Betsy Burton, co-founder and co-owner of the King's English Bookshop, Salt Lake City, Utah, is retiring this summer and selling her majority interest (along with silent partner and shareholder Deon Hilger) to Calvin Crosby, executive director of the California Independent Booksellers Alliance. Crosby will join part-owner Anne Holman, effective July 1.
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| Betsy Burton | |
Burton, who is a past president of the American Booksellers Association and a prime mover of the Local First movement in Utah and nationally, said that the store's "booksellers and customers are going to love Calvin. His experience in bookselling is vast, he has a keen understanding of finances, he's creative, he's kind, and he loves this business--and books--passionately. With his vast experience on all sides of the book business and Holman's on-the-ground expertise in all things involving the King's English in particular and the book industry in general, I'm pleased to say that the store is in very accomplished, caring and enthusiastic hands moving forward."
Before becoming executive director of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (CALIBA's predecessor) six years ago, Crosby had 25 years of bookselling experience, mostly at Book Passage in Corte Madera and Books Inc., where he opened new stores and did everything from store management to community relations, gift buying to merchandising--and bookselling, his favorite part. He also was sales and marketing director at McSweeney's.
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| Calvin Crosby | |
Crosby spent his childhood in Utah County and Magna, and has always expressed his love for the King's English. Growing up gay and Cherokee, he remembers the King's English not just as his bookstore but as his safe place, he said. Since leaving Utah he always makes it his first stop on visits with his family. "I'm already fond of half the staff," he said. "Anne, Rob, Margaret, who I hung out with at bookseller events and store visits--and booksellers I've met in the store, both when I've come back to visit and recently as I've spent more time at TKE. It's an amazing group of booksellers. I can't wait to work with them."
He added: "I'm looking forward to being near my sister and her family. And settling in at the King's English. Bookselling is my first love, and being inside this store feels like coming home. My husband Keith and I are going to be very happy here. I can't wait to start."
Burton said she will "sorely miss seeing the booksellers and customers at TKE on a regular basis. I've known some of them for the entire 44 years we've been in business--along with all the wonderful writers and publishing professionals I've been friends with over the decades. It's been a blissfully good way to spend a life, but at nearly 75, it's time to make a change. I'm hoping that with more leisure time I can write another book." She is the author of The King's English: Adventures of an Independent Bookseller, published by Gibbs Smith in 2005. She will continue to publish and edit the Inkslinger, the store's quarterly review.
The sale process began when Burton reached out to potential buyers, and former ABA CEO Oren Teicher suggested she ask Crosby for recommendations. As Crosby recounted, "Ann Seaton and I have been consulting at Underground Books in Sacramento since last summer, and it has been amazing. It also reminded me that my heart never left bookselling. When Betsy called for advice about selling, it dawned on me that I can live the dream of sharing ownership of a bookstore--the bookstore I frequented as a young adult."