SAD LAST CHAPTER
Owner of legendary Strand Bookstore dies
Fred Bass, owner of the East Village’s iconic Strand Bookstore, died early Wednesday morning. He was 89.
He passed away at home surrounded by loved ones. The cause of death was congestive heart failure, Strand marketing director Leigh Altshuler told The Post.
Bass grew up at the Strand — first opened by his father, Benjamin, as a small used-book store on Fourth Avenue in 1927 — and worked there for the rest of his life, transforming the emporium into one of the most famous and beloved bookstores in the world.
“For over 30 years, I have had the privilege of working alongside my dad managing the store,” his daugh- ter, Nancy Bass Wyden — who is married to Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden — said in a statement.
“He never had an office and loved when customers told him they enjoyed ‘getting lost in the stacks.’ He spent all of his time behind his buying desk, eager to see what treasures would come across it.
“He felt working with books was the best job in the world.”
After studying literature at Brooklyn College and serving in the Korean War, Bass (inset) took over the family business in 1956 — despite his dad’s objections that it would be a backbreaking gig.
“My uncle . . . still remembers how my father always said to him, ‘You have got to get Fred to do something else!’” Bass told The Villager newspaper in 2010.
Bass quickly relocated the store to its current home at Broadway and East 12th Street — a sprawling space that then offered “8 miles of books,” but now boasts 18.
While the rest of New York’s “Book Row” disappeared, the Strand expanded and innovated — adding new books, amassing a celebrated collection of rare tomes, and offering music, movies, merchandise and gifts.
The main store now occupies 55,000 square feet and has some 2.5 million titles, according to Publishers Weekly.
Book lovers across the Big Apple and the country paid tribute to the literary legend Wednesday as news of his death spread.
“We will miss New York City icon Fred Bass. He inspired generations of book lovers and put the Strand on the global map. Thank you for giving this city 18 miles of books,” Mayor de Blasio tweeted. Even competitors hailed Bass. “Eighty-nine years, and countless stories. We salute fellow bookseller Fred Bass, owner of New York City’s iconic @strandbookstore,” retail empire Barnes & Noble tweeted.