Comments on: Eighth Street Bookshop

By: Judith Wilson-Pates

Judith Wilson-Pates — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 01:42:57 +0000

You got the title of LeRoi Jones/ Amiri Baraka’s “Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note” wrong. The preposition is “to” NOT “of.” That little book and Alex Haley’s “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” lured me into the world of Black Studies at age fifteen in 1967. Three decades later, I received a Ph.D. in art history at Yale for writing a study of the life and work of Bob Thompson, a painter friend of Baraka’s. In 2006, I retired from UC Irvine, where I’d held a joint appointment in African American Studies and Art History.
I also have fond memories of the Eighth Street Bookshop from my years in NYC. At Bennington College, which I attended before settling in Manhattan, I spent me first year across the hall from a woman named Amy Wilentz, who I believe was a niece of one of the Eighth Street Bookshop owners.

By: Lawrence DuKore

Lawrence DuKore — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 15:29:02 +0000

I’m trying to locate my long ago friend, Conrad Brenner, whom I knew from Erasmus Hall high school, the 8th St. book shop, the Coliseum book shop and various tennis courts in the city.

And I thank you in advance for any help you can give.

By: bill reed

bill reed — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 00:19:25 +0000

Alas, the above link to Ted Wilentz’s “memoir” is broken and I can find no reference anywhere on the net to ANYTHING with that title.

By: Tom Weatherly

Tom Weatherly — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 21:40:06 +0000

Corinth has special place in my life. Ted and Joan I remember as wonders in publishing.

By: Joan Wilentz

Joan Wilentz — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 12:25:01 +0000

This was quite a treat to read and I remember well the encounter in the Bethesda bookstore and regret I didn’t follow up–I had thought to bring a few Corinth titles to add to the collection. As for the “Bill” Wilentz–as far as I know (and there are a couple of Wilentz family genealogists) there’s no such animal. Ted used to say that anyone with a surname spelled that way was probably a relative derived from the transliteration of the family ancestor who was originally a “citizen of Vilna.”