John K. King Books

Last updated
John K. King Used & Rare Books
IndustryBooks
FounderJohn K. King
Headquarters901 West Lafayette,
Detroit, Michigan
,
U.S.
Number of locations
2
Area served
 Detroit metropolitan area
Key people
John K. King
Website www.kingbooksdetroit.com
Interior John K. King Books (interior).jpg
Interior

John K. King Used & Rare Books is an independent bookseller in Michigan. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

Independent bookstore retail bookstore which is independently owned

An independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned. Usually, independent stores consist of only a single actual store. They may be structured as sole proprietorships, closely held corporations or partnerships, cooperatives, or nonprofits. Independent stores can be contrasted with chain bookstores, which have many locations and are owned by large corporations which often have other divisions besides bookselling.

Michigan U.S. state in the United States

Michigan is a state in the Great Lakes and Midwestern regions of the United States. The state's name, Michigan, originates from the Ojibwe word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake". With a population of about 10 million, Michigan is the tenth most populous of the 50 United States, with the 11th most extensive total area, and is the largest state by total area east of the Mississippi River. Its capital is Lansing, and its largest city is Detroit. Metro Detroit is among the nation's most populous and largest metropolitan economies.

Contents

The store has an estimated 1 million books in stock, with a large collection of rare and used titles. [9] In a 2011 article from the online magazine Salon, the store was described as "one of the largest and strangest collections in North America". [6]

The store has four above-ground floors open to customers. An adjacent building has a collection of rarer and notable items available for viewing by appointment only. The rare book holdings are the only cataloged part of the inventory and can be viewed and ordered by visiting rarebooklink.com.

History

The store was established in Dearborn, Michigan by John K. King in 1965. [10] In 1971 it was moved to the Michigan Theatre in downtown Detroit. [10] In 1983 King purchased the abandoned Advance Glove factory, which has since housed the store's collections. [6] [11] Later[ when? ], two smaller stores were opened: John K. King Books North in Detroit's Ferndale suburb and The Big Book Store in the Cass Corridor neighborhood, adjacent to Wayne State University, specializing in rare comics and paperbacks.

Dearborn, Michigan City in Michigan, United States

Dearborn is a city in the State of Michigan. It is located in Wayne County and is part of the Detroit metropolitan area. Dearborn is the eighth largest city in the State of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 98,153 and is home to the largest Muslim population in the United States. First settled in the late 18th century by ethnic French farmers in a series of ribbon farms along the Rouge River and the Sauk Trail, the community grew in the 19th century with the establishment of the Detroit Arsenal on the Chicago Road linking Detroit and Chicago. In the 20th century, it developed as a major manufacturing hub for the automotive industry.

Cass Corridor Neighborhood of Detroit in Wayne, Michigan

The Cass Corridor is the name of the neighborhoods on the west end of Midtown Detroit, Michigan. The term was more commonly used prior to the neighborhood's cultural erasure and displacement of residents. It includes the Cass Park Historic District, the Cass-Davenport Historic District and Old Chinatown. The corridor's main street, Cass Avenue, runs parallel with M-1, a main Detroit artery running north toward New Center. Though Cass runs from Congress Street, ending a few miles farther north at West Grand Boulevard, the Cass Corridor generally is defined as between Interstate 75 (I-75) at its southern end and Interstate 94 (I-94) to the north, and stretches from Woodward to the east and to the west: John C. Lodge north of Temple, and Grand River Avenue south of Temple.

Wayne State University American university in Detroit, Michigan

Wayne State University (WSU) is an American public research university located in Detroit, Michigan. It is the third largest university in Michigan. Founded in 1868, WSU consists of 13 schools and colleges offering nearly 350 programs to more than 27,000 graduate and undergraduate students. Wayne State University, along with the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, comprise the University Research Corridor of Michigan.

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References

  1. ↑ James, Sheryl (April 7, 2002). "Hunting rare books a rarely profitable pursuit". Knight Ridder Newspapers. Retrieved May 10, 2012. ... John K. King Books in Detroit, one of the nation's biggest and best-known used, rare and out-of-print book dealers.
  2. ↑ Clemens, Paul (June 26, 2005). "A City of Hard Knocks and Hardwood". The New York Times . Retrieved May 10, 2012. For every hour I've spent at King's, I've heard the same three-word phrase repeated to customers a dozen times: We're not computerized.
  3. ↑ Narkiewicz, Beverly S. (1990). "Traveling by the Book: The Dusty Joys of Secondhand Shops". The Washington Post . Washingtonpost Newsweek Interactive. Archived from the original on 2014-10-07. ... you'll find John K. King Used and Rare Books, a palace of pleasure if you love old books(subscription required)
  4. ↑ "The Real Deals - Readers' Choice - Best of Detroit". Detroit Metro Times . April 27, 2011. Best Indie Bookstore in Detroit
  5. ↑ "King's used bookstore survives Internet push". The Detroit News . October 12, 2006. King's massive retail inventory is not online -- it wouldn't be cost-effective, he says -- but its rare books are at rarebooklink.com.[ dead link ]
  6. 1 2 3 Cytron, Megan (May 15, 2011). "The world's most inspiring bookstores". Salon . Retrieved May 10, 2012. Converted from an abandoned 1940s glove factory, John King is a five-story wooden maze stuffed stairwells-to-ceilings with used and rare books — one of the largest and strangest collections in North America.
  7. ↑ Herron, Kevin (April 3, 2000). "Unique shops give Detroit its own flavor.(Brief Article)". Crain's Detroit Business. Retrieved May 10, 2012. A Detroit institution[ dead link ](subscription required)
  8. ↑ "10 Great Places to Crawl Between the Covers". USA Today . January 21, 2002. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  9. ↑ Hyde, Justin (July 19, 1999). "Bookseller Collects Used Volumes". Associated Press. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved May 9, 2012. King's world includes as many as 1 million books housed in a converted glove factory, filling four stories in an industrial area near downtown.(subscription required)
  10. 1 2 Zynel, rachel (March 25, 2012). "Sentimental scent of used books embraces you at John King". Oakland University News Bureau. Retrieved May 10, 2012. King opened his first store in Dearborn in 1965, and then moved to the Michigan Theater in 1971.
  11. ↑ Loren D. Estleman; Monte Nagler (30 August 2007). Amos Walker's Detroit. Wayne State University Press. pp. 5–. ISBN   978-0-8143-3357-0 . Retrieved 10 May 2012. That was when John King bought it, tore out most of the partitions, reinforced the interior walls, and filled it top to bottom with books on every subject ...

Coordinates: 42°19′38.51″N83°3′24.21″W / 42.3273639°N 83.0567250°W / 42.3273639; -83.0567250

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

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