How fitting to have such a nice tribute to Barbara Meade in the Washington Post.
Retiring yes, but slowing down, no! My first memory of Barbara was in 1999, when I walked into Politics and Prose looking for the paperback edition of Peter Guralnick’s Last Train to Memphis. Being a native Memphian, an early Elvis fan and the mother of a son born on January 8th, I come by my Elvis love naturally.
We had just moved to the DC Area. I had been in the book business in Nashville for several years, working as the marketing director for Davis Kidd, a four store indie chain also owned by two great women. The person helping me in Politics and Prose displayed such excellent customer service that I made note of that to another bookseller. He pointed out that in fact I had been dealing with the owner herself, Barbara Meade!
Barbara and I started chatting about the book business and mutual friends in the trade and before the transaction was complete, she had offered me a job! She had yet to see my resume. Thus began the long and wonderful partnership that I, and now Hooks Book Events, have had with Politics and Prose.
Hooks Book Events remains committed to the survival of the independent bookstore and we now work with three great indie stores — Parnassus in Nashville, Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, MA and P&P. We believe in the many benefits that indie stores bring to their communities and we are bullish on their survival. We hope that all reading this will keep shopping with us and thus with them.
So thank you Barbara, for taking a chance on me nearly 15 years ago.
Perry
