A Wake for New York’s Last Pirate Bookseller

The best such places will never make the pages of the NY Times. They and those involved in them exist all over the world. We can create our own lands out of our own life and space. No one can prevent any of us from dreaming and bringing them live via our homes, lands, confidants. I have entered worlds that I never knew existed in this way. They have forever changed my life.

Brazenhead ought to move to another rent controlled apartment. No, seriously, keep the place going somewhere else.

nice guy, mediocre books

"On a typical night, guests sipped Famous Grouse whisky from plastic cups ... while marijuana smoke leaked out from a discreet room containing Brazenhead’s first-edition collection." Was this a bookstore or some sort of speakeasy, or private salon for denizens of the Styles Section? And the odeur du dope must have been great for the First Editions too. That said, I agree totally with others who've said that NYC needs more bookstores, selling both used and new books, and could do without some of the over-priced corporate playgrounds for the uber-rich glitterati.

Running a commercial enterprise out of an apartment? And this is cheered by the NYTimes? Strangers entering and leaving the apartment at all hours? What about the safety of the building and neighbors? What about their rights to peacefully enjoy their own homes? What if every apartment dweller followed this practice?

There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away Nor any Coursers like a Page Of prancing Poetry. This Traverse may the poorest take Without oppress of Toll; How frugal is the Chariot That bears the Human Soul! - Emily Dickinson A bright light has gone out. We are all the poorer for this.

In 1971 there was a man who sold books on the sidewalk in front of his store clogged with books. This was in the West Village in NYC. I would stop to talk with him, an amazing man. That's the NYC I remember. Today I not only feel like I'm in a repetitive corporate owned stores and restaurants environment. There are no more stores owned by actual people, all the buildings are high-rises, all the facades are the same, and scaffolding of once familiar buildings are unrecognizable. In short, Manhattan is now one big shopping mall. The city I lived in and spent a lot of my adolescent years exploring is gone. I no longer have any desire to go there.

There was and still might be a used bookstore in South Pasadena, CA. A small house devoted to books. Years ago, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about the Endurance. I couldn't find the book anywhere so in desperation went to this quaint bookstore. I said, "You wouldn't happen to have a copy of 'Endurance,' would you?" The owner hesitated for a second before saying, "Yes, I think I do." Off he went to another room, coming back in a few minutes with the book, written in 1959! Later, I found out the book reviewed in the WSJ was a new book about Mr. Shackleton. I loved that bookstore and hope it is still there. Nothing like someone devoted to his books. We readers love this type of establishment.

There should be exceptions for people not driven by money who make so many happy. Like poachers in Scotland, this man deserved to be outside the law. Don't we all yearn to find magic places like this and don't we never forget them?

Love this story—a true NYC tale. We need more of this.

A New York memory: A date with a boy browsing the second hand bookstores on 4th Ave, stopping at Luchows for lunch and wending our way to the Museum of Modern Art uptown. The garden there was filled with pebbles (gravel?) and had umbrella topped tables. So informal. My favorite bookstore was Biblo & Tannen- loved the idea of a bookstore owned by a man named Biblo!

Does anyone know exactly where Mr. S’s bookstore was on Atlantic Ave in 1978? My family and I, committed bibliophiles, lived right around the corner from Atlantic Ave ( in sketchy at the time Cobble Hill, a bock away from then drug city Boerum Hill) in 1978, and before and aft that date and it will be very depressing to find out that we missed this marvelous person and his ditto bookstore.

What a charming vignette you've painted... and perhaps an "only in New York" thing too. City ordinances aside, it seems that it was more a haven for readers than a commercial enterprise. I find it hopeful that in this age of culturally valueless commercialism there are still people who valued books, and discussions of the ideas those books provoke. If Mr. Seidenberg profited from his endeavor, it seems that his patrons profited more. While we are all Amazoned to the brink of distracton, just think of Mr. Seidenberg, his little enterprise, and smile.

It sounds like book heaven to me. We live over my used bookstore, I get some people every day and they wander the stacks, listen to jazz and folk music and recreate what my twenties were like. We live in a house and our neighbors like us. I hope this booksellers’ last waking moments were surrounded by his books, I know I feel so safe here among the words of prophets, saints and sinners. Bound in simple paper, cloth, leather or elegant silk, books speak when their pages open to the right person. Pick up a book, sit in your chair, turn on the light, read, magic can happen. Michael Seidenberg, I didn’t know you in life, I hope to meet you on the other side.

One more nail in the coffin of a once-great city.

my god. what a fantastic legend.

We need more of this and less of that! (social media)

"He also believed in books as a social glue," amen.

Is this a joke? Running a book store out of a rent stabilized apartment? I would be pretty upset if this guy was my neighbor.

well that's very sad. i live on this block, and used to browse in his shop when it was in the basement space in the 80s. i'm also a bit peeved, as i didn't know he kept going out of his apartment! (i still have my french doors too!)

I'm no longer in New York but it would be a better city if there were more people like Seidenberg. I'd take a pirate bookstore over Starbucks, an app, or yet another Manhattan storefront vacancy any day.

Only in NYC! Love this story!