One of the Best Darn ‘Little Bookshops’ in America

By Jude Genereaux

Most of us residing in Northern Door have long recognized one of the treasures to be found in Ellison Bay is “Wm. Caxton Ltd. Bookseller and Publisher,” right here on main street. Owner, operator and literary wonk Kubet Luchterhand, presiding.

Finding the news in Huffington Post, Katherine Brook’s article [“50 Of The Best Indie Bookstore In America”] this past week, we were delighted (but not surprised) to find Luchterhand’s bookshop listed as one of 50 of the finest independent book stores in America. Wm Caxton is listed at post #26.

First question many ask is “Why Caxton? Who is William Caxton?” Kubet (known locally as “Kubie”) explains that Caxton was the first printer in the English language, a contemporary of Johannes Gutenberg. Commonality is found in the mission to publish.

The genesis of Kubie’s bookstore is found on Foster Street, Evanston, Illinois, where he established his first shop on Bastille Day, 1986. He then moved it to Door County in 1989; after first being located in Sister Bay that spring, in 1990 he moved it to Ellison Bay where he also resides. The bookstore is now in its 28th year.

Explaining that he began it as a publishing house, the bookshop was established to support his activities as a publisher. Kubie’s stated mission is “to gather the best books I can find, at prices people can afford.” He is most interested in books others either can’t sell, or good books that haven’t sold well. Noting that “if someone knows a subject well, if you go to that subject in Caxton bookstore, you are likely to find books you’ve never seen before, or even knew existed” on that topic.

Caxton Books carries a broad spectrum of subject areas, including a respectable literary section, and many that other shops just do not carry. A sampling:

Women’s studies – 1,200 or so titles, 10 percent rather obscure;

Anthropology – “perhaps the best collection of any bookshop I’ve been in …”;

Native American – at least 1,000 books;

Australia’s native peoples;

African and Sub-Saharan history;

Asian – Chinese and Japanese history;

Latin American and Iberian fiction in translation, many out-of-print;

Eastern European authors (700-800 books);

History of Science – a rare collection thereof;

Cryptography/code breaking;

Maritime and natural history.

Luchterhand states that he is “especially pleased with his History of Science section and the literature-in-translation titles in the collection.”

Asked about the future of Wm Caxton Bookseller? Kubet will only comment that he is “very proud of the breadth and depth of his stock – but old enough to recognize I can’t be buying as aggressively as I once did.”

For now, having nearly 100,000 volumes to choose from “all in serious subjects,” should be enough for the reading public to savor for a long time to come.