author
Stuart Brent
1912–2010
A legendary Chicago bookseller, he turned a small postwar shop into a destination for serious readers and writers. His memoir captures the energy of literary life in mid-20th-century Chicago and the fiercely independent spirit that shaped his career.
1 Audiobook
The seven stairs
by Stuart Brent
About the author
Born in 1912, Stuart Brent became one of Chicago’s best-known independent booksellers. The University of Chicago notes that he studied there, served in the Army during World War II, and after the war opened a small Rush Street shop called the Seven Stairs, named for the steps leading down to its door.
That first store grew into Stuart Brent Books on North Michigan Avenue, a place remembered as a major gathering spot for readers for roughly fifty years. He was widely associated with Chicago’s literary culture, and his reputation rested not only on selling books but on championing serious reading and introducing customers to writers and ideas they might not have found elsewhere.
Brent also wrote about the world he knew best. His memoir, The Seven Stairs, looks back on his early years in bookselling and the bookish life of Chicago with warmth, wit, and strong opinions—the same qualities that made him such a memorable figure to generations of readers.