Farewell to Paul’s Bookstore: Letters
In our summer 2025 issue, we mourned the closing of a campus-area institution with “Farewell to Paul’s Book Store.” The article spurred this outpouring of letters from heartbroken UW–Madison alumni.
I was profoundly grieved to read about the loss of Paul’s Book Store. As an English grad student in the 1960s-70s, I spent many happy hours pondering Paul’s wonderful collection. Where else could I find old editions of English poets as well as piano-vocal scores of arcane French operas? After a hard day in the UW Library, I would find unexpected treasures on Paul’s shelves. This is a tragic loss, but I have many fond memories.
—Byron Nelson PhD’83
My memory of Paul’s Books dates from about 1965, when I was 14 and allowed to take the city bus by myself from Madison’s west side downtown on a Saturday afternoon. I had chores to do all morning — chores I hated like baking, vacuuming, dusting. But usually by noon I was free. I soon discovered Paul’s and began to spend hours roaming the stacks discovering poets, history, biography — a favorite shelf — and those little books that fit in the pocket or the palm of your hand. I still have my copy of Twenty Years A-Growing by Maurice O’Sullivan from the U.K. World’s Classics series. From the same series, Sherlock Holmes Selected Stories. Both are six inches tall and beloved.
Over the years I began to say hello to Paul Askins, who of course greeted everyone warmly when he wasn’t too busy. I think he may have recognized me by the time I was an undergrad, but that may just be a customer’s vanity. The place was a refuge for all those years — from housework and drudgery, from high school angst, from boring textbooks.
But it became a significant refuge for me in the spring of 1970, when the campus was in turmoil with protests over the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. If I have my dates right, now 18 on an April afternoon, I was marching down State Street from the Capitol with a big group of protesters, heading for a demonstration and speeches at the Mall. The National Guard had been called up and they were advancing up the street. Marchers in front of me began to panic — we were squeezed by all the shops and unable to get out of their way. I ducked into Paul’s — they let me in — and we watched in silence as soldiers took over our streets with weapons held out before them.
I shall never forget the scene, or Paul’s shop and the love for books and quiet welcome he gave us for so many years. Heartfelt thanks, dear Paul and Caryl. I kept returning as if on pilgrimage until I left the Midwest in the 1990s.
—Jan (Schumacher) Lathrop ’91, MS’93
Dean Robbins’s article does justice to Paul Askins, who in his quiet way created a remarkable space. He was so well respected that, during the often violent anti-Vietnam protests, his bookstore was one of the few without broken windows. He was kind to student poets and writers. It was in that window that my first ragged chapbook appeared. The shop had a nourishing peacefulness that emanated from Paul. I cherish the memory of rainy afternoons when, with friends who also loved the place, we read for hours whatever took our fancy. The shop was both treasure house and the most refreshing, benign refuge.
—Margaret Benbow ’73
In 1975, Caryl Askins hired me as a part-time clerk at Paul’s Book Store. At last I could use my UW PhD. I had a second job as buyer at Discount Records, a few doors up on State Street. Plus, I was working at Joseph’s French Cafe on the Square. So I was downtown a lot. Books, music, bread: what more did I need?
Paul’s was a wonderful place to work. I was the new kid; Jim and Mark had worked with Paul Askins and knew about rare books, first editions, etc., while I handled the easy purchases. Caryl was in the store most of the time; plus, she ordered remainders and went to book sales. I did those three jobs for about eight years. And I started a show on WORT in 1975. The counterculture was still alive then.
FYI: there was a basement filed with books, magazines, etc. that few knew about. After I wrote a bread cookbook, Caryl would put a used copy in the front window. And later I could express my gratitude to Caryl by teaching her tai chi when she took my UW course for years. Having that 50-year friendship is a treasure and a privilege.
—Paul Novak, MA ’70, PhD’71
Dean Robbins’s “Farewell to Paul’s Book Store” was the saddest and best-written article I can recall reading in On Wisconsin. To be sadder would take something like losing Lecture Hall Room 125 in Ag Hall. The article could not have been better in capturing the flavor of Paul’s; same for the photo. He even mentioned (indirectly) my favorite place in the store, to the right when you enter, by the window, with the old ag and forestry reports.
—Thomas J. Straka ’72, MS’73
Amazing that Paul’s Books has survived all these long years. When I was an English graduate student during the early 1960s, Paul’s was a scruffy, street-level replica of a New York or Philadelphia secondhand bookstore, nothing like the spiffy photo in the magazine. Located midway between the corner hangout of Rennie’s on North Lake and the downstairs Italian Grotto just past Hawthorne Court, it was a kind of Shakespeare & Company for our crowd.
But the lasting memory, after more than half a century, is of the owner himself. Of modest stature, quiet and unassuming, it took small conversation to reveal his broad knowledge of the book trade. Yet what stands out vividly was his generosity. My dissertation was on Henry James, and Scribner’s was in the process of reprinting the original New York edition of James’s novels and tales. Paul Askins as a rule did not deal in new books, but he agreed to order the volumes as they were printed and to send me those that came out after I left Madison. In the end, I acquired the entire edition.
After four decades of teaching I have divested myself of most of the books in my university office. But I still retain the black-bound volumes with Henry James’s signature on the cover. And I am always reminded of their provenance.
—Barry Menikoff MS’62, PhD’66
I first encountered Paul’s Book Store in 1988 while shopping for a book to study in my graduate class on the 18th-century novel. Although I loathed the class, I found a copy of Ann Radcliffe’s The Italian, which I loved, and — more importantly, found myself surrounded by dusty old books. Thank you for the second home!
—Becky Jo Gesteland, MA’89
I was a grad student at UW–Madison in the 1970s, when I first became acquainted with Paul’s Book Store. I distinctly remember finding a copy of Robert Frost poems near the entrance to the store, a book that came with a small record of Frost recitations. My last visit to Paul’s was October 2024, where I discovered a photo album of old Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, architecture. My wife and I purchased it for my Brazilian godson’s father and mother (who still live in Rio), and gave it to them as a Christmas gift last December. I’m glad a piece of Paul’s is still in the family.
—Roger Volkema MA’73, PhD’81
Over the many years that I was at the UW–Madison, I spent a lot of time and money at Paul’s Book Store. Occasionally, I found some really interesting books, and one time I bought a real winner! Browsing the books on one shelf I saw the title For the New Intellectual by Ayn Rand, and I thought: “The new intellectual? C’EST MOI!” Of course I must buy it and did … for one dollar.
I got it home (and that may have been a house almost next-door to Paul’s in the epicenter of that block! You walked down this corridor just off State Street, and there at the end stood a two-story house without a lawn, surrounded by the backs of buildings on all sides. It must have been the quietest dwelling in town!) and proceeded to read the book, cover-to-cover … sort of. I read the front cover, and I read the back cover, and nothing in between! On one of the many times I’ve thought I really should read the book, I made two discoveries: 1) It’s a first edition; 2) it is signed by Ayn Rand! I’ve taken the book to several autograph specialists in New York City, and their estimates have ranged from $900 to $1,500.
But I am not selling it. I like the story too much. Besides, I haven’t read it yet!
—James P. Colias ’70
A trip down State Street would always start by perusing the sci-fi and fantasy section of Paul’s Book Store, where the books were half the cover price. Picked up the 1966 edition of Lord of the Rings for 50 cents apiece along with so many others. My years at UW fueled my love of reading and saw my paperback collection grow to 300-plus, thanks to Paul’s (and others). Just one of the many establishments that will be missed.
—Jim Pederson ’88
Whenever I revisited Madison after moving to the Pacific Northwest years ago, a walk along State Street was fun and nostalgic. Paul’s Book Store always seemed to draw me in like a magnet with its eclectic selection of books and the atmosphere. It was definitely a “state of mind,” as well as an important independent bookstore. Thanks for the article. It brought back fond memories.
—Kathryn (Steenson) Whitmer ‘59, MS’62
My husband and I graduated from UW in 1963 and 1964. We visited Madison many times over the years, and our last visit was in 2018 for the Party with a Purpose, the 1960s reunion. Going back to Paul’s was a given. While so much of Madison had changed, Paul’s was exactly as we remembered it.
—Steve and Robin Ungar
Paul’s was definitely my go-to place when I was a graduate student at UW in 1970–71. Many hours were spent browsing among (and occasionally purchasing — on a limited income!) the books, magazines, etc. Fifty-five years later I still have the bookmark I was given! Thanks for the memories in “Farewell to Paul’s Book Store.”
—Rebecca Brownlow Steinback, MA’71
The story and photo on Paul’s Book Store brought back the memory of a funny incident. It was on a bright, cool October morning in 1967. I crossed State Street to go into Paul’s. A moment later a Madison police officer came in and asked me for identification. I didn’t carry any ID back then, just a dollar or two and some change. He gave me a jaywalking ticket for crossing midblock. Apparently the Madison Police Department took jaywalking very seriously, because they would sometimes have a news story on WISM about someone who had been hit while jaywalking and received a ticket while in the hospital.
—Bill Olson ’73
For the last 44 years there was a photo near the register at Paul’s Books of several infants slouching on a couch; my daughter Elizabeth Maier ’03 is sitting in the middle and is the only baby looking at the camera. The photo was taken in February 1981, and the babies’ parents were all in my Lamaze childbirth class. One of the other babies (I can’t say which one) was Paul and Caryl Askins’s granddaughter, and that’s why the photo was in the bookshop. For years I’d stop in to see if it was still there and to show the photo to friends and family. It was always still there, right up to the end.
—Louise Goldstein
I majored in electrical engineering, but I minored in Paul’s Book Store.
—Terry O’ ’90
Published in the Fall 2025 issue
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