The art dealer Larry Gagosian is the new owner of the stalwart East Hampton Village bookstore, BookHampton, which has been for sale since the fall. “It would have been a horrible thing to lose that bookstore,” he said last Thursday. “When I heard it was for sale, I jumped at the opportunity.”
Mr. Gagosian, who also owns the Blue Parrot, a restaurant in the village, is a 35-year resident of Amagansett. “I’ve seen a lot of change in that time, but it’s still an amazing community,” he said.
Carolyn Brody, who has owned BookHampton since 2016, announced the sale in a newsletter she published last week. She said that since the fall she had been looking for “the next steward of the bookstore.”
“I feel confident that he will carry BookHampton into the future, while preserving and protecting its almost 50-year legacy. In the face of strong market pressure, an independent bookstore will remain on Main Street. Not a small feat!” she wrote.
“There are many headwinds facing a bookstore these days,” she said by phone this week. “Amazon is the biggest. People also read in shorter doses now. They’re not into long books; reading habits have changed. There are just so many ways to get information and entertainment now. Bookstores are not first and foremost anymore.”
Locally, Canio’s Books in Sag Harbor closed in 2024, after 44 years at the location, though it continues to do pop-up book sales and events. This, after Barnes and Noble opened in the Bridgehampton Commons at the end of 2023.
As for BookHampton, “I’m not going to turn it into a Gagosian Gallery by any means,” Mr. Gagosian said.
“There are a couple of things I’m going to change. I want it to remain relevant. It’s still going to be run as a general-interest bookstore, but I will be emphasizing more art books. East Hampton is a community where there are a lot of people who care about art. I want to bolster that part of the store.”
Described in a 2023 New Yorker profile as “the biggest art dealer in the history of the world,” Mr. Gagosian comes to the South Fork year round “on and off when the weather is not too brutal,” but spends most of his time here during the summer.
Mr. Gagosian is not the only one who felt a bookstore in the village was worth preserving. Jay Eastman, whose family owns the newly renamed East Hampton Square, of which the bookstore is one component, said his father loved bookstores.
“Our dad was an active reader and loved having a bookstore in East Hampton,” he said, “something he hoped would continue. In addition, our family has had a long history with Larry in and around the arts. Larry’s passion for books and bookstores, coupled with owning a home locally since the late 1980s, makes him a natural fit to take the reins from Ms. Brody. We look forward to what is to come.”
“For bookstores, the profit margin is somewhere between negative something a little bit and positive something a little bit,” said Ms. Brody. “That’s especially true in a seasonal community. It’s a heart and soul thing, a labor of love. Owning one is for somebody who understands the importance of books and reading. Being able to discover a new book, an old classic, a beautiful art book, wonderful puzzle, or just having a place to buy Monopoly on a rainy day in the summer, I like to think that’s long lasting, and not going away.”
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Note: This article has been updated since it originally appeared online.