In late January 1946 book collectors and librarians received a notice that a bookshop was about to open at 3 West Forty-sixth Street in New York City. The announcement was signed by John S. Van E. Kohn and Michael Papantonio, each of whom had had a New York bookshop of his own before entering military service in World War II. Rather than attaching their own names to the business, they preferred something with an "American" flavor. Both men having interests in American literature, they hit upon Seven Gables, from the Nathaniel Hawthorne novel, as the name of their new enterprise. Pooling their remaining stocks they opened Seven Gables Bookshop in February in a building that had no gables--nor, for that matter, much to indicate that a bookshop existed there. Their first catalogue appeared in April, launching what was to become one of the greatest American bookshops of its time.

John...