Center for Fiction
Encyclopedia
- New York Mercantile Library redirects here
The Center for Fiction is a not-for-profit organization in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
at 17 East 47th Street
47th Street (Manhattan)
47th Street is an east-west running street between First Avenue and the West Side Highway in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Traffic runs one way along the street, from east to west, starting at the United Nations Headquarters....
, between Madison
Madison Avenue (Manhattan)
Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square to the Madison Avenue Bridge at 138th Street. In doing so, it passes through Midtown, the Upper East Side , Spanish Harlem, and...
and Fifth
Fifth Avenue (Manhattan)
Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the center of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. The section of Fifth Avenue that crosses Midtown Manhattan, especially that between 49th Street and 60th Street, is lined with prestigious shops and is consistently ranked among...
Avenues in Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan, or simply Midtown, is an area of Manhattan, New York City home to world-famous commercial zones such as Rockefeller Center, Broadway, and Times Square...
, which works to promote fiction and literature and to give support to writers. It was founded in 1820 as the (New York) Mercantile Library.
The Center, which is one of 17 remaining membership libraries in the United States, three of which are in New York City, maintains a large circulating library of 20th and 21st century fiction, in addition to many stored volumes of 19th century fiction. It also stocks non-fiction volumes on subjects related to literature. It maintains a Reading Room, operates a curated independent bookstore primarily featuring works of fiction, rents space to writers at low cost, and presents literary programs to the public. The organization also awards the annual Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize is an annual award presented by The Center for Fiction, a non-profit organization in New York City, to the best debut novel. Publishers nominate English-language works by first-time United States novelists. There is a two-tiered selection process for the...
, currently known as the Flaherty-Dunnam award.
History
The foundation of the Mercantile Library Association was instigated by the New York Chamber of CommerceChamber of commerce
A chamber of commerce is a form of business network, e.g., a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to advocate on behalf of the business community...
, which placed newspaper advertisements in November 1820 asking merchant clerks to meet at a local coffee house to discuss forming an organization based on the Mercantile Library
Mercantile Library Association (Boston, Massachusetts)
The Mercantile Library Association of Boston was an organization dedicated to operating a subscription library, reading room and lecture series. Members included James T. Fields and Edwin Percy Whipple...
in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, which had been created earlier that year. The purpose of the new organization was to provide the city's growing population of clerks with an alternative to what were considered to be immoral entertainments and other vices of the city.
The Association's first subscription circulating library, which had 700 volumes in rented rooms at 49 Fulton Street
Fulton Street (Manhattan)
Fulton Street is a busy street located in Lower Manhattan. It is in New York City's Financial District, a few blocks north of Wall Street. It runs from Church Street at the site of the World Trade Center to South Street, terminating in front of the South Street Seaport...
in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, was open to most of the general public, but only merchant clerks were allowed to vote for and be officers in the Association. In 1830, the library moved to a new building, called "Clinton Hall", at Nassau
Nassau Street (Manhattan)
Nassau Street is a street in the Financial District of the New York City borough of Manhattan, located near Pace University and New York City Hall. It starts at Wall Street and runs north to Frankfort Street at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, lying one block east of Broadway and east of Park Row...
and Beekman Streets, which the Clinton Hall Association, made up of prominent members of the Mercantile Library Association, has raised funds to construct. Frequent lectures were presented by the library, including by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
and Oliver Wendell Holmes.
By 1853, the Association had over 4,000 members and over 30,000 volumes, and in 1854, the library moved again, this time uptown to the Astor Opera House
Astor Opera House
__notoc__The Astor Opera House, also known as the Astor Place Opera House and later the Astor Place Theatre, was an opera house in Manhattan, New York City, located on Lafayette Street between Astor Place and East 8th Street...
building on Lafayette Street
Lafayette Street (Manhattan)
Lafayette Street is a major north-south street in New York City's Lower Manhattan, which runs roughly parallel to Broadway to the west. Originally, the part of the street below Houston Street was called Elm Place....
between Astor Place and East 8th Street. The opera house had closed its doors as a result of the Astor Place riot
Astor Place Riot
The Astor Place Riot occurred on May 10, 1849 at the now-demolished Astor Opera House in Manhattan, New York City and left at least 25 dead and more than 120 injured...
of 1849, and the building was sold for $140,000 to the Association, which renamed it "Clinton Hall" and moved the library there as a place which was more convenient to its members. At its new location, the Association offered classes and public lectures, including by Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
, William Thackeray, and Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
, and functioned as a cultural center. Membership during this period reached at least 12,000, while the library itself amassed 120,000 volumes, making it the largest circulating library in the United States at the time. However, because the library did not stay open late at night, its services were not generally available to the working class, a deficit which was remedied when the Cooper Union
Cooper Union
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly referred to simply as Cooper Union, is a privately funded college in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States, located at Cooper Square and Astor Place...
opened a block east on Astor Place: its reading room was open until 10 p.m.
In 1891, requiring more space, the Association tore down the opera house and replaced it with an 11-story building designed by George E. Harney, which it also named "Clinton Hall". The new building featured a reading room on the top floor that was two-stories high, and was to remain the headquarters for its library operations, which included 7 branches, until 1920, when it relocated to rented space. However, in 1932, the library once again had its own building, at 17 East 47th Street
47th Street (Manhattan)
47th Street is an east-west running street between First Avenue and the West Side Highway in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Traffic runs one way along the street, from east to west, starting at the United Nations Headquarters....
, designed by Henry Otis Chapman. Here, the Association maintained its 230,000 volumes to serve 3,000 subscribers. The library at this time still had branches at 149 Broadway
Broadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
at Liberty Street and 598 Madison Avenue at 57th Street
57th Street (Manhattan)
57th Street is one of New York City's major east-west thoroughfares, which runs east-west in the Midtown section of the borough of Manhattan, from the New York City Department of Sanitation's dock on the Hudson River at the West Side Highway to a small park overlooking the East River built on a...
.
Membership in the library declined through the following decades, and the library sold off parts of its collection in the 1970s. It also attempted a merger with Pace College, but this did not occur. By 1987 the library was in financial distress, and closed for the summer of 1987, and then indefinitely in 1989, at a time when its membership was only 375 people. The Association subsequently reorganized and reopened, with a new focus on fiction and literature.
In 1998, the ground floor of the building was renovated by Beyer Blinder Belle
Beyer Blinder Belle
Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners LLP is an international architecture firm. It is based in New York City and has an additional office in Washington, DC. The firm's name is derived from the three founding partners: John H. Beyer, Richard Blinder, and John Belle. The three architects met...
. The library – colloquially known as "The Merc" – had considered moving to a new location in 2008, but subsequently decided to remain at its historic Midtown Manhattan location.
Now known as The Center for Fiction, the organization presents a diverse program of free or low-cost public events, featuring over 100 authors, translators, and critics each year. The Center also offers reading groups and writing workshops, open to the public, led by writers and scholars.
See also
- Mercantile Library (disambiguation)
- Mercantile Library Association (Boston, Massachusetts)Mercantile Library Association (Boston, Massachusetts)The Mercantile Library Association of Boston was an organization dedicated to operating a subscription library, reading room and lecture series. Members included James T. Fields and Edwin Percy Whipple...
- New York Public LibraryNew York Public LibraryThe New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
- Astor Library Building