Very sad news. 
Carla Cohen, co-founder of Politics & Prose Bookstore, Washington, D.C., died yesterday morning. She was 74. "For all of us here at Politics & Prose, it is difficult to believe that someone larger than life is gone, and I will deeply miss my friend and partner," wrote co-owner Barbara Meade on the bookshop's website. A funeral will be held at Tifereth Israel, 7701 16th Street, N.W., at 1:30 p.m., tomorrow, October 13. You are also invited to share condolences, tributes and memories of Carla here.
In a letter to members, Lucy Kogler, president of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association, observed, "When I think of Carla I think of a lioness. Not in the protective sense of shielding, but in the noble sense of dutifully doing the work of teaching her bookselling progeny, feeding them and the bookselling community with the ideas and examples of a leader passionately committed to her job and chosen role within her profession, within the pride.... Her legacy to us is legion: mentor, role model, friend, and advisor. A woman with impeccable and varied tastes in literature, she kept independent bookselling in front of the nation in the capital of our nation."
And longtime Politics & Prose bookseller Mark LaFramboise recalled, "When I was considering making the move from Colorado to D.C. to work at Politics & Prose, Carla told me, 'Just stay at our house until you find an apartment.' So I packed up two cats, a computer, and a suitcase of clothes and headed East. I knew Carla from various ABA dinners and 'large store roundtables' so I knew she was well-read, intelligent, and opinionated. I would come to learn, though, how generous and big-hearted she was. She nurtured authors as well as booksellers and shared her love of her favorite books with everyone she encountered.
"Carla has had a profound impact on my life, as mentor, a colleague, and a friend. I will miss her terribly, but I take comfort in being part of what she created. Being in the bookstore, one need only look around and see Carla in every part of it. She lived big, with overflowing generosity and unmistakable passion."
The Washington Post called Carla "an exuberant force behind the evolution of Politics and Prose from a simple storefront into an institution that defined Washington's literary scene.... Politics and Prose distinguished itself as the purveyor of public affairs books, literary nonfiction and other genres not known for impressive sales figures. The collection has been embraced by a particularly Washington mix of customers: journalists, think-tankers and other book-hungry types drawn by the intersection of literature and big ideas."
"It's a place where books are not commodities--they're something else," said Washington reporter Susan Stamberg. "You feel you're with like-minded people, people who share your passions and your interests."
In Carla's obituary, the New York Times wrote that "Politics and Prose became a cornerstone of the community, a humming salon for the wonky and the literary alike and a neighborhood institution for those looking for a cup of coffee, a comfortable chair or just a good book recommendation--often courtesy of Mrs. Cohen herself."