Oscar Wilde Bookshop
Encyclopedia
Craig Rodwell
Craig L. Rodwell was an American gay rights activist known for founding the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop on November 24, 1967, the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors and as the prime mover for the creation of the New York City pride demonstration...
in 1967 as the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop. Initially located at 291 Mercer Street, it moved in 1973 to Christopher Street in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is named after gay author Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
.
History
Despite a limited selection of materials when the bookstore was first established, Rodwell refused to stock pornographyPornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
and instead favored literature by gay and lesbian authors.
In March 1968 Rodwell began publishing a monthly newsletter from the bookshop, calling it HYMNAL
Hymnal
Hymnal or hymnary or hymnbook is a collection of hymns, i.e. religious songs, usually in the form of a book. The earliest hand-written hymnals are known since Middle Ages in the context of European Christianity...
.
Early organizing meetings for the first Pride Parade 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...
were held at the bookshop in 1970.
Rodwell sold the bookshop in March of 1993 to Bill Offenbaker, three months before Rodwell's death of stomach cancer. Oscar Wilde Bookshop was scheduled to close on January 19, 2003 due to financial difficulties. Deacon Maccubbin, owner of Lambda Rising
Lambda Rising
Lambda Rising, an LGBT bookstore that operated from 1974 to 2010 in Washington, D.C..Founded by Deacon Maccubbin in 1974 with 250 titles, it was known for its wide selection of books, ranging from queer theory and religion to erotica, as well as DVDs, music CDs and gifts.The bookstore was...
bookstores, purchased the bookstore to prevent the historically significant bookstore from closing. The Advocate
The Advocate
The Advocate is an American LGBT-interest magazine, printed monthly and available by subscription. The Advocate brand also includes a web site. Both magazine and web site have an editorial focus on news, politics, opinion, and arts and entertainment of interest to LGBT people...
story on the scheduled closing failed to note that the founder of the Oscar Wilde Bookshop was Craig Rodwell
Craig Rodwell
Craig L. Rodwell was an American gay rights activist known for founding the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop on November 24, 1967, the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors and as the prime mover for the creation of the New York City pride demonstration...
, prompting a letter of correction from his former partner and first manager of the bookshop, Fred Sargeant. In 2006, the bookstore was purchased by longtime manager, Kim Brinster.
The bookstore closed on March 29, 2009, due to double-digit declines in sales caused by the economic crisis, according to Brinster.
Influence of Christian Science
Rodwell had been brought up in the Church of Christ, ScientistChurch of Christ, Scientist
The Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in 1879 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, by Mary Baker Eddy. She was the author of the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Christian Science teaches that the "allness" of God denies the reality of sin, sickness, death, and the material world...
(Christian Science). The roots of Rodwell's belief in gay liberation arose from his daily readings in Christian Science which stressed "the dignity of all things human and the importance of making things true by believing in them." Using the Christian Science example of community outreach and stressing the availability of literature that contained positive images of gays and lesbians, Rodwell modeled the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop after a Christian Science reading room.