one riverrun stands alone

Frank Scioscia signed the lease for riverrun bookstore in 1978.  He loved the wooden floors and tin roof and, most importantly, the long open space for books. Shelves went up.  Books poured in.

A few years later the store was filled beyond reasonable capacity.

A storefront across the street became available, and Scioscia grabbed it.  We all joked about naming it “overrun”.

When Scioscia’s son-in-law, Chris Stephens, took over in 1994 he loaded books from his own book operations into both buildings and set up his desk on the south side.

For more than 30 years these 2 stores together were riverrun.  Customers would run back and forth across Washington Ave, gathering armloads of good books.

Now, the original store, the one on the north side of the street, is empty.  riverrun on the south side of the street carries on, like a lone twin.

It was incredibly hard to give up the north side but in the spring of 2012 we had to.  The landlord’s insurance company would not renew unless the structure supporting the floor was reinforced.  To reinforce the floor, the store had to be empty.  All those shelves.  All those books.

Now one could roller skate through the ghost-sections of philosophy  and cinema and fiction.  If one knew how to roller skate.

For books though, for really wonderful books, come to riverrun on the south side of the street.  12 Washington Avenue.

Ernest, Frank, Reynolds, and Toni

unknown photographer 1975

Ernest J. Gaines and Frank A. Scioscia

                                                                  Reynolds Price and Toni Morrison

     Usually the Literature Advisory Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts meets in Washington DC.

     July 1975 they met in Big Sur, a particularly majestic section of the California coast. Not a bad place to meet and discuss the majesty of literature and how to encourage it.

      Some of the members of the panel are pictured here. Links below tell more about the pictured author-members.

warming and inspiring article about Reynolds Price and his students in Duke University newspaper

http://dukechronicle.com/article/reynolds-prices-students-recall-storied-writers-magic

Angelfire list of all Reynolds Price's publications + personal info

http://www.angelfire.com/nc/ReynoldsPrice/

Academy of Achievement biography pf Ernest J. Gaines includes vivid pictures
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/gai0bio-1

a more personal article on Price from Los Angeles Times while he was still alive and well
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-ca-reynolds-price24-2009may24,0,7037737.story

The Official Website of the Nobel Prize - Toni Morrison biography
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1993/morrison-bio.html

Distinguished Women of the Past & Present presents a very interesting biography of Toni Morrison
http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/morrison.html

slide show of 9 recent Jennifer Zdon photos of Ernest J. Gaines
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/10/20/us/Gaines.html

accompanying article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/us/21gaines.html?_r=1

FAS at the National Endowment for the Arts

In 1974, a couple of years before he founded riverrun, and while he was still working at Harper & Row, Frank Scioscia was invited to serve on the Literature Advisory Panel of
the National

Endowment for the Arts.

What an honor! He accepted. Who wouldn't?

I think Fran McCullough - on the Panel herself at the time - recommended him.

The invitation was signed by Nancy Hanks, the Chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Arts from 1969 to 1977. Perhaps she could better be called the Queen of the Arts. She built up the federal program and earlier was behind the scenes at the inception in 1964. Before the inception actually. She worked with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund helping to lay the groundwork for what was to become the National Endowment for the Arts. She was a remarkable woman. And she signed Scioscia's letter! Not that a signature on an official letter represents much of a relationship, I guess. I'm posting it though.

Frank got a very big kick out of serving on the panel.

Later he did have more than a signature; he had a very substantial and treasured friendship with a different Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts: Dana Gioia.

Gioia was Chairman from 2001 to 2009. He instituted all sorts of dynamic and satisfying projects for us. For us citizens. I have two special favorites: the Big Read - almost a national book club - and the veterans' memoir writing project.

Dana Gioia ambled into riverrun bookstore one day. It was just exactly his kind of store. Gioia was just exactly Scioscia's kind of customer. The men hit it off immediately. Both had unlimited interests. Both were down-to-earth kind of guys.

When they met a short time later, the two Marys, their wives, hit it off as well. Dana and Mary Gioia moved to Hastings on Hudson. They were up the hill and slightly south along the aqueduct from riverrun.

The way I choose to remember it is that Dana said, "I want to live in a place that has a bookstore like this," and his Mary agreed.

Frank Scioscia did not live long enough to see Dana Gioia become Chairman of the Endowment for the Arts but it wouldn't have surprised him.

That appointment would have been the absolute only thing about George Bush that Scioscia could have applauded. And he would have applauded mightily.

more about the National Endowment for the Arts

http://www.nea.gov/

how to apply for a grant in literature

http://www.nea.gov/grants/apply/Lit.html

Art Works article on Dana Gioia

http://www.nea.gov/chairman/gioia-bio.html

A whole bunch of fascinating video clips on Big Think, of Dana Gioia chatting about different things that interest him. http://bigthink.com/danagioia

Book Rags biography of Nancy Hanks

http://www.bookrags.com/biography/nancy-hanks/

FAS at the Indian Pageant on Mt. Hood 1948

Frank Scioscia always had something to read in his pocket or some place nearby. Books everywhere actually. Even at Max Gilroy's Indian Pageant with Umatilla Indians on Mt. Hood.

Max, with his wife, Virginia, built a fort up in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. For a couple of summers, 1948 & 1949 I think, Max orchestrated a pageant with plays and native dances.

Max and Virginia Gilroy and Frank and Mary Scioscia were friends at Reed College together. Both men came to Reed fresh from their World War II experiences. Both women came fresh from their straight A high school experiences. Max recruited the Scioscias and others for his pageant. Those were grand summers.

One of the Umatilla women made Scioscia a wonderful leather shirt. It's still in the family. Just like the books.

Umatilla Indians

http://www.umatilla.nsn.us/history.html

Max Gilroy's son, Scott has an interesting page: http://members.shaw.ca/sgilroy/main.htmll

Max Gilroy wrote a newspaper column called The Old Dropout. A short-cut to some of those:

http://members.shaw.ca/gilroys/dropout.html

Virginia also wrote interesting stuff based on the unusual scenery of her life, but she never published, therefore, unfortunately, no link.

Bookstore

photo November 1979

Frank Scioscia moved his Dobbs Ferry Bookstore to Hastings on Hudson in 1978. He named his new store riverrun.

riverrun is an inviting store. On the day of this picture though, two of Frank's grandchildren preferred to read outside the store in the bright sunshine.

Mary, almost 6 in this photo, grew up and spent several years cataloguing books and organizing shows for riverrun. Michael, just turned 9 in the photo, is now the manager of riverrun. Like his grandfather and his father, Michael loves the store.

Back then riverrun was a hobby, not really a business, for Frank. He put considerably more money into the store than he took out. But it was worth it. riverrun was a hobby he truly loved. Everyone did.

Not a business and, after all, not a hobby either. riverrun was Frank Scioscia's calling.

Harper & Brothers Publishers

probably 1950s

This curiously-styled photograph is likely taken at the Harper offices, then on 44th Street in NYC. I think these men make up the national sales force. Frank Scioscia is seated all the way to the right. I almost remember the name of the man seated next to him. But who are the others?

H.B.L.S.S.

photo by

Herb Allen

November 1948

Reading

Shel Silverstein thanks FAS

Shel Silverstein spent time in riverrun. He came up to the house too. He was comfortable with Frank Scioscia.

Silverstein signed lots of books to Frank. This - Now here's my Plan - has one of Chris Stephens all-time favorite cartoons on the cover.

google images for Shel Silverstein

americanpoems.com

song writer legacy recordings

famous poets and poems.com

Ralph Fasanella, Artist

Ralph Fasanella used to enjoy hanging around riverrun and chatting with Frank Scioscia. The men were both sons of Italian immigrants. Both were sympathetic to unions and mistrustful of management. Fasanella was as tickled as Scioscia that riverrun bookstore was in the old Anaconda union hall.

Fasanella died a few years after Scioscia did but, in a way, they're both still there. Even now there's a New York Times article about Fasanella pinned up on the bookshelf, just where Scioscia put it some years ago.

Chris Stephens found some Fasanella posters for sale shortly after he took over the bookstore. He liked them. He bought them all. Ralph was happy to sign each of the posters over relaxed, pleasant conversation with Chris.

Ralph was still coming into the store to talk art, talk books, talk politics, talk unions, talk memories.

Fasanella art images

NY Times article on Fasanella

Art work for sale on artnet

Frank Scioscia leaves riverrun

In the rose-filled June of 1993 Frank Scioscia enjoyed life. He argued politics, discussed new authors, played bocce with friends, and read Daniel Deronda aloud with his wife, Mary.
Scioscia was sparklingly engaged at riverrun. Anyone who saw him there could plainly see he would never leave riverrun as long as he had breath left to draw.
But that’s just it. He didn’t. On July 10, 1993 Frank Scioscia died.
Everyone found it hard to believe because he was so packed with vitality. When I told a customer acquaintance 2 weeks later, he argued with me.
“No,no. He couldn’t have. I just saw him Tuesday, I think it was Tuesday. He was playing bocce down by the railroad tracks.”
It was a lead, he thought. I was mistaken and could start my search at the railroad tracks. Don’t worry. He’d turn up.
Frank’s death pained many. One of the most moving reactions came to me from a stranger’s disembodied voice.
I’d gone down to riverrun and left a short note on the front door. I also put a message on the store answering machine. “riverrun bookstore is temporarily closed. The owner, Frank Scioscia, died on July 10 of a heart attack. The family will reopen and operate the store sometime soon.”
Later I listened to messages. One was a long silence followed by a shocked whisper not meant for me.

“Oh my god.” Click.

Hudson River

June 1984

Two book dealers, Frank Scioscia and Peter Howard, at the Hudson River.

Dobbs Ferry Bookstore

Gregory, Michael and Mary Stephens  Dobbs Ferry Bookstore
December 1974

Frank Scioscia's first bookstore was called Dobbs Ferry Bookstore. Scioscia didn't know if he should open a store but his son, Charles, encouraged him. Charles found the storefront for rent.

"$110 per month," Charles says. We signed the lease in spring of 1974." Charles helped Frank build bookshelves. I painted the sign. "Dobbs Ferry Bookstore" Dark blue on white. The letters were a little lopsided even though I was theoretically plenty mature enough to make proper sign letters.

Frank had lots of fun with the store. In no time though, he needed more space. He moved to Washington Avenue in Hastings in 1978. His new store was named riverrun.

riverrun is a very good name for the store in a number of ways. FAS loved the majestic Hudson River that lay just on the other side of the railroad tracks from the new store. He liked the literary connection in this name too.

Frank Scioscia and Chris Stephens thought of the name together. Their ideas got so intermingled in the animated and hilarious naming discussions that each thought he'd come up with the name for the store.

riverrun. It's the first word, also uncapitalized, in Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce. Scioscia and Stephens were both Joyce enthusiasts. So was Frank's brother, John Socia of Old York Bookstore in New Brunswick NJ. The word fit perfectly. riverrun

W. S. Merwin at riverrun

photo by Christopher P. Stephens May 1983

Wiliam Stanley Merwin read his poetry to an appreciative crowd at riverrun in 1983.

W.S. Merwin, poet, and F.A. Scioscia, riverrun proprietor, met at the reading, but they may have met unknowingly earlier. They overlapped. Merwin spent part of his childhood in Scranton Pennsylvania, where Scioscia spent his entire childhood.

Scranton is surrounded by ancient hills. When these men were children, and even later when I was a child, acres of slag from the coal mines lay in the outskirts of the city. Nothing grew on these slag heaps. Blue flames of slow combustion shimmered over them continually. The slag was on fire for decades.

Merwin and Scioscia had something else in common besides this coincidence of childhood location. The men had a similar characteristic manner, a similar largeness of connections. Some people called it an aura, some a gentleness of spirit.

Not me though. Aura or whatever, I think those were fierce spirits. They were forceful and swiftly moving, like mighty rivers.

Their spirits raged but each man interacted with others in a way that was disarmingly gentle. Maybe that combination is what makes poetry.

When Merwin read at riverrun, he already had quite a reputation as a prolific translator, a Literary Soldier against the U.S. war in Vietnam, an early environmentalist and, most importantly, a sterling poet.

Poetry.org Academy of American Poets

Modern American Poetry merwin

Steven Barclay Agency article on Merwin

19 minute audio interview

A Tribute to Six Important Fathers on Fathers' Day

July 1988

FRANK SCIOSCIA - Father of riverrun bookstore

FAS is shown here with his 2 oldest grandchildren - themselves now the fathers of my very fine grandchildren.

GEORGE WASHINGTON - father of our country

CHRISTOPHER P. STEPHENS - Current proprietor of riverrun as well as the remarkable father of my remarkable children.

JOHANNES GUTENBERG - Father of Modern Printing

Frank Scioscia - Harper & Row

Frank Scioscia was a sales representative for Harper & Brothers from summer 1956 to spring 1966. His territory was Southern California and Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. He liked the travel. His accounts were stores that carried new books, but he always stopped in at the used bookstores wherever he went.

In 1966 Frank was promoted to the head office in New York. Frank Scioscia worked at Harpers until he retired. He worked through mergers that changed the name of the publishing house from Harper & Bros to Harper & Row to Harper Collins.

Frank Scioscia enjoyed the publishing world in NYC, but he always a little bit missed the life of a publishers sales rep.

Frank Scioscia in riverrun

1989 photo by Herb Levart (art book dealer)

July 1979

     This is Frank Scioscia's office at Harper & Row Publishers.  He spent the day showing his grandson around Harper's.  At the moment of this photo Michael is trying out Frank Scioscia's chair.     The chair feels just right.  So do the piles of books all around.   

The Scioscia Brothers

Frank Scioscia, founder of riverrun, comes from a big family. He's the 7th of 12 children; the 4th of 6 brothers. Their father loved books and newspapers.

Frank is pictured here with his 2 younger brothers, Donald and Carl in May of 1980. They're talking books.

Donald and Frank both worked at J.K. Gills Bookstore in Portland Oregon in the 1950s. By the 1980s, each had his own small bookstore: riverrun and Books and Things.

Carl Scioscia had an executive position in the Harper & Row distribution warehouse in

Scranton, PA. Fran McCullough used to say it was a startling pleasure to see these two brothers at a sales conference, ironing out distribution problems together.

One of the older Scioscia brothers, Vance, didn't make a career of books. Vance didn't make a career of cattle ranching in the west either, which is what he'd always intended as a kid.

The oldest brother, John, did make a career in books. He opened a store in New Brunswick, NJ called Old York Bookstore.

Another brother, Gabriel, was a teacher and a union agitator. Decades ago Frank Scioscia and I spent about an hour with Gabriel, not in jail exactly but confined in different small interrogation rooms of a police station. We were all picked up because we were distributing Gabriel's pamphlets at a strip mall. The pamphlets advocated the formation of a teacher union. Apparently these policemen had no notion of the concept of free speech.

The Scioscia Brothers enjoyed one another's company. They played bocce, argued politics, and discussed books.

note: unremembered photographers - not LSS

Frank Scioscia at Old Oregon Bookstore

July 1979 - unknown photographer

Here Frank Scioscia is visiting his old friend, Mac McMann at Mac's bookstore, The Old Oregon, in Portland Oregon.

Dana Gioia

2 b&w photos - photo credit Christopher P. Stephens 

 Dana Gioia and Frank Scioscia in front of riverrun 1984

     Dana Gioia discovered riverrun shortly after the store opened.  He and Frank Scioscia became fast friends.  They were a generation apart but they shared a way of thinking about books, authors, readers and life.

     Dana's wife, Mary Gioia, and Frank's wife, Mary Scioscia also became close friends.  The two Marys  belonged to the Hastings Literature Club which celebrates its 100th year anniversary this autumn.   The couples saw each other often.

     When they moved to Hastings both Dana and Mary Gioia worked in management at General Foods.  Dana Gioia kept his poetry on low profile, really no-profile, at GF.  In a parallel world to his work there, his poems were being widely published.   The way I remember this story (but have not been able to corroborate) is that Esquire Magazine ran an article, in the early 1980s,  on the most promising young new poets.  Dana Gioia was named as one of the best.

      The poetry-cat was out of the bag.  Some people had trouble reconciling excellence in poetry with his excellence in business but it was disparate talents like these that later made him so exceptional a Chairman at the National Endowment for the Arts.

     He became the Chairman in 2003, when the organization was riven by external controversy and internal confusion.  He was enthusiastic about art for the widest public.  He introduced great programs like memoir and poetry by returning soldiers, the nation-wide reading project - The Big Read,  community Shakespeare, and more.

     Dana Gioia left the National Endowment for the Arts this January.  He stopped and visited riverrun "on his way" to California.

     I wonder what he will do next.  With his many interests, his many talents, I bet it will be another something big.

Some students at Lyceum Kennedy in NYC enjoying The Big Read with Fahrenheit 451

Dana Gioia's poetry collections: Interrogations at Noon,  Gods of Winter,  Daily Horoscope

Gioia's other books:  Disappearing Ink,  Can Poetry Matter?, Barrier of Language

There are many other articles, essays, poems, anthologies, translations and also libretti

Dana Gioia's website

some video clips of Gioia

a very interesting excerpt from a commencement speech given by Gioia and printed in WSJ