BookFlow.com began as a traditional upscale bookstore in New York. It was founded in 1899 by Grover C. Lawyer and Wellington J. Lawyer, with the help of their father, David C. Lawyer, a successful businessman.
Many of the books from that store were eventually passed down to Grover’s son, David A. Lawyer. In 1929 when the Great Depression hit America, David was 23 years old and, like many Americans at the time, looking for a good way to make a living. Starting with the books he inherited, he founded a bookstore in Altadena, a suburb of Los Angeles.
An advertisement promised, “We will undertake to procure for you any book desired. We can succeed in this where others cannot…” Gradually, his inventory of books swelled to over 250,000. He started another bookstore in the San Francisco Bay Area with his friend Herbert Bell. The College Bookstore, founded in 1935, was the first bookstore that catered to Stanford University students, and still sells books today at 536 Emerson St. in downtown Palo Alto.
David A. Lawyer passed away in 1995, leaving a large collection of books to his grandchildren, including Matthew and Michael Lawyer. In 1997, Matthew and Michael began sharing their book collection with the world, using modern technology to closely replicate the experience of reading the original book. Their proprietary process is slow, tedious, and expensive, but worth it.
Check out BookFlow here.
Check out BookFlow here.