Politics and Prose customers looking for information about Mexican
history and culture can ask the store's co-owner, Carla Cohen, for
reading suggestions. They can also take much bigger step and accompany
Cohen and other Politics and Prose patrons on a trip to experience the
country first-hand.
"Mexico is a particularly fascinating country," said Cohen, who for the
past several years has taken groups of travelers on 10-12 day
excursions to different regions south of the border. "I think people
are too Euro-centric and they ought to know something about our own
hemisphere."
Longtime Politics and Prose customer and Washington, D.C., resident
Marifrances Hardison has gone on two trips to Mexico with Cohen. "I
chose the trips because I knew they would be well thought out and there
would be interesting people going," Hardison commented. "I was so
impressed by Carla's enthusiasm and her very careful planning of
details, such as which towns and places to visit, which ones to spend
extra time in, where to eat, what museums to see [and] which artists'
homes to visit."
Cohen organizes regional trips as well, including a day-long jaunt to
Fallingwater, a private residence designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in
Mill Run, Pa., that is a National Historic Landmark.
Recently Cohen took travelers on a two-night art and architecture tour
of New York State's Hudson Valley. The trip included stops at the FDR
Presidential Library and Museum, the Vanderbilt mansion, the
Rockefeller family estate and the Storm King Art Center. "I love
showing people these places," said Cohen, who has also taken groups to
Philadelphia and the Brandywine River Valley as well.
The first Politics and Prose trip took place in
1990, shortly after the Berlin Wall came down, when Cohen decided she wanted
to visit the city and witness history in the making. She invited
Politics and Prose customers along, and 24 people joined
her on the trip. They placed "a lot of faith in me," said Cohen. "It
was a really great group of people, and we had an amazing experience."
For each trip, Cohen gives participants a reading list. Given the
duration of the Mexico trips, Cohen said, "that's one where I really
try to get people to read something about the country's history and
culture beforehand." (See her reading list for Mexico in the following story.)
Cohen often brings advance reading copies on a range of topics with her
on the Mexico trips. She passes them around among the group's
travelers, who offer feedback. Peter Pouncey's Rules for Old Men Waiting
was one title that received an enthusiastic endorsement, and Cohen
later arranged an author appearance for Pouncey at Politics and Prose.
"The book has gone on to sell quite well for an unknown author," noted
Cohen. "That's an unforeseen consequence of what happens on the trips."
Aside from the Mexico trips, which she coordinates with an independent
travel planner, Cohen arranges the excursions herself, and it's an
initiative she'd like to expand. "I could do more of this if I had
somebody who I really trusted to do it because I think there's a real
market for it," she said. "It has to be marketed carefully, and I don't
always do all that I can to advertise and make people understand what a
special thing this is." Travel agents have approached Cohen over the
years, but she has declined their services. "They're very conventional
in what they want the group to do," said Cohen.
Cohen alerts customers to Politics and Prose trips through the store's
printed newsletter, which is mailed every month, and weekly e-mail
updates. "The real way in which people respond to the trips is by
e-mail," said Cohen. Trip participants do not have to be Washington,
D.C., residents or even Politics and Prose customers. "One year," Cohen
noted about a trip to Mexico, "we had half non-D.C. people," who heard
about it primarily through friends and relatives who frequent Politics
and Prose.
As for upcoming journeys, Cohen plans to keep taking travelers to
Mexico (the next trip is scheduled for this coming February and will
cost $2,600 a person with a $550 single supplement) as well as to
regional destinations like Fallingwater--for now at least. "Nothing is
a fixed thing with me," she said. "There are so many places I think
would be fun to visit."
A friend of Cohen recently returned from a trip to South Africa. When
Cohen inquired about the group she traveled with, her friend replied,
"It was fine, but it wasn't Politics and Prose."--Shannon McKenna