Garrison Keillor, who founded Common Good Books in St. Paul, Minn., in 2006, has sold the store to St. Paul native Nick Ballas, who has renamed the store Next Chapter Booksellers. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Ballas will make "some minor interior changes" and add new signage, but the store will remain open and the staff is continuing.
MPR News said that a celebratory open house will be held on May 19 and noted that longtime manager David Enyeart will stay on in that role. "There was uncertainty and that is not an easy way to live," he commented. "That's not an easy way to be. It's great to have everything settled and to know that the store is going to be around for quite a while."
Keillor had put the store on the market early this year. At the time, Keillor said: "I opened Common Good Books because I loved the bookstores I knew around the U, Perrine's and McCosh's and Heddan's and Savran's. And now I'm leaving town and am busy writing a book of my own so it's time to turn over the business to someone else. The world is full of wonderful independent bookstores and needs every one."
Ballas told the Star Tribune that he wants to host more events at the store and across the street at Macalester College, as well as expand the store's online presence and sell more books online. "We have the capability to do that today," Ballas commented, "but we haven't focused so much on it because we're a store that really specializes in personalized service."
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The newspaper said Ballas worked for manufacturing companies--Nexans and Cabot Corp.--in Asia for several decades before returning to St. Paul in 2016 to be closer to his children. Managing director of Cathedral Hill Advisory, a consulting firm to small and medium-sized organizations, Ballas said in a statement on the store website: "I know firsthand what an independent bookstore means to a city, and when the opportunity to support this one came along, I jumped at the chance. The store is filled with wonderful books and booksellers dedicated to helping customers find just what they're looking for. We have something special, and I'm so happy to be able to keep this store here for St. Paul readers."
Common Good Books opened on Cathedral Hill and moved to its present location, at 38 S. Snelling Ave., in 2012.
The founding host of Minnesota Public Radio's A Prairie Home Companion and author of many bestselling books, in 2017 Keillor was accused of inappropriate behavior with a female co-worker. That led to an MPR investigation that found he also wrote and posted an off-color limerick about a young woman who was a bookseller at Common Good Books.