Page & Palette Commemorates 40 Years With Newsletter for the Ages

The town of Fairhope, Alabama, was founded over a century ago as a utopian village for authors and artists. In 2008, the heart of this thriving literary and artistic paradise is, not surprisingly, a bookstore -- Page & Palette, which will celebrate its 40th anniversary in August. The store, which sells both art supplies and books, "fits this town," said Karin Wilson, Page & Palette's president.

To commemorate the bookstore's anniversary and the diversity of the town's locally owned businesses, Page & Palette published an impressive 48-page color newsletter, Forty Years at The Heart of Fairhope: Special Anniversary Edition. It features a list of the store's bestselling backlist titles over the past 10-plus years, profiles of more than 60 Fairhope businesses and their owners, authors' comments about the bookstore, and photos of past events. From idea to print, it took over four months to put the ambitious publication together.

Wilson, who is the current president of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, said that the idea for the eye-catching newsletter came from the folks at Talking Leaves Bookstore in Buffalo, New York, who created a similar, though smaller, newsletter. She first heard about Talking Leaves' efforts at a meeting of regional presidents at this year's ABA Winter Institute.

Page & Palette's 40th anniversary newsletter contains profiles of many of Fairhope's merchants, Wilson said, and getting them involved was no small task. "We talked to everybody around town," she said. "There are more than 150 merchants here, and we got a lot of them involved. A lot of people here don't have e-mail, so everything had to be hand-written out."

The Wilson family has owned the store since the early 1970s, when Karin's grandmother, Betty Joe Wolff, bought it from Corky Ollinger. "I grew up in the business -- I started working here when I was 10 years old and I still pay myself the same wage," she said with a laugh. "That's a joke, but booksellers will know what I mean!"

Over the past 40 years, major hurricanes have swept through the area and the store and the town has survived them all. When Hurricane Frederick hit the area in the 1970s, "we almost lost the building," said Wilson. "The whole family stayed in the building during the hurricane." The town's tourist trade was also affected by hurricanes Ivan and Katrina, which hit the Gulf Coast in 2004 and 2005, respectively. "The Grand Hotel just opened back up a year and a half ago," she said. "So [summer 2007] was the first time the town was at full capacity."

Of course, considering its location and the area's abundance of literary talent, Page & Palette has had its share of memorable events, too. For Wilson, one event that especially stands out was for Fannie Flagg's Can't Wait to Get to Heaven. "It was also her birthday," Wilson said. "We have a local castle here, the Fairhope Storybook Castle, which we turned into a birthday cake. We had every one dressed in white, and we served desserts only -- since it was supposed to be Heaven. Fannie Flagg arrived in a fancy wedding carriage pulled by a horse. It was probably the most special event we've held. Over 1,000 people turned out."

In looking toward the future, Wilson said that Page & Palette will be starting a Shop Local alliance this fall. And, she added, the IndieBound campaign will be important in promoting the importance of shopping locally and educating the consumer about the economics of buying from independents. Wilson will also continue her involvement in the Page & Palette Foundation, which raises money for schools. "We've given away $150,000 to schools thus far," she said. "It's things like this that entrench us in the community. People appreciate and support our efforts." --David Grogan