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| Paul Ingram | |
Describing Paul Ingram as "a bastion of good books throughout the country and an iconic voice in the City of Literature," the Iowa City Press-Citizen featured a glowing tribute to the bookseller extraordinaire who recently retired from Prairie Lights after 27 years with the bookstore to "spend more time with his wife of 32 years, Ellen Heywood, their grandchildren and, of course, books."
Jan Weissmiller, co-owner of Prairie Lights and Ingram's longtime colleague, noted that "Paul is uncannily intelligent, charismatic, warm and inimitable. Reading and promoting books has been his life's work. He did that perfectly for 50 years, and the world noticed. He's a whirlwind in both thought and action.... He's a world-class bookseller. His love of human nature in all of its forms allowed him to connect books to readers in a way that seems, in my experience, to be nearly unsurpassed."
Ingram observed that "bookstores are great because you can come and hang out there. People can sit up here for hours and just talk about books or read. It's lively, and it's important for communities to have local places like that."
Guiding customers to great new authors "was one of Ingram's greatest skills for the book lovers of Iowa City, who are always on the hunt for the next great write," the Press-Citizen noted. Iowa Writers' House founder Andrea Wilson said, "From the moment I spoke with Paul, he grabbed my hand, took me over to the shelves and gave me a book of an up-and-coming writer. He told me 'This guy, you have to get him. I love what you're doing, and you're going to need people like this. Before they go big, you want them to teach.' "
Ingram "is confident the bookstore will continue to be a bastion of good books in his absence, though he'll never be away from the store for too many days consecutively," the Press-Citizen wrote. "In the weeks after his retirement, Ingram can still commonly be found at the store sipping coffee, talking books and offering up recommendations."
Said Ingram: "Working at Prairie Lights is such a prestigious job. People who get a job here don't ever want to go. But it's time for me to move on."