Remembering Pickwick Books on Hollywood Boulevard (1938-1968)

Louis Epstein and Southern California's Greatest Bookshop

Louis Epstein, the founder of Pickwick Books on Hollywood Boulevard, started with a small bookshop in Long Beach, CA.. He then moved to downtown Los Angeles and made a good deal of money renting out books as props in Hollywood Movies. Louis eventually opened a large bookstore at 6743 W. Hollywood Boulevard and called it “Pickwick Books” after Charles Dickens’s Pickwick Papers novel.

Epstein was a canny bookseller and paid very little for the books he purchased, so his profit was high. He also entered the “remainder” market (unsold books returned to publishers who sold them in bulk at rock-bottom prices). Note that you can always spot a remainder copy because there’s a colored (usually black magic marker) stripe on the foot of the book.

His store became extremely popular with the Hollywood crowd, which brought in many customers from all over the world. He expanded into nearby buildings and opened other branches of Pickwick Books around Los Angeles.

I was fortunate to visit the original Pickwick Books location after it was purchased by B. Dalton in 1968. I still have the bookmark I picked up while I was there.

Louis Epstein knew how to buy and sell books. He loved Literature and Poetry and made those types of books a centerpiece of Pickwick Books. When the chain bookstore B. Dalton purchased all of the Pickwick bookstores in Los Angeles, they brought a business model that emphasized only profit. I know because I worked for B.Dalton in the early 80s in New York City.

Eventually, Pickwick Books began to look like every other B. Dalton chain bookstore: same fixtures, same books, same emphasis on bestsellers, and the spirit of Louis Epstein’s great Pickwick Bookstore faded away.

Note: Great article on Los Angeles Bookshops of yesteryear at Bookstore Memories and thanks to Water and Power Associates for the Pickwick photo (they have many more photos of Pickwick Books at their website). There’s also a more in-depth history of Pickwick Books at Daily Kos.