Membership Bookstore in Boston Based on Shared Interests

Which came first, the bookstore or the cultural center? In the case of Creative Allies, a shared-interests membership club in Boston, Mass., the answer is the center. The club, founded three years ago by Zelda Fischer, former owner of Word Guild, an editorial collaborative in Cambridge in the 1970s, is an offshoot of Fischer's Creative Connections dating service.

According to v-p/cultural coordinator Martin Slobodkin, many of Creative Allies's 2000 members joined because they are new to the area. Slobodkin tries to provide a variety of programs, ranging from drawing classes to private tours of museums. "We have something happening every day, usually 10 events a week," said Slobodkin, who cites dinners and brunches with writers such as Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha (Vintage), and Tony Horwitz, author of Confederates in the Attic (Random House), among the group's most memorable recent events.

In addition, Creative Allies organizes book discussion groups, writing groups, mystery swaps and playreading groups. The literary bent of the membership was so strong that in November 1998, Creative Allies opened its own bookstore, on the second floor of an old brownstone on fashionable Newbury Street in Boston's Back Bay. The store, which is open to the public as a full-price bookstore, offers members a 30% discount. The relatively small stock is chosen with care by Fisher and includes books by authors who will be speaking at upcoming Creative Allies events, literary bestsellers, children's books and books on film.

Unlike traditional bookstores, Creative Allies charges an annual membership fee of $125, plus a fee for each event. For example, attendees of a recent benefit dinner with food critic Jeffrey Steingarten, author of The Man Who Ate Everything (Vintage), paid $65 for dinner plus a $5 event fee.

Food-oriented events have become so popular that Fisher is launching a new club nearby called Boston Food Lovers. Late last month Barry Sears, author of The Zone books (HarperCollins), gave a presentation to kick off the new group.