by Martijn When we started thinking about opening a store in the Westfield Mall of the Netherlands, it had been almost 20 years since we last had a third store (in Leuven, Belgium). The decision to start this new adventure was not an easy one. When we finally decided to take [...]
by Lynn Forty years ago this February, I landed at Baltimore airport in the worst snowstorm they’d had in 10 years. On the way to our host Larry Boltansky’s home, the freeway was closed and we had to shovel the station wagon out from under snow to get to a side [...]
by Lynn The ABC started in 1972 after Mitch Crossfield and Sam Boltansky, who knew each other from Baltimore, came to Amsterdam in 1971 and saw the lines of English-speaking tourists outside Madame Tussaud's on the Kalverstraat, then one of the busiest shopping streets in Europe. They went to the jewelry [...]
by Lynn ABC’s Christmas of 1973 was quite eventful. Mitch, who had co-founded ABC the year before, went back to Baltimore for the holidays and left me in charge while we were renovating. He and the landlord, Jacob Kroonenberg, had agreed to level out the ground floor, which had been split-level, [...]
by Lynn The wish to celebrate Thanksgiving with booklovers, staff and people homesick for that Thanksgiving experience springs from a homey image of people from sea to shining sea, from prison canteens to five-star hotels, all eating the same menu at the same time. There’s always room at the table [...]
by Lynn Following Oprah’s initiative, in 2003 we launched our first Community Read. It had been done before in Chicago, when the entire city—media, government, library and school system—got together to encourage everybody in Chicago to read the same book during the same summer. It worked wonderfully! People spoke about entering [...]
To mark our 50th anniversary, we’re going back through the archives to share some of our more memorable stories. “1997: ABC at the Moscow International Book Fair” by Lynn After watching Dutch media magnate and Moscow Times founder Derk Sauer’s recent interview on the Dutch Summer Nights TV [...]
Every once in a while, some magic happens in our stores, and we receive heartwarming feedback, personal stories or support. The following message reached us from a loyal customer. It's just one example where we are thrilled to connect readers with writers. Dear Kaffe Fassett, I really do have to share [...]
To mark our 50th anniversary, we’re going back through the archives to share some of our more memorable stories. “Shoes” by Lynn In 1972, co-founder Mitch Crossfield decided to have the attic at Kalverstraat 158 converted into an apartment so that he could live above the store. Via [...]
by Lynn ABC’s co-founder Mitch Crossfield and most of our male staff in the early years were gay. That’s because Amsterdam was open, as opposed to Belgium and Spain, where homosexuality was still forbidden, so Mitch was able to hire gay booksellers from Amsterdam’s teeming population. Bookseller Harry displayed several titles [...]
