Left Bank Books

ABOUT

Let me introduce you to our store. Left Bank Books opened in 1969 by a group of graduate students at Washington University who wanted to create a place where one could find all kinds of literature. We are the oldest and largest independently-owned full-line bookstore in St. Louis, and we offer a full-line of new and used books, gifts, cards, toys and services. We've grown and changed throughout our 50 years, but our mission still remains the same – to spark public conversation by curating an intelligent, relevant, culturally diverse selection of books.

We’re located at Euclid and McPherson in the historic Central West End neighborhood, situated among magnificent turn-of-the-century residences and some of the best restaurants and finest art galleries in the area. We’re steps away from public transportation and enjoy greeting customers from all parts of the city and its surrounding area.

We see ourselves as a cultural institution as well as a retail business. In that spirit, we produce over 300 events per year, most of which are free and open to the public. These range from large events with dignitaries such as Hillary Clinton and Jimmy Carter to local poets in the River Styx Reading Series. We host eight book clubs of our own (including Gay Men's Reading Group, Lesbian Reading Group, Great Novels of the 22nd Century, Novel Ideas, Read the Resistance, Reader Beware, Shakespeare Festival Reads, and Well-Read Black Girl as well as “Pop Up" reading groups that move through one author or theme and disband once finished) and sell books to many, many other private book groups. We also offer a weekly story time. We partner with three library systems, many churches, public and private schools and other community institutions to bring this type of programming to our city, and work with them to encourage literacy.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Customer service is community service. This philosophy guides every decision we make where a customer is concerned, from greeting each person when they enter, to the “no pointing" rule requiring booksellers to walk the person to the book rather than point them in the direction. Sometimes all it takes to make someone feel better is to offer them a place to sit while waiting for the bus (which we did by adding a bench to our sidewalk) – but we take feeling better more seriously. Our interactions with our customers are more than simple transactions; they are relationships.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

Left Bank Books strives to be a good neighbor and, like many locally-owned businesses, gives back to its community. Besides reinvesting three times more of our revenue locally than non-local chain stores reinvest, we also give a lot of organic support to grass roots and non-profit organizations through donations of gift certificates, percent of sales, book fairs and even free event programming.

Our store was founded with and holds a rich tradition of community involvement. In 2008, a collection of current and former owners and other community members formed The Left Bank Books Foundation, which is dedicated to promoting literacy and the literary arts in the St. Louis area by providing books, author events, and related programming to primary and secondary school students, disadvantaged populations, and all St. Louisans. Through this nonprofit organization, we raise funds for such projects as our River City Readers Program. Created as a store project in 2009 and moved to the foundation in 2011 but managed by the bookstore staff entirely, this program focuses on our struggling public schools. Over 41% of children in the city of St. Louis are living below the poverty line while 85% of students enrolled in St. Louis Public Schools meet the requirements for the free- or reduced-lunch program​. Over 1,700 children in St. Louis City are homeless at some point in the school year. Many of these kids do not have books in their households and have not learned to read for pleasure. While we can't fix a generations deep poverty problem, we can inspire young children to read for fun which encourages and enables them to learn, dream and succeed (and maybe even work in our bookstore some day). Studies have shown that children who read early in their lives with confidence and for pleasure stay in school longer and get better jobs. So far, River City Readers has distributed 3,482 books to students at Washington Montessori Elementary School, Patrick Henry Downtown Academy, and Gateway Middle School.

Sponsorship for a student is $20 every other month or a one time $100 tax deductible donation, and this ensures students receive a book every other month of the school year of their very own to keep and start their own personal library. When circumstances allow, we bring authors to their schools so that they can meet them and ask questions. These kids are thrilled to receive these books and the competent, but under-supported teachers are able to use them for class projects if they wish. Everybody wins.

The Left Bank Books Angel Tree Book Drive is an annual holiday event that allows our customers to purchase a book and donate it directly to a child in need. In the past, we have worked with Teach for America and the St. Louis Public School District to distribute individually wrapped and personally addressed books to children in pre-kindergarten through the sixth grade.

In the recent past, we partnered with Airport Elementary School in the Ferguson-Florissant School district, an area that has been under much turmoil since the shooting of Michael Brown over the summer. This particular school is currently working to increase the amount of students reading at or above grade level by at least 10% per grade by the end of this year. With 100% of the students qualifying for free- or reduced-lunch, many of the students are not able to afford home libraries to help toward this goal.

Through Angel Tree, we were able not only to bring a book to each of their 326 students, but also for every teacher to add to their classroom, with additional books for the school library. By partnering with authors such as Paula Stokes, Antony John, Cole Gibsen, Sarah Bromley and Shawntelle Madison to spread the word on social media, we received donations not only from our customers in store, but online from all over Missouri, Illinois, Arizona, New Jersey, Vermont, and Pennsylvania.

The store also donates books, gift certificates and occasionally (when we're feeling flush) money to Planned Parenthood of St. Louis, University City Public Library, The Ethical Society of St. Louis, Stray Animal Rescue, Metro Trans Umbrella Group, Action St. Louis, homeless shelters, prisons, schools and many other worthy causes.

OUR STAFF

Left Bank Books workers are a fiercely committed group. Many of us are writers, performers, and artists and personally appreciate the importance of a store like Left Bank, not only to the cultural health of a community, but to the health of its creative people, too! Many of us are involved in other community organizations as volunteers and activists. Issues like peace, racial justice, civil rights, urban sustainability, education, animal rights, and support for the arts are some of the areas in which Left Bankers are involved.

OUR BOOKS

Left Bank Books has always carried a diverse selection of books, striving to represent subjects and communities that are often under-represented elsewhere. Owner, Kris Kleindienst uses over 40 years of buying experience, great instinct, help from assistant buyer, Randy Schiller, Children's buyer, Cliff Helm and a little luck to curate our selection. We had the first (and only) women’s studies, LGBT and African American sections in the city. We have long sought out children’s books with strong female characters and diverse characters. Since the city of St. Louis is nearly 50% African American, we have always tried to carry books that represent that demographic. We strive to carry books that mean something to our neighbors. In the Fall of 2001 that meant sifting through what was largely academic titles on the Middle East to help folks make sense of 9/11. In Fall of 2014 it meant that we could help folks put the events in our neighboring Ferguson in a larger context through hand-selling books we had long been carrying and even staff-picking. We can order anything in print for our customers, but like any bookstore, we have a finite number of shelf feet. We choose to fill those limited number of feet with the most intelligent and diverse selection of well-written books available with a consistent eye for quality and importance. And sometimes, just plain fun.