On October 21, 1935, Sinclair Lewis’s novel It Can’t Happen Here, which
he wrote at his home in Barnard, was published. The book tells of a
demagogue fashioned after Adolf Hitler who takes control of the United
States government and turns it into a dictatorship.
The book was number two on The New York Times bestseller list on
November 12, 1935, the day Mr. and Mrs. Barry Borden opened The Yankee
Bookshop on Elm Street, where The Prince & the Pauper restaurant is
today.
Political books are still top sellers in 2025.
Fast-forward to February 2017, the shop’s 82nd year in operation. Kari
Meutsch and Kristian Preylowski became the bookshop’s ninth owners, and
It Can’t Happen Here was selling well, given the political climate of
the time. Jump forward another eight years to today, and the shop is
nearing its 90th anniversary. It Can’t Happen Here has sold strongly
every year through the first half of 2025. Some things don’t change, but
many things do. The intervening years in the shop’s history prove that.
The Journey Begins
Kristian Preylowski and Kari Meutsch.
For Kari and Kristian, becoming bookstore owners was just a matter of
time. Kari, living in Ohio, took her first bookstore job at a Barnes
& Noble after her first year in college. Unsure of what she wanted
to do about school and work, but loving books and bookstores, this
seemed like a good way to spend her time until she figured it out.
Kari finished her degree, moved to Vermont, and started working at the
Barnes & Noble in South Burlington, and while there, the next phases
in her bookstore journey presented themselves. “I had the opportunity
to help with the opening of the Burlington Phoenix books,” she says,
“and I jumped at the chance.”
While at Barnes & Noble, she met Kristian, who had also worked in
bookstores across the country, ending up in Vermont based on his own and
his family’s deep ties with the area. As if in a romance novel of their
own, they began dating.
A Historic Opportunity
“Hey, honey,” Kari recalls saying to Kristian in November 2016 after
they’d been together for five years, “do you want to own a bookstore?”
It wasn’t wishful thinking; Mike DeSanto and Renee Reiner, the owners of
Phoenix Books, were offering them the chance to become co-owners of the
historic Yankee Bookshop. Susan Morgan wanted to retire, and everyone
wanted to keep it running. “I didn’t really have to think about it,”
Kristian says. “If we don’t do this, we were going to very much regret
it later.”
Susan was the shop’s eighth owner, running it from 2001 to 2017. Over
the 90 years of its existence, the shop had almost as many locations as
owners, at least six, including three locations in the first two years
of the nine that Will and Jane Curtis owned the shop, from 1964 to 1973.
The Curtises moved the bookshop to its current location, where it has
been for 59 years.
Kari and Kristian drove to Woodstock on a gray stick-season day and saw
the store and the town for the first time. “We walked into the shop,”
Kari says, “and it felt so bright and lovely, like a literal ray of
sunshine in the town.” Things moved quickly, and by February 2017, they
were The Yankee Bookshop’s owners.
The Value of the Personal Touch
Kari and Kristian brought their combined experiences to The Yankee
Bookshop, but knowing the store was a fixture in Woodstock, they spent
time listening to and learning from the shop’s loyal customers,
implementing only small changes in the first few years. These include
bringing in records, introducing more genres (like science fiction,
mysteries, and romance), and perhaps, most beneficial to them,
redesigning the store’s website and online ordering, which served them
well during the pandemic. The website, they both agree, helped keep The
Yankee Bookshop afloat in 2020.
Another positive thing that happened during that odd year is that Kari
and Kristian married on October 31, in East End Park. Unknown to all
involved, Jane Curtis, at 102 years old, was in the park and observed
the wedding, unaware that the people getting married were the bookshop’s
current stewards.
What keeps the store relevant in this age when online retailers make it
easy to buy just about everything The Yankee Bookshop sells? “It’s the
human touch,” Kristian says. “It’s the tactile, the smell, the sound,
the visuals. It’s the atmosphere.”
Kari adds, “It’s also the personal recommendations. You’re relying on
people who have done this for a long time and who have the knowledge and
enjoy helping you find that specific thing that you knew you wanted or
that book you had no idea about that ends up changing your life.” Kari
also notes that what’s selling changes depending on many things. For
example, in 2017, people were looking to educate themselves. This year,
with the country in a similar situation, people continue to want
education, but they also cherish escapism. The new release wall that
people encounter the second they enter the store, loaded with fiction
and nonfiction books, satisfies both needs.
Over the coming months, the people who visit will have a different and
evolving experience. For the first time in nearly six decades, the store
is changing, expanding into the space next door. The plans are in their
infancy, but Kari’s and Kristian’s excitement is real. Plans are also
in the works for a celebration of the store’s 90th anniversary. With
foliage season, expansion, and celebration, it goes without saying that
Kari, Kristian, and The Yankee Bookshop have a busy few months ahead of
them.
The Yankee Bookshop
12 Central Street
Woodstock, VT
(802) 457-2411
yankeebookshop.com
