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| Camille Rosengren | |
Camille Rosengren, who, like "a sommelier for fine books instead of wine... could pick the perfect work of fiction, Texana or other literature for even the most discerning reader," died September 11, the San Antonio Express-News reported. She was 94.
Rosengren "was carrying on a family tradition that made Rosengren's Books the most storied bookseller in San Antonio, starting in the 1930s with Frank and Florence Rosengren and continuing well into the 1980s with their bibliophile daughter-in-law, whom everyone called 'Cam.' Now the story of Rosengren's Books' last matron has come to an end," the Express-News noted, adding that for 52 years, the downtown store, which closed in 1987, "was the South Texas salon for the intelligentsia, drawing famous patrons whose own best-selling books lined the shelves. Poet Robert Frost once called Rosengren's 'the greatest of bookstores,' an endorsement he left on a signed photo of himself for the store in 1938."
Former Express-News business editor and columnist David Hendricks, who frequented Rosengren's during his 42 years at the newspaper, said: "She was one of the last great independent booksellers in America. And she certainly was a bright light on the San Antonio literary scene."
San Antonio historian Mary Carolyn Hollers George, who celebrated the bookshop's legacy in her 2015 book Rosengren's Books: An Oasis for Mind and Spirit, said Rosengren relished running the downtown store and made the most out of keeping it alive for as long as she did: "It wasn't about selling books. It was about loving books."
Rosengren's "was the vanguard for independent bookselling in 20th century San Antonio, paving the way for later local stores such as Booksmiths and Red Balloon as well as the still-standing Twig Book Shop in the Pearl," the Express-News wrote.
"I always thought of Rosengren's as being just so connected with writers and the literary world," said Twig Book Shop buyer and longtime employee Susanna Nawrocki. "(And Camille) was just so knowledgeable. Of course she worked with books forever."