^ Santora, Marc 'Plot Twist for a Gay Bookstore: The Last Chapter Actually Isn't' New York Times FebruRetrieved January 3, 2011.

^ Santor, Marc 'Hard Words for a Bookshop: The End.' New York Times.

Rodwell, 52, Pioneer for Gay Rights New York Times obituaries (June 20, 1993). '1970: A First-Person Account of the First Gay Pride March.' The Village Voice. Journalism and Publishing Archived at the Wayback Machine, GLBTQ Encyclopedia (October 13, 2007).

^ 'Venerable Gay Bookstore Will Close' The New York Times.^ 'Last Minute Oscar Wilde Reprieve' Gay City News.^ Craig Rodwell Papers, 1940-1993, New York Public Library (1999).23 (Ma– republished April 19, 2010) Archived June 30, 2010, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved June 16, 2010. ^ a b Howard Smith's Scenes column, Village Voice, March 21, 1968, Vol.

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 Christian Science Reading Rooms. The roots of Rodwell's belief in ' gay liberation' arose from his daily readings of Christian Science literature which stressed the dignity of every human being regardless of sexual identity. Rodwell was brought up as a member of the Christian Science church. It was part of a spate of LGBT brick and mortar bookstores closures in the early 21st century, including Lambda Rising's Washington store and A Different Light in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The bookstore closed on March 29, 2009, due to double-digit declines in sales caused by the economic crisis amid extreme competition with online book sellers, according to Brinster. In 2006, the bookstore was purchased by longtime manager, Kim Brinster. The Advocate story on the scheduled closing failed to note that the founder of the Oscar Wilde Bookshop was Craig Rodwell, prompting a letter of correction from his former partner and first manager of the bookshop, Fred Sargeant. Deacon Maccubbin, owner of Lambda Rising bookstores, purchased it to prevent the historically significant bookstore from closing. In January 2003 Lingle announced that the bookshop would close due to financial difficulties. In June 1996 Offenbaker sold the store to Larry Lingle. Rodwell sold the bookshop in March 1993 to Bill Offenbaker, three months before Rodwell's death of stomach cancer. Įarly organizing meetings for the first Pride Parade in New York City were held at the bookshop in 1970. In March 1968 Rodwell began publishing a monthly newsletter from the bookshop, calling it HYMNAL.

And Oscar Wilde was the most obvious at the time, so I called it the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop. So I tried to think of the most prominent person whose name I could use who is most readily identifiable as a Homosexual by most people, someone who's sort of a pseudo-martyr. I wanted a name that would tell people what the shop was about. On how he chose the shop's name, Rodwell said: Despite a limited selection of materials when the bookstore was first established, Rodwell refused to stock pornography and instead favored literature by gay and lesbian authors. Rodwell did not consider himself to be a bookseller businessman but, rather, a person who at the age of 13 set out to help change the world's view of gay people and of gay people's own self-image. The main thing was to be out on the street.

I wanted the Society to set up a combination bookstore, counseling services, fund-raising headquarters, and office. I was trying to get the (Mattachine) Society to be out dealing with the people instead of sitting in an office. Pictured are Fred Sargeant (l.) and Craig Rodwell (r.).Īs a member and vice president of the Mattachine Society, Rodwell sought to make Mattachine more visible to gays and society at large by opening a storefront to cater to the growing local gay community in Greenwich Village, saying: Advertisement for the Bookshop which ran in Queen's Quarterly magazine in 1968.

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