Ninety-nine years on Plympton Street.
Opened in 1927, given over to poetry alone in 1976, rescued in 2006, and run today by Carol Menkiti and Ndidi Menkiti, with booksellers Michael McCarthy and James Fraser.
- 1927
Adrian Gambet and Gordon Cairnie open the shop, stocking mostly private press books, some poetry and avant-garde literature.
- 1976
Owner Louisa Solano makes the Grolier a showcase for poetry alone: about 15,000 current volumes, with the small press up front.
- 1976
The Grolier Poetry Prize begins, co-sponsored with the Blacksmith House Poetry Reading Series.
- 1986
The Intercollegiate Undergraduate Poetry Reading Series starts, with eleven colleges taking part.
- 1987
Louisa Solano receives the Women's National Book Association Award.
- 2006
Poet and Wellesley philosophy professor Ifeanyi Menkiti buys the shop in April to keep it open. It reopens on May 6.
- 2012
Publishers Weekly: “Grolier Poetry Book Shop Goes Nonprofit Route.”
- 2019
Ifeanyi Menkiti dies at 78, after more than 41 years teaching philosophy at Wellesley.
- 2022
The Harvard Crimson: “Grolier Poetry Book Shop Celebrates 95th Anniversary.”
In the papers
400 Square Feet of Poetic Punch
The Christian Science Monitor, 2002House of Poesy: At the Grolier Poetry Book Shop
The Paris Review, 2013Ann Patchett's Guide for Bookstore Lovers
The New York Times, 2016A beacon for poets, Louisa Solano, 80, ran the historic Grolier Poetry Book Shop
The Boston Globe, 2022Two-day event to celebrate the glory of Grolier Bookshop
The Boston Globe, 2024
Headlines as listed on the shop’s Media page.