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| Carole Horne | |
Carole Horne has retired from Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, Mass., after 47 years with the store. During her career, Horne has held a variety of positions with the bookstore, including store manager, head buyer and general manager. Most recently, she has served as senior adviser to the management team, "playing a crucial role in helping the store navigate its way through the incredible challenges posed by the pandemic," Harvard Book Store said.
In addition to her roles at the bookstore, Horne has been a leader in the book industry, serving as president of the New England Booksellers Association (now NEIBA) and as a member of the board of the American Booksellers Association. She "influenced several generations of booksellers both in her leadership roles at Harvard Book Store and the book industry, and as a teacher," the store noted. In the late 1980s, she was on the faculty of the ABA's Booksellers School, and also taught in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union, presenting seminars on "Bookselling in a Market Economy."
"I started at Harvard Book Store, intending only to work for the summer," Horne recalled. "I had been a book lover from my childhood in a small Texas town and thought that a bookstore would be a fun short-term job. It turned into a 47-year career. I was lucky to have landed at Harvard Book Store. It was a perfect fit for me."
Co-owner Jeff Mayersohn commented: "This is a bittersweet moment for me, my wife, and the entire staff and management of our bookstore. We are sad to see Carole go, but happy that she will finally have more time to pursue her many interests, including voracious reading, of course. I cannot describe what an honor and joy it has been to work with Carole. Her intelligence, wisdom, humor, and knowledge of books and our industry have been critical to the store's success through the years. There is not a single important decision throughout my wife's and my tenure as co-owners where our first thought wasn't, 'Let's get Carole's opinion on this.' "
Horne joined Harvard Book Store in 1974, after completing an M.A. in English Literature at Boston University. She began as a bookseller and rose to assistant manager within a year. Shortly after that, she became the first woman to serve as the company's store manager. She was promoted to book buyer in 1978 and held that position for 30 years. In 2007, then-owner Frank Kramer appointed her general manager, and in 2018 she became senior adviser on a part-time basis.