Quaint Local Bookstores Are Not a Dying Breed
Bookstores are rare mines of literary riches all recognized in the tangible embrace of a published piece of writing, whatever the genre.
Jessica Osborne works in such a haven at E. Shaver, Bookseller on 326 Bull Street, which operates under her management and the watchful eyes of her two rescue cats, one-year-old brothers Eliot and Bartleby. So appropriately named after T.S. Eliot and Herman Melville’s short story of the same name, the two felines freely roam the shop, chasing their scrunched up wads of paper as guests wander around the shop.
E. Shaver, Bookseller was the brainchild of Esther and Ed Shaver, who moved to Savannah in 1974. One year later in 1975, they opened their own bookshop which remained under Mrs. Shaver’s care until her retirement last year. The shop is open seven days a week, and tourists and local literary enthusiasts wander in and out of E. Shaver’s doors any given day.
Osborne, a lover of poet and essayist Anne Carson, had worked for Esther Shaver for four years prior to her retirement. She has run E. Shaver ever since, though she admits the job is slightly more demanding than she had anticipated. Running the shop is not unlike managing any retail store, and keeping her collection of hand-picked books occupies most of her time. Every single book visitors see on the shelves in E. Shaver is hand-picked by Osborne and her team. With selling the specially selected pieces, she as well as her staff must remain knowledgeable of their collection.
“We have a little bit of everything,” Osborne explained when discussing E. Shaver’s selection. “We definitely have a lot of tourists who come in, and we couldn’t do without them. We have a lot of SCAD students who come in who just want to see the cats.”
Then there are the local customers for whom Osborne and her team can order books. Osborne knows her regular customers well enough to recommend different reads tailored to their preferences. As for her own taste in reading materials, Osborne says she dabbles in a variety of genres, including poetry and obscure English novels. During my visit, she recommended to me a couple of her favorites from Carson, such as, “Autobiography of Red,” and “Eros the Bittersweet.”
Despite being shrouded by shelves of literature almost constantly, Osborne says she actually does not have as much time to read as she would prefer. Flipping through Carson’s “Beauty of the Husband” amid an ample selection of E. Shaver’s rhythmic literary works, I can’t say I blame her. Why, if I had all my weekends free, I would spent them absorbing each of Carson’s publications along with the entire shelf devoted to poetry’s finest.
Having the right books at the right time is the biggest challenge for Osborne, and foot traffic depends heavily on what is happening in town, she said. One thing she never tires of is helping people who come in find the perfect book, and she thoroughly enjoys turning readers on to new material.
E. Shaver’s website was recently given a makeover which now includes an interactive layout and navigation with more clarity and efficiency. Osborne also updates and manages their social media which includes Facebook and Instagram accounts.
“I just want it to be a community where people come and are happy to be here, and think of us before they order a book on Amazon,” Osborne said. “I would love for us to be that iconic bookstore, one of the biggies.”
Osborne hopes to host more book signings from local authors as E. Shaver expands its calendar of literary events and author visits. Her goals for her charming shop overlooking Madison Square amount to being an active presence in the Savannah community for another forty years.
Books aren’t dead. Reading will never exit our vernacular of leisure. Everything seems efficiently digital today, except for the fulfillment that comes from grasping the page of a book. That E. Shaver was able to persevere while other bookstore chains struggled says a lot about the presence of bookshops in reading’s otherwise digital realm. Visitors are often delighted by the pure enchantment of being in a real bookshop, and Osborne feels such venues are making a slow resurgence. As both an avid writer and reader, I completely agree.
