Seven Stairs

In 1946, a young Stuart Brent walked away from the expected life and opened a bookstore on Chicago's North Side. What began as a modest shop became a literary landmark, a place where writers, actors, and thinkers converged for four decades. This is Brent's affectionate memoir of that journey: the chance encounters with the famous (Carson McCullers lingering in the poetry section, Carl Sandburg debating politics over coffee), the launch of one of television's first book review programs, and the daily miracle of surviving as an independent bookseller in an age of chains. But the heart of Seven Stairs lies in Brent's honest reckoning with what his dream cost. His bookstore demanded everything, and he gave it, sometimes at the expense of the family waiting at home. This is a book about the price of following your bliss, and whether the stairs you climb are the ones you meant to climb at all.