Writing her ticket

When you own your own bookstore and are yourself a novelist, it would be perfectly logical to prominently display numerous copies of your new book in your store’s window. Linda Kass, owner of Gramercy Books in Bexley, isn’t sure that will happen and, in fact, she plans to leave placement of copies of “A Ritchie Boy” to her store’s manager. Her second novel — a companion to her first, “Tasa’s Song” — will be released Tuesday, four years after she opened her independent bookstore and became one of a rare breed: authors who own bookstores.

“I have less time to write these days, but on the other hand, I’m reading a lot more,” Kass, 66, said during an interview at the coffee shop that shares the building with Gramercy at the corner of Main Street and Cassady Avenue.

Kass, who grew up in East Columbus and attended Eastmoor High School, is the daughter of immigrant parents from Poland and Austria. “Tasa’s Song” (2016) is a novel inspired by the life of her mother, Aurelia Rosaminer Stern, who lived in a Polish village under Soviet control during World War II.

“A Catholic neighbor built a bunker under his barn and saved them,” Kass said.

The life of Earnest Stern, Kass’ Vienna-born father, was the inspiration for her new book, “A Ritchie Boy.”

Kass’s father had trained at Camp Ritchie in Maryland and, along with other German-speaking, mostly Jewish young men, served during the war in intelligence work for the American forces.

Kass had written a biography of her parents for their 60th anniversary; both are now deceased. But she wanted to create stories that delved into the emotions and adventures of imaginary characters in circumstances similar to those of her parents.

In writing historical fiction, she said, “like Atticus Finch, I feel like I can walk in someone’s shoes. These characters are not meant to be my parents, but I had great joy feeling that I had walked in their shoes.”

Kass graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, obtained her masters of journalism from Ohio State University, and worked for years as a journalist, primarily freelancing for publications such as Columbus Monthly, the Detroit Free Press and Time magazine.

A resident of Bexley, she has been married 33 years to developer Frank Kass and between them, they have four grown children. Before opening Gramercy, Kass served on a variety of boards including Bexley Schools, Capital University, Ohio State University, the Columbus Symphony and United Way of Central Ohio. She also founded and led for nine years the Bexley Community Book Club, acquiring experience in programming author events. The renamed Bexley Community Authors Series is now run by the Bexley Public Library whose director, Ben Heckman, described his library’s relationship with Gramercy as “mutually beneficial.”

“We have this literary corner here on Main Street in Bexley,” Heckman said “We’re both promoting reading. She brings in authors and we bring in authors. If her space is too small for an author, we can hold the events here.”

Among the authors who have been presented by Gramercy — in person or, after the onset of the pandemic through online events — are Julia Alvarez, James McBride, Daniel Pink, Lisa Scottoline, R.L. Stine and Jacqueline Woodson.

“It’s phenomenal the breadth and kinds of programs and the people she brings to town — writers, poets, musicians,” said Bexley resident Ellen Siegel Pollack, a patron of the store and its programs. “Her store is a cultural center in this community.”

Which was Kass’ goal in opening Gramercy.

“Whenever I travel I always visit independent bookstores,” Kass said. “Maybe 20 or so years ago, we were in Seaside in the Florida Panhandle and I joked with the proprietor of the bookstore there that maybe someday I’d like to own one.”

She spent three years researching how to do it, paying attention to Harvard Business School professor Ryan Raffaelli’s “three Cs” for bookstores: community, convening, curation. Gramercy — which takes its name from the French for “big thanks” or “many thanks” — opened in December 2016.

“She’s done a terrific job, not only to sustain the bookstore but to have such a steady offering of programs around so many varied topics,” said Patrick Losinski, chief executive officer of Columbus Metropolitan Library. “There’s the notion of a bookstore as a noun, but she’s made it into a verb.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck earlier this year and her store suddenly was forced to close, Kass said she needed to “pivot.”

She realized that she would be able to sell books online and by phone, then put them outside her store for curbside pickup. She communicated with subscribers via a newsletter and educated herself in the technology needed to offer virtual book events. Her first Zoom webinar presented Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and new novelist Connie Schultz to an audience of more than

400.

Her store is reopened now, with staff and visitors wearing face masks and keeping socially distanced.

“Until there’s a vaccine, I know we’re going to have to do this and keep doing virtual gatherings,” she said. “I love live events and hope to get back to them, but we’ll be doing them with a combination of virtual events.”

If she has a theme for her store, it’s to continue to be a “gathering place for community — a connector between books and people, writers and readers.”

Julia Keller, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who lives in central Ohio and is a former writer for The Dispatch, has appeared several times at Gramercy. She drew comparisons between Gramercy and Kass’ historical novels that celebrate the importance of family and community.

“There’s something wonderful about writers running bookstores,” Keller said. “Ann Patchett, Larry McMurtry, Louise Erdrich — and Linda — they’re the player/managers of the literary world. Is she a writer who owns a business or a businesswoman who writes? It doesn’t matter. What matters is that it works for her and for all of us who love books.” negilson@gmail.com