Phila. gay bookstore Giovanni's Room marks 35 years

Months before he died in 1987, author James Baldwin showed up, unannounced, at Giovanni's Room, the gay bookstore named after his landmark homosexual love story from the mid-1950s. "I was flabbergasted," owner Ed Hermance recalls. "He looked around, autographed some books. It was over in 10 minutes." Ten minutes and 10 years, to be precise. That's how long Hermance and his former business partner, Arleen Olshan, had been after Baldwin to visit Giovanni's, a fixture at 12th and Pine Streets. "We wrote, we called, we hounded him - just like we did everybody else," Olshan says. That persistence is what has kept the lights on at Giovanni's in an era when independent bookstores everywhere are going dark. Opened in 1973, Giovanni's marked its 35th anniversary Wednesday with a nostalgic soiree. Most Philadelphians are unaware that... [read full story]