For a number of years, I worked as a bookseller. It was my “day job.” I enjoyed it not only because I love books, but also because I liked meeting and working with authors.
During much of my time as a bookseller, I was employed at The Booksmith, an independent bookstore located in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. After The Booksmith, I worked in publishing as Director of Marketing and Sales at Arion Press, a world renown fine press publisher located in San Francisco.
As a bookseller, I was a jack of all trades, though primarily I managed The Booksmith’s acclaimed author event program. At various times, I also worked as a buyer, assistant manager, publicist, and liaison to community groups and the publishing industry. I have written a memoir of my time running the Booksmith events program titled “Those were the days . . . One bookseller’s memoir, told through ‘baseball’ cards.” It should see the light of day sometime soon.
I was more than just a bookseller. For nine years, I served on the Board of Directors of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, a regional trade association. (I was an officer of the group, serving as organization secretary, and chairperson of its Free Speech committee.) During my tenure, the NCIBA developed the Book Sense (later IndieBound) branding campaign, which was adopted for national use by the American Booksellers Association (ABA). I coined the widely adopted phrase “Independent bookstores for independent minds.” This catchphrase phrase was even utilized on a t-shirt designed by cartoonist Tom Tomorrow. I also served on the Bookseller Advisory Board of the Paris Review, and have over the years advised and consulted with authors, booksellers, publishers, and other allied groups on business, marketing, and promotional strategies. On a handful of occasions, I was a speaker and panelist at both regional and national conventions.
My articles on on books, best practices and related topics were published in various trade journals and industry newsletters including Publisher’s Weekly, American Bookseller, and Bookselling This Week; some of my articles were also adapted for coursework by the American Booksellers Association, and as promotional material by the National Poetry Foundation.
At Booksmith, I created the store’s pioneering website, which launched in 1995, just a couple of months after amazon.com went online. As webmaster, I initiated news making and revenue generating promotional projects in partnership with leading publishers & authors including gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, writer / cartoonist Lynda Barry, acclaimed short story writer George Saunders, memoirist Elizabeth Wurtzel, and illustrators William Joyce and Lane Smith, among others. Early on, The Booksmith website was highlighted in TIME magazine.
As events coordinator, I developed and managed all aspects of a series recognized as one of the very best on the West Coast. I acted as a producer (which meant selecting, promoting, and hosting) some 900 events over the course of a decade; the events program received a good deal of coverage, and was twice named “Best in the City” by the SF Weekly. Over the years, I put on many memorable and even historic events with all manner of acclaimed writers, including a number of Pulitzer, Booker and even Nobel Prize winners. There were also Presidential candidates, distinguished historians, biographers and scientists, news makers, and all manner of celebrities. As a person of Polish descent, I am especially proud of having hosted the Nobel Prize winning Polish writer Czesław Miłosz. It was one of the exiled poet’s very last events in the United States before his return to Poland.
The first event I put on at the Booksmith was with the legendary science fiction writer Robert Silverberg. The last was with the renowned film critic David Thomson. In between came an exclusive event with music legend Neil Young (covered in the New York Times and elsewhere), blockbuster events with Neil Gaiman, Dave Eggers, and David Sedaris, the first San Francisco appearances by Chuck Palahniuk, Sarah Waters, and China Miéville, and the last ever reading by Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. All this and more is detailed in “Those were the days . . . One bookseller’s memoir, told through ‘baseball’ cards.”
Perhaps I’ve gone on too long about my past career, but as I stated at the beginning, I loved working as a bookseller. It was a lot of fun, and I met a lot of good and interesting people. I am proud of what I accomplished. I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time. I think I made a difference.
What follows is a checklist of some of the media I received related to my efforts as a bookseller. Additionally, I have been written-up one or more times in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Library Journal, Small Press, and other publications, and have appeared a number of times in both Publisher’s Weekly and Shelf Awareness (click through to an index of articles); I’ve also appeared on MSNBC, C-SPAN, Japanese radio, and what was once known as web-TV.
“Rock Stars and Author Trading Cards: Tales from a Decade of Bookstore Events,” LitHub, September 24, 2021.
“Gladysz, Thomas. A Far From Complete History of Booksmith Author Cards.” Non-Sport Update Card Talk, August 6, 2021.
anonymous. “Cool Idea of the Day.” Shelf Awareness, September 26, 2011.
Champion, Edward. “Thomas Gladysz Laid Off from Booksmith.” Reluctant Habits, January 30, 2009.
Garchik, Leah. “Personals.” San Francisco Chronicle, January 27, 2009.
Stillman, Whit. “Book Tour Confidential.” Wall Street Journal, September 29, 2000.
“Kathy Acker 1944-1997.” Feminist Bookstore News, Winter 1998.
— “San Francisco bookseller Thomas Gladysz (The Booksmith) described her as ‘as interested in the plight of independent bookstores and the fee flow of ideas. I think she understood the relationship between the two’.”
Fost, Dan. “High-Tech Storytelling.” San Francisco Chronicle, November 12, 1998.
Tranter, John. “My Web: A Specialist’s Sites.” Sydney Morning Herald, May 30, 1998. (Australia)
Stamper, Chris. “Banned On The Web,” TIME. November 5, 1997.
Shapiro, Molly. “Voices of Young Booksellers.” American Bookseller, November 1, 1997.
E., Jonathan. “Booksmith vs. CyberPatrol.” Microtimes, 1997.
anonymous. “Internet Filter Program Blocks The Booksmith.” Bookselling This Week, July 28, 1997.
Garchik, Leah. “Personals – Assessing the Haight.” San Francisco Chronicle, November 13, 1997.
Mantell, Suzanne. “In the Shadow of the Giants.” UTNE Reader, Sept.-Oct. 1997.
“Celeb’s works are critic’s worst literary nightmares.” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 29, 1997.
Robbins, Cynthia. “Little booksellers big with readers.” San Francisco Examiner, July 21, 1996.
Casuso, Jorge. “Dusk of Aquarius.” Chicago Tribune, September 1, 1992.
— quoted in this article about the Haight Ashbury
