Farewell to Paul’s Book Store
The eccentric State Street institution was a cornerstone of campus literary life.
Paul’s was less a retail establishment than a state of mind. Althea Dotzour
Since 1954, the UW community has had a go-to place for a used copy of the Compressed Air and Gas Handbook. Or a dog-eared 1930s edition of Scribner’s Magazine. Or, for those with even more rarefied tastes, The Small Fruits of New York: Report of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station. But, alas, Paul’s Book Store closed in February, liquidating its one-of-a-kind stock at 670 State Street. Campus-area literary life will never be the same.
Paul’s was less a retail establishment than a state of mind. Musty literary classics and dusty bestsellers leaned every which way on the battered wooden shelves. Baskets on the floor might contain film stills, long-forgotten journals, or yellowed sheet music — you really had to get down on the linoleum and paw through them. Hand-lettered cards demarcated sections for “Fiction,” “Nautical Seafaring,” and, yes, “Books about Books.” Vintage records spun on a turntable behind the cluttered counter. Taped on the ends of the shelving units were archaeological layers of detritus: ancient postcards, magazine covers, business cards, obituaries, foreign currency, and pictures of both literary celebrities and unidentified people. Barnes and Noble this was not.
But who wanted it to be? Unlike the Starbucks across the street, Paul’s Book Store was not a corporate entity. It was a family-run operation with a human touch, founded by book lover Paul Askins and faithfully sustained by his wife, Caryl Askins ’51, after Paul died in 1975. The two met while working at an early incarnation of University Book Store and operated the shop in two other locations before settling into the long, narrow space near Library Mall, with its decorative tin ceiling. The homey display window beckoned pedestrians with plants, statuettes, and an always-intriguing selection of used books.
Paul and Caryl created an environment set apart from the required reading in UW classrooms: a place to get lost in the stacks, commune with obscure authors, and drink in arcane knowledge. A place where time stopped.
Reportedly, the store still did good business. I often had to flatten myself against the shelves to let other browsers pass in the cramped aisles. But 94-year-old Caryl felt ready to retire, and without an Askins, you really couldn’t imagine Paul’s.
It’s true that former customers can probably search online to find, say, the multivolume Smithsonian Institution Annual Report from 1880 to 1955. But anyone connected to UW–Madison knows that the experience of lazing away an afternoon in Paul’s Book Store can never be recaptured.
Published in the Summer 2025 issue
Comments
Emily June 6, 2025
Paul’s! I moved out of state 17 years ago but always made a trip to Madison to visit Paul’s when visiting home. The “Small Books” section was my first stop. I will miss this place dearly.
paul regnier June 9, 2025
This is Paul Regnier–’65, PhD ’73–I remember Paul’s Bookstore well. Having been away from the midwest for several years, I had thought Paul’s would have been long gone. I was surprised to read that it only closed recently. I remember Madison very fondly. When I see someone in UW gear, I always ask “How is Bucky Badger,” and I often get a warm response and some nostalgic conversation.
paul regnier June 9, 2025
BA ’65, PhD ’73 I was surprised to read that Paul’s only closed recently. I have been away from the midwest for many years, but I remember Madison fondly. When I come across someone in UW gear, I ask “How is Bucky Badger.” I receive happy responses and sometimes nostalgic conversations.
Nora Hussey June 9, 2025
My freshman and sophomore years in q983 thru 1985 were the years I explored used copies of plays bought at Paul’s Bookstore, while I avoided studying chemistry. The only period in my life I really got into reading plays and loved the variety if journeys represented in those plays like Ain’t No Place To Be Somebody by Charlie Gordone and Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesserling. RIP to one of the greatest bookstores.
Kevin Wolf June 10, 2025
I’ve always loved bookstores and Paul’s really stood out. I was in the UW-Madison class of 1979. I bought many math books (e.g., Mathematics & the Imagination by Kasner & Newman, 1959 edition; 4-volume World of Mathematics by Newman, 1956 edition; among others) and cartooning books (e.g., New Yorker Album 1925-1950, 1951 edition; Best Cartoons of the World by Abel & Buchwald, 1969 edition; Drawn & Quartered by Addams, 1946 edition; among others). What a treasure trove of books. Thank you for being there. May you have a well-deserved rest!
Sally Gewalt June 11, 2025
It was an amazing place, but not all memories of Paul’s are sweet. As a too shy molecular biology undergrad in the 70’s, I asked for ‘The Descent of Man’ at the desk. The snarky girls behind it laughed and exclaimed incredulously, “The DESCENT of man!?”. I was unaware that Jacob Bronowski’s ‘Ascent of Man’ series was a hit on PBS at that time. I left humiliated. I guess Bronowski was bigger than Darwin for them. I eventually summoned the nerve to return, and among the uncountable one of a kind things in the shop I found an old hand-colored map of Russia for my bf who was studying that language.
Marilyn Kabb August 25, 2025
As a lover of bookstores, I am sad to hear of Paul’s Book Store closing. I spent many hours there “browsing”
Tina (Yacker) Murua September 8, 2025
How is it that the one issue of On Wisconsin that had a story I could, with some authority, comment on, is the one issue that somehow didn’t find its way into my hands? I worked at Paul’s through college, after college, and even through law school. I was among the layers of detritus Dean Robbins writes about; pictures of me, unidentified though I was, could be found throughout the front desk area like a collection of “Where’s Waldo, 1986-1994”.
Paul’s Books was my beacon, my home, and Caryl my family. I dog sat and house sat for Caryl many times and broke her car once (and she still let me drive it). At the store, she would treat us to cookies from Jamie’s or send us to Sunprint for a little snack. She’d often take us to dinner for special occasions at Porta Bella or Ovens of Brittany. At Paul’s Books, I learned not to put books on The Met in the sports section, not to embarrass customers when they asked if we had “Wuthering Heights by Jane Eyre” (but to make merciless fun of them for the next 40 years), and how to decorate a window tastefully with books. I became a lover of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. Paul’s Books was “Cheers!” well before that show existed, where we knew many customers by name and looked forward to an annual visit by a very famous author who would only visit Paul’s because we would never fawn over him.
My husband and I visited Madison a few weeks ago after many years away. I poked my head into the old Paul’s Books building, afraid of what I might see and bracing myself for emotional overwhelm. I saw some young people — who almost certainly would have wanted to work at the bookstore if they’d had the chance — installing kiosks for the t-shirt store they were opening. They assured me they would keep the pressed tin ceiling. I believe them.
We also visited Caryl, by the way, still as sharp as ever. Her living room is a tribute to the great business that Paul began but for which she surely should be credited with turning into a legacy indelibly printed on Madison’s historic landscape and, of course, on the hearts of so many, myself included.
Susan Delaney September 9, 2025
Goodbye to Paul’s. That picture sent my memory back to younger days. What a fine shop that was!