, but helium bought the astir costly publication successful the shop, a signed transcript of Paul McCartney’s “1964: Eyes of the Storm,” 1 of the fewer books selling for much than the retail price—in this case, northbound of 7 1000 dollars.

That merchantability aside, astir of Reiss’s concern appears successful the store’s inbox, and astir of it is much connected the standard of thirty-five dollars positive taxation and shipping. He maintains an email database with 5 1000 oregon truthful devoted customers from astir the world. “We bash not solicit,” Reiss explained. “The lone mode to get connected it is to marque a acquisition and petition inclusion.” Almost each Monday afternoon, Reiss e-mails the database astir that week’s prime titles, and since astir a 1000 of the recipients are regular buyers, galore of them respond close away, and Reiss stays astatine the store until 9 oregon 10 astatine nighttime handling their orders. It’s a normal of the publishing manufacture that caller books travel retired connected Tuesdays, truthful that’s 1 of his busiest days, with anyplace from 20 to 2 100 orders; a smaller fig trickle successful passim the week, though Reiss ever knows whenever an writer dies oregon wins a large grant because, immoderate the day, his inbox fills up with orders oregon queries astir what helium mightiness beryllium hiding successful the climate-controlled warehouse that takes up astir fractional the store’s quadrate footage.

Aptly enough, the erstwhile customized tailor present runs what mightiness beryllium champion described arsenic a bespoke bookstore. Those who emotion and respect Reiss’s concern model, and they are legion, are ongoingly baffled by however good it works. One of the store’s “best friends” is the novelist Ann Patchett, who ever signs for Reiss, and considers him 1 of the astir absorbing booksellers successful America. Carla Diebold, who runs Armadillo Alley Books retired of her location successful Carrollton, Texas, reselling signed and first-edition books online, discovered the Booksmith respective years ago, and was stunned that each its books were some signed and regularly priced. “We thought they were insane,” she told me. “Obviously not, since they’re inactive around, but I person nary thought however they bash this.”

It helps that Reiss has a tiny staff, conscionable 3 employees. These days, helium personally chooses each the books that the store sells. That translation was inspired by marquee events with Southern giants similar Bragg, Fannie Flagg, and Pat Conroy, events truthful good attended that Reiss wondered what each the fuss was about. Soon the erstwhile nonreader was devouring 2 100 books a year. No 1 is much amazed by that literate translation than Frank, who inactive runs A Cappella Books, successful Atlanta. “Like son, similar father” is however helium likes to picture their concern relationship.

The novelist Joshilyn Jackson got to spot however cautiously Reiss considers his choices erstwhile she sold her archetypal book, much than 2 decades ago, and walked into the Booksmith to speech astir it. “Alabama Booksmith was my parents’ bookstore, and my exertion had said it was important to conscionable with autarkic bookstores, truthful I decided to signifier connected Jake,” she told me. It was truthful aboriginal successful the work process that Jackson printed the manuscript of “Gods successful Alabama” herself connected machine paper, but Reiss talked with her astir what she liked to work and said that he’d look astatine her stack of papers. He liked the caller and started telling different bookstore owners successful the South however overmuch they’d similar it, too. “If Jake loves a book, helium goes to warfare for it,” Jackson said. “He’s conscionable specified a champion of writers, particularly caller voices.”

Plenty of caller voices are featured successful the Booksmith’s signed-first-editions club, which costs astir 5 100 dollars a year: subscribers get a signed publication each month, a curated postulation of celebrated and, arsenic Reiss says, “soon to beryllium famous” authors. (He borrowed the thought from his friends astatine Square Books successful Oxford, Mississippi.) Reiss’s children gag that helium has a spot of P. T. Barnum successful him, and determination is simply a definite ringmaster vigor successful the mode that Reiss does business: the certificates of authenticity helium places successful each publication helium sells; the peculiar complaint helium negotiated astatine a adjacent edifice for out-of-town customers; the roadside banners helium has made for each writer who signs astatine the store, which helium likes calling his “showroom.”

My astir caller sojourn to the showroom was connected a Friday, truthful things were slow, but for Reiss, who tin inactive contention up and down the stairs to his office. He and Lauren Skinner, 1 of his income associates, were readying to walk the day packing up books for that day’s shipment—sealing them successful integrative and wrapping them successful bubble insubstantial earlier fitting them into boxes. Because collectors person ever been a large portion of the Booksmith’s business, cautious packaging is essential; erstwhile the coronavirus pandemic began, Reiss was amended prepared than astir bookstore owners due to the fact that helium already had hay-bale-size stacks of bubble wrapper and forty antithetic kinds of boxes for shipping.

Not arsenic galore customers petition personalized inscriptions anymore, but immoderate do, with the day oregon possibly day wishes oregon someone’s sanction who is graduating oregon celebrating immoderate different peculiar occasion. Gifts are a large portion of the Booksmith’s business, and I did fractional my Christmas buying determination past year. Even earlier helium learned to emotion to read, Reiss the retail genius recognized what each existent scholar knows: a publication is not conscionable its contents but also, and inseparably, a peculiar benignant of object, a portal of sorts betwixt radical and places and ideas.