Who Are You, Anyway?

Last night, I had the great privilege of attending an event honoring the 50-year anniversary of our beloved local bookstore here in the Bay Area: Book Passage.

I only write about events I attend when the subject is so inspiring that I can’t help myself, and in founder and president Elaine Petrocelli, who’s 85 going on 55, there’s no shortage of inspiration.

Sitting in the audience, I thought a lot about the contrast between Elaine and other founders we have to hear about in the news these days—the founders of places like Amazon, or Facebook, or ChatGPT who are so cringey and disappointing and out of touch. Can you imagine any of these guys ever uttering the words Elaine spoke last night about her long tenure running one of the most popular and beloved bookstores in the country:

She may as well have been saying this about herself, which is something that’s always set Book Passage apart—the inherent kindness underlying the operation. If all of book publishing acted with the integrity and decency of Elaine Petrocelli, we’d have a very different industry on our hands.

Specifically, I’m talking about an ethos of equality that you can feel at Book Passage. This is a store that regularly hosts famous authors and luminaries, and at the same time always makes room for unknown, debut authors.

Last night, Elaine told the story of an author who’s now very famous who had an event at Book Passage for his first book where only six people showed up. “And one of them was his mother, and another one was me,” she laughed. She didn’t tell us who he is, but we’d know his name, she said.

When She Writes Press first started in 2012, Elaine and Book Passage embraced us. Our authors, local or not, have always wanted to have events at Book Passage. It’s kind of a rite of passage for local authors especially—and Elaine and her husband Bill supported what we were doing from the jump. Elaine’s interviewer last night was Lisa Kay Solomon, and she spoke to Elaine’s talent at spotting things—books to carry, authors to cultivate, friends of the bookstore to acknowledge. And I’ll add to that list, local publishers to champion.

When I go to Book Passage, the honoring flows both ways. I feel Book Passage’s appreciation for She Writes Press, and I’m devoted to Book Passage and to Elaine. When I was contemplating moving distributors, Elaine was one of the first people I contacted. She’s never been too busy to take my call.

Listening to Elaine share stories from the early days of Book Passage, I kept thinking about hard work and humility. We’re living in a world now where cheaters and exploiters get ahead. Listening to Elaine, you feel her commitment and her kindness, but also her strength and her resolution.

She told a story of when Bill Clinton came to the bookstore’s San Francisco location, and 2500 showed up having been promised their books would be signed. About 1000 people in, Clinton’s aid explained to Elaine that they had to stop the line. When Elaine reminded him of the deal, the aid pushed back.

Resolute, Elaine said, “Really, I don’t think that would be good for the president.”

The man said, “I am the one in charge of this event.”

To which Elaine said, “When you are President, I’ll do what you say, but he’s the president, and I’m going to ask him.”

You can imagine what happened. The aid said never mind and every single one of those 2500 people got their book signed by Clinton.

I love this story because it shows Elaine’s fair-mindedness. Clinton committed to those fans, and Elaine was going to make sure her patrons got what they came for.

More of our modern leaders could take cues from Elaine’s style of leadership. I see so many people in leadership positions thinking there’s power in forcefulness, in bullying, and in one-upmanship. Our new attention economy rewards the people who are the loudest and the most bombastic. But those aren’t the people who positively impact the most lives.

Elaine was nearly brought to tears remembering 9/11. That morning, after the second plane hit, she thought of her employees, and realized she needed to drive to the store and close shop for the day. When she got there, well over 100 people were in the store. They didn’t know where to go, so they’d come to Book Passage. She talked about raiding the café for all the food and drinks they had, and setting up a space for people to just commune, and be, and to get news from loved ones in New York as they could.

Elaine is my kind of role model because of the loyalty she and Book Passage inspire. It doesn’t take a lot, really, to honor the dignity in others. In the early days of She Writes Press, when I got so much pushback about hybrid publishing, Elaine and Bill saw it as innovative and important. They’ve always made my authors feel special and welcome, hosting events, selling their books. This shouldn’t be rare, but it is. I’ve felt seen and buoyed by their support all of these years, and the value of that is immeasurable. Last night I witnessed that Elaine does this seamlessly, for countless people.

A couple times from the stage last night, Lisa Kay Solomon suggested that someone needs to write Elaine’s biography, and I agree! When Lisa Kay closed with the question of what the biography might be called, Elaine didn’t hesitate to share a perfect closing story, which was how she refused to have an event for our current president, and his response was: “Who are you, anyway?” Which would indeed make a great book title for the story of Elaine’s life.

There’s a rich story waiting to be told here. For now, I’m honoring Book Passage and Elaine with this tribute and hoping to read in the comments the ways others have been touched and impacted by their hard work. Happy 50 years to our amazing local indie.