Word: book
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...suave photomurals and green fluorescentlit interior of Phillips' Book Store's new establishment which opened this week would make strange contrast with the store John Phillips started in 1914. He began with one shelf of second-hand books-in someone else's jewelry store...
Phillips was a graduate student from Nebraska. He had come to study philosophy under Harvard's "greats"-Santayana, Josiah Royee, William James-and he started the book shelf merely to help cover his expenses. It was a success, and in two years was bringing him $1000 beyond his living expenses. Phillips neglected his graduate studies-he didn't receive his Master's degree until 1928-and moved to a store...
...book shop Phillips' was unique-he ran it as a combination debating and browsers' rendezvous. There was no obligation to buy anything; in fact, when the boss got started on one of his frequent philosophical arguments, commercial activity virtually ceased. The store soon became a favorite gathering place for a number of eminent faculty men: Kittredge, Hocking, Irving Babbitt, and W. Y. Elliott among others. They used to drop in to talk with Phillips about books, philosophy, in fact about almost anything. The book merchant especially enjoyed popping one of a set of philosophical problems on his visitors and drawing...
Working under Phillips was something of an experience. According to Ellsworth Young, the present owner, "the store ran more on inspiration than system." For instance, Phillips had a fabulous memory for where he had put his books, and consequently felt no need for keeping them in any particular order on the shelves. The resulting jumble caused his assistants no end of trouble. Phillips also was as much concerned with having people interested in his books as he was with making sales. He would go to any length to turn up a particular edition of Dostoevski or an out-of-print...
Browsing around the Square, with an eye out for anything interesting, may be an easier way out. The Krockodiloes album, a book of Abner Dean or Charles Adams cartoons are pretty good possibilities...