After suffering two major setbacks in the past four months—a five-alarm fire destroyed the Book Cellar in Brattleboro, Vt., in April, and flooding from Tropical Storm Irene that ruined Bartleby’s Books in Wilmington, Vt., last month—the stores' co-owner Lisa Sullivan posted on the BookCellarVt.com Web site that Bartleby’s will reopen. The store was founded in 1948. However, 22-year-old Book Cellar will remain closed indefinitely.
“We have lost the majority of our inventory as well as all of our shelving [at Bartleby’s] and we’ll require extensive renovations, but the building is sound and we are one of the more fortunate sites in the village,” wrote Sullivan. “Some buildings washed away down river and others have been condemned. The incredible strength and support that we have experienced over the last few days has been the lifeline we’ve needed. Friends and neighbors have come together to help our community. The downtown businesses are getting cleaned up more quickly with so much volunteer help.”
In addition to volunteers assisting Sullivan by removing damaged inventory and fixtures from Bartleby’s, one, who met Sullivan through the Southern Vermont Deerfield Valley Relief Support Network Facebook page, contacted the liquidation company for Borders and donated books, according to the Rutland Herald. Both Bartleby’s and the Book Cellar are continuing to sell books online.
Treasurer of the board of directors of the New England Independent Booksellers Association, Sullivan became a bookseller in 2004 after a career in technology. She is also president of the Mount Snow Valley Chamber of Commerce.
