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

CPS in riverrun

1995

Chris Stephens early in his tenure as riverrun proprietor.

Chris was already a well established book dealer. He'd had several stores and assembled many scholarly collections of books for university libraries.

Chris took over riverrun early in 1994. He wasn't sure it would be his cup of tea, but by the time this picture was taken - long before actually - he'd realized that he and the store were perfect for each other.

Forrest Orick at riverrun

Forrest visits the bookstore his great-grandfather founded and his grandfather now owns and runs.

Lunch

A kind of ugly scene played itself out at riverrun today. It was after 12:30. Low blood sugar played a part.

Chris Stephens, riverrun proprietor, was locking the store door to go out for a much needed lunch break. This other guy, a potential customer, was getting out of his car in anticipation of a much needed book break. The men collided, metaphorically speaking.

The potential customer could not believe that Chris was denying access to the books.

Both men were driven to extremes of expression by their "much-neededs", but the potential customer had a point. If I were giving a course in retail 101, I would teach these lessons: Don't ever close the store during open hours, even briefly for lunch. Don't argue with potential customers.

Chris would fail that course. More to the point, Chris wouldn't sign up to take that course.

What do store proprietors owe their customers and potential customers?

Chris would say honest dealings. He'd probably also include owner expertise and an interesting inventory on a list of what the store owes. But strict adherence to posted hours wouldn't be there.

In spite of being closed occasionally and briefly for lunch, riverrun is great bookstore. It's open every single day of the year. Come visit. For sure you'll get honest dealings, a terrifically well-informed owner, and a mighty interesting stock.

Geri Rosenzweig reading at riverrun

photo by Dan Wilcox
May 18, 1986



I wasn't at this reading. My youngest daughter had just been born. I'm sorry I missed it though.
All these years later, my daughter is 23 now and I've just begun to read Rosenzweig's poetry. I love it.

People who know more about this kind of thing will have smarter things to say about poetry, but this is what I think.

Prose is designed for broadcast. People with a wide range of experience and thinking patterns can connect with something written in prose. Poetry is tighter, like a laser, or more romantically, like an arrow. The poems responder-audience is far narrower. Sometimes poems that resonate brilliantly with one person entirely miss another.
Between the right kind of person and their right kind of poetry, the poem penetrates deeper. The arrow goes right to the heart.

I'm on target for Rosenzweig's poetry. Right to my heart.


As always, Dan Wilcox's poetry blog is a treat.

more resources for Geri Rosenzweig:

G. R.'s introduction, The Music of What Happens, to her book Under the Jasmine Moon
Two Poems
The Cortland Review
The Youngest Daughter published in Barnwood
Barnwood Rosenzweig bio
from the Annals of Modern Medicine
some poems

Alicia Ostriker

3 photos by Dan Wilcox April 18, 1986

Alicia Ostriker read at riverrun s part of the Pomegranate Poetry Reading Series.

Dan Wilcox was there with his camera and observations.

Poetry Foundation Ostriker

Nude Descending

Poems For the Time

Three Poems

Dan Wilcox's blog - poetry, photos & commentary

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