Jenny Feder, artist and a founder of Three Lives & Company in New York City, died earlier this month after a brief illness. She was 73.
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| Jenny Feder | |
In 1978, Feder, with Jill Dunbar--her wife of 50 years--and Helene Webb, opened Three Lives & Company on Seventh Avenue in Greenwich Village. Several years later, as recalled by Calvin Trillin, with the help of neighbors and customers, the store moved to its present location on West 10th Street at Waverly Place. The corner itself is historic, immortalized in Edward Hopper's 1927 painting of Silbers Pharmacy, and is across the street from Julius', one of the oldest gay bars in the city. The fixtures in both stores were designed and built by Feder and reflect her warm and resourceful nature.
In 2001, Feder and Dunbar sold the store to Toby Cox. Under Cox's stewardship, and with his dedicated staff, they have carried on the store's role as a hub of downtown literary life.
Cox said, "Since the news of Jenny's passing, we've been saying that Jenny was the visionary for the shop. She designed and hand-built the space. She was also the master of the display, always at work beautifully presenting the books and making the shop come alive. It is a joy and honor to work in the space that Jenny created."
After selling the store, Feder and Dunbar moved to the North Fork of Long Island where Feder continued her life's work as an artist. Growing up in New York City, she had attended the High School of Art and Design, the Art Students League, and spent summers studying at the Instituto de Allende in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her intimate, small-scale sculptures reflect a lifetime of reading, traveling, and collecting ephemera. She created alluring and multifaceted houses reflecting the world of books that animated her life. A review by Helen Harrison in the New York Times described her work as reminiscent of Joseph Cornell's boxes: "Ms. Feder's tiny buildings are like repositories for memories--little refuges for the imagination after it has tired itself in flights of fancy. Travel, romance, game-playing and role-playing are all alluded to, as is the sometimes-disquieting sense of vulnerability that one feels when away from a safe haven."
Rick Kot, executive editor at Viking, remembered: "When I moved to Chelsea in the mid-1980s from the far reaches of the Upper East Side, I had to learn all the best local places, and a good bookstore was certainly a priority. Three Lives was a name that kept coming up when I asked advice from friends in the area, so one day I took the dog and we made our way down to West 10th Street. The minute we stepped in, I knew I was home, for the atmosphere, for the brilliantly curated selection, and for the warm welcome we received from both Jill and Jenny. (And Clover certainly appreciated the biscuit that was immediately offered.) Both women were not only dependable sources of advice, carefully tailored to the taste of the individual customer, but were warm, wry, and always up for a good long talk. Our first visit soon became a regular Sunday ritual--I only had to mention “Three Lives” to Clover and she'd begin barking in happy anticipation. That era of the publishing business will always be special to me as something of a Golden Age, and I can't help but associate it with Three Lives. Jenny and Jill forever set a standard for me for what a good bookstore should be, and happily, Toby and his crew have carried on that legacy."