Anderson’s and Eklund Named PW Award Winners

Anderson’s Books, a fifth-generation family business co-owned by ABA Vice President Becky Anderson, has been named PW Bookseller of the Year for 2011. The business includes Anderson’s Bookshops in Naperville and Downers Grove, Illinois; Anderson’s Bookfair Company (ABCFairs), whose warehouse is in Aurora, Illinois; and the downtown Naperville gift shop Two Doors East.

Milwaukee-based John Eklund, who represents Harvard, Yale, and MIT presses, was named PW Rep of the Year.

Anderson’s roots go back 136 years to the founding of W.W. Wickel Pharmacy (now Oswald’s Pharmacy), which sold books and other items. The first of the family’s bookstores was launched in 1964 above the drugstore. In addition to its thriving book business, Anderson’s has been in the forefront of the community’s Local First movement, which adapted IndieBound marketing materials to create IndieBound Naperville.

PW noted that it had received dozens of nominations and e-mails in support of Anderson’s.

Becky Anderson, who has been nominated to serve as ABA’s next president, will be accepting the PW Bookseller of the Year Award at this year’s BookExpo America.

John Eklund began representing the presses at Harvard, MIT, and Yale in 1998 after working as a buyer and bookseller at the former Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops. He shares his thoughts and experiences as a sales rep on his blog, Paper Over Board.