St Mark's Bookshop

St. Mark's Bookshop was an independent book store, established in 1977 in New York City's East Village neighborhood. It was the oldest independent book store in Manhattan owned by the original owners. The shop, run by proprietors Bob Contant and Terry McCoy, specialized in cultural and critical theory, graphic design, poetry, small presses, and film studies—what the New York Times called "neighborhood-appropriate literature." It featured periodicals and journals, including foreign titles, and included a section on anarchists. The store was named after St. Mark's Place, where it was originally located. St. Mark's closed on February 28, 2016.

Past employees of St. Mark's Bookshop include artist Wade Guyton, poet Ron Kolm, and writer-performer Julie Klausner. Previous to founding St. Mark's Bookshop, owners Bob Contant and Terry McCoy both worked at 8th Street Books and also at East Side Books.

Independent bookstores have a long history in New York. Other examples include The Strand, Westsider, powerHouse, BookCourt, McNally Jackson, Shakespeare & Co, WORD, Longitude, , and Housing Works. These indie stores and small chains have been feeling competitive pressure from the larger chains, internet-based booksellers, and digital media. In an attempt to be competitive with electronic media, St. Mark's and OR Books engaged in a joint venture where OR Books sold their electronic media via the St. Mark's website.

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