Librairie de France

A Message to Our Retail Customers: After 74 years, since 1935, as the oldest retail tenant of Rockefeller Center, the Librairie de France closed in 2009 due to an overwhelming rent increase. However, our mail-order services to schools, bookstores, libraries, institutions and the general public continues. Founded almost a century ago in 1928, we were an independent, third-generation, family-owned bookstore with neither government nor corporate financial aid, and were a vibr...ant center of French cultural production. It was the only store of its kind in the country. You may wish to read some of the stories about us by clicking on the links below. http://www.nytimes.com/20//15/nyregion/thecity/15fren.html http://bibliobs.nouvelobs.com//la-librairie-de-france-va-f http://lemetropolitanblog.com//adresse-qui-ne-croustille-/ http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com//longlived-french-books/ http://www.nbcnewyork.com//Beloved-French-Language-Books-t http://www.nycstylelittlecannoli.com//salute-to-librairie- http://www.lapresse.ca//01-863674-le-francais-a-new-york-f https://www.nonfiction.fr/article-2049-disparition_de_la_de http://www.apf.francophonie.org/New-York-La-Librairie-de-Fr http://www.lefigaro.fr//03004-20090102ARTFIG00240-la-libra http://www1.rfi.fr/actufr/articles/109/article_76796.asp http://www.france-amerique.com//la-derniere-librairie-fran http://www.lexpress.fr//dernieres-pages-a-manhattan_723943 http://apf.francophonie.org/spip.php?article1030 http://www.booksforvictory.com//librairie-de-france-30-roc

My comment on the Albertine bookstore that was created after we lost our lease in Rockefeller Center: I give Albertine 5 stars. Unquestionably a beautiful bookstore, with nice personnel. However, there is a caveat to my rating based upon my 57 years of selling French books as the owner of the Librairie de France in Rockefeller Center. The French Cultural Counselor openly proclaims---and I quote---sales aren’t the primary goal. The project has been underwritten by sponsor...s including LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Total Corporate Foundation and Air France. There is no rent, which is a big New York problem, he said. We have the freedom to show the books we love. Can you imagine, considering the enormous expense of this enterprise, far from any business district, what could have been accomplished if the same financing were given to the internationally-renowned Librairie de France at Rockefeller Center for almost a century.? Difficult to understand. Moreover, how can any small business possibly compete with a French-government-financed-institution who pays no rent, no taxes and sells books at a profit, underwritten by the likes of billion dollar conglomerates and French charitable organizations. Our French bookstore carried on in Rockefeller Center for 74 years, closing with a staggering rent of $1,000 per day. Pleas for assistance to the French government fell on deaf ears. An editorial in the Nouvel Observateur proclaimed Emanuel Molho alerted the Cultural Service of the Embassy of France, who did not deign to reply. No one moved. No help was offered. Le pays de Montaigne regarde mourir, dans l’indifférence, l’unique vitrine, là-bas, de son génie et de son humanisme. A croire qu’ils sont bel et bien révolus." Too late to do anything about it now, and it does not take away from the beautiful Albertine, but as a very disappointed francophile who has devoted his entire business career to French books, I had to vent.

The Tricolor Will Be Lowered at a Citadel of French Culture THE NEW YORK TIMES By ALEX MINDLIN Published: July 15, 2007... As happens every July, the days before Bastille Day coincided with a modest spike in sales at the Librairie de France, the 79-year-old French bookstore in Rockefeller Center. People planning Bastille Day fetes stopped by to purchase tiny Eiffel towers, tricolor flags anything that gives the ambience of being French, said Emanuel Molho, the store’s lanky 71-year-old owner. But yesterday’s Bastille Day was one of the store’s last. Mr. Molho, who runs the Librairie with his two grown children, announced a month ago that the store would close in 2009, the final year of its current lease. In its prime, the Librairie was an institution. Founded in 1928 by Mr. Molho’s father and a partner, the store became one of the first retail tenants in Rockefeller Center in 1935. During World War II, its publishing arm printed the works of many writers who had emigrated from Vichy France, including Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The shop thrived throughout the 1960s, importing two tons of books a week and holding autograph sessions for French celebrities like the singer Charles Aznavour. But the Librairie has been hurt by rising rents, as well as Internet book sales and a long decline in interest in foreign languages. These days, the store imports a tenth of the number of books it did in the 1960s. Over the years, Mr. Molho has had to close a branch shop at Fifth Avenue and 19th Street, along with a warehouse and a store in California, and has shrunk the ground-level space of his Rockefeller Center store by more than half. These days, the Librairie is really two stores. The cramped ground-level space stocks the kind of stuff that moves off the shelves: language tapes, Inspector Maigret novels, French translations of Harry Potter, Little Prince mouse pads. But in the far larger room underground, reached by a hard-to-spot back staircase, a browser can find a yard of Proust criticism slumbering beside two shelves of books about the midcentury philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Most of the books are out of print, and some still have uncut pages. Much of this bounty was acquired over the years by Mr. Molho’s father, Isaac, and never sold. As Emanuel Molho said, They weren’t rare when we started buying them. When the store closes, Mr. Molho and his children will dedicate themselves to their mail-order business, which provides roughly as much revenue as the store. No more retail, Mr. Molho said flatly. Because of the rents in New York today, it wouldn’t work.

La Librairie de France va fermer Créé le 30-10-2007 Nouvel Observateur Elle porte le beau nom de Librairie de France. A l’entrée trône l’emblématique portrait du Petit Prince. On dirait qu’il fait de la résistance. Sise à New York, au rez-de-chaussée du Rockefeller Center, elle a été fondée en 1935 par Isaac Molho, qui y a accueilli pendant la guerre, à l’enseigne des Editions de la Maison française, beaucoup d’écrivains fuyant l’occupant allemand et le régime de Vichy. Sign...és Aron, Maritain, Aragon, Saint-Exupéry, Mauriac ou Maurois, ces fac-similés sont toujours en vente dans une librairie, la seule de tout le continent, exclusivement consacrée aux ouvrages de langue française des romans les plus récents aux guides Michelin. Car depuis la mort de son père et la lointaine époque où l’on recevait deux tonnes de livres français chaque semaine, Emanuel Molho a repris le flambeau et se bat comme un lion. Déjà, dans les années 1980, après une augmentation du loyer de 300%, il a dû céder la moitié de sa surface à un magasin de L’Occitane. Il sait qu’en 2009, au moment du renouvellement du bail, il ne pourra plus suivre et cédera le terrain à une boutique de fringues ou de parfums. La loi du marché aura eu raison de sa folle passion pour notre littérature. Avec la fermeture de la Librairie de France, c’est un rêve qui s’écroule: celui des Allers-retours intellectuels entre Paris et New York si bien décrits dans ses Mémoires par un autre passeur, André Schiffrin, l’éditeur américain de Sartre, Duras, Echenoz. Même le New York Times, le 14 juillet, s’est ému de la disparition de cette citadelle de la culture française. Mais j’allais oublier l’essentiel: Emanuel Molho a alerté le service culturel de l’ambassade de France, qui n’a pas daigné répondre. Personne ne s’est déplacé. Aucune aide n’a été proposée. Le pays de Montaigne regarde mourir, dans l’indifférence, l’unique vitrine, là-bas, de son génie et de son humanisme. A croire qu’ils sont bel et bien révolus. Source: Le Nouvel Observateur du 4 octobre 2007.