Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop
Exterior view in 2007
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Formerly called
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Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop |
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| Industry | LGBT bookstore |
| Fate | Closed |
| Founded | November 24, 1967 |
| Founder | Craig Rodwell |
| Defunct | March 29, 2009 |
| Headquarters | 15 Christopher Street, New York City, New York, United States |
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Area served
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New York |
The Oscar Wilde Bookshop was the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors. It was founded by Craig Rodwell on November 24, 1967 as the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop. Initially located at 291 Mercer Street, moved in 1973 to Christopher Street and Gay Street in New York City's Greenwich Village neighborhood. It is named after author Oscar Wilde.
I wanted a name that would tell people what the shop was about. So I tried to think of the most prominent person whose name I could use who is most readily identifiable as a Homosexual by most people, someone who's sort of a pseudo-martyr. And Oscar Wilde was the most obvious at the time, so I called it the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop.
The bookstore closed on March 29, 2009 citing the Great Recession and challenges from online bookstores.
As a member and vice president of the Mattachine Society, Rodwell sought to make Mattachine more visible to gays and society at large by opening a storefront to cater to the growing local gay community.
I was trying to get the (Mattachine) Society to be out dealing with the people instead of sitting in an office. We even looked at a few storefronts. I wanted the Society to set up a combination bookstore, counseling services, fund-raising headquarters, and office. The main thing was to be out on the street.
Rodwell did not consider himself to be a bookseller businessman but, rather, a person who at the age of 13 set out to help change the world's view of gay people and of gay people's own self-image. Despite a limited selection of materials when the bookstore was first established, Rodwell refused to stock pornography and instead favored literature by gay and lesbian authors.
In March 1968 Rodwell began publishing a monthly newsletter from the bookshop, calling it HYMNAL.
Early organizing meetings for the first Pride Parade in New York City were held at the bookshop in 1970.
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