After debuting online in 2021, indie press and bookstore 50 Watts Books will open a bricks-and-mortar store in Philadelphia, Pa., next month.
Owner and proprietor Will Schofield said the store will carry "eye-popping books," including art books, surreal picture books, underground comics, and zines, with a particular focus on imported Japanese and European books. The bookstore will reside at 15 W. Highland Ave. in Philadelphia's Chestnut Hill neighborhood and span about 700 square feet. Schofield's event plans include launch parties for new 50 Watts Books titles as well as exhibitions showcasing rare books from his personal collection.
Prior to starting 50 Watts Books, Schofield worked for 20 years as an editor for the small press Paul Dry Books, and in the 1990s he worked at Penn Book Center, which was renamed People's Books & Culture after a change in ownership, and closed in 2020. His initial plan for the bookstore involved making a Shopify storefront to sell books from his personal collection, but when he added some new art books and underground comics, they proved popular.
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| 50 Watts Books in progress. | |
The new titles continued to sell, so Schofield began stocking more and more. He chose to emphasize unusual books that people could not find on Amazon, which included a lot of Japanese and European titles.
The store's first holiday season gave Schofield the funds needed to pay the printing bills for his first publications, which he described as projects that "had been simmering for years." One of 50 Watts' first titles, and a perennial favorite, is an edition of a picture book from 1897 called Animal Land Where There Are No People, which was written by a four-year-old in Scotland and illustrated by her mother. Other titles include a line of Japanese picture book classics, a collection of pictogram art by Warja Lavater, and a series of Japanese illustrations called "Anthropomorphic Japan." The company's most recent title is a collection of sci-fi illustrations by Stathis Tsemberlidis.
Schofield recalled that he first attempted to start a press in 2001, when he was in his early 20s. The project didn't come to fruition, and "it took me a while to get up the courage to try again," he noted. The first iteration of 50 Watts Books was actually a blog, which over the years built up a following.
Schofield is hoping to have the bookstore open for business in early October. Asked if he had any plans for a grand opening celebration, Schofield said he'd likely be "way too tired to celebrate" right away. "But I hope the shop will be an entertaining visit for art lovers and bibliomaniacs during the holidays, and maybe we'll party in the dead of winter."