Glad Day Bookshop
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Glad Day Bookshop is an independent bookstore in Toronto, Ontario, specializing in LGBT literature. The store is located at 598A Yonge Street near the city's Church and Wellesley neighbourhood.
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[edit] History
Opened in 1970 by Jearld Moldenhauer, it was the city's and Canada's first bookstore targeted to the gay community. The bookstore originally operated out of Moldenhauer's apartment in The Annex, which also served as the original offices of The Body Politic.[1] Moldenhauer later moved to a house in Kensington Market, where the bookstore and magazine operated out of a shed in his backyard.[1] The store moved to its current location in 1981.
In 1979, Moldenhauer opened a second location in Boston. A fire destroyed the Boston building in 1982, but the store reopened in a different location a few weeks later.[2]
Moldenhauer sold the Toronto location to John Scythes in 1991, but retained ownership of the Boston store and continued to be involved in the Toronto store's operations.[2] After the Boston store's landlord decided to convert the building into condominiums, Moldenhauer closed the store in 2000 when he and manager John Mitzel faced difficulty finding a suitable new location.[3]
The Toronto location remains open, and is currently managed by Prodan Nedev. Since the closure of New York City's Oscar Wilde Bookshop in early 2009, Glad Day is now the oldest surviving LGBT bookstore in North America.[1]
From 1998 to early 2005, the science fiction bookstore Bakka-Phoenix was located on the main floor of the same building as Glad Day's Toronto store.
[edit] Social involvement
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The business frequently donates books to organizations such as the Pride Library at the University of Western Ontario.
Like its counterpart in Vancouver, Little Sister's, Glad Day's materials have been frequently confiscated by Canada Customs during importation as "obscene materials".
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c "Glad Day now oldest gay bookstore", Xtra!, February 6, 2009.
- ^ a b "Sad Day for Glad Day Bookshop". Publishers Weekly, June 26, 2000.
- ^ "And then there was one". Bay Windows, July 14, 2005.
[edit] External links
Coordinates: 43°38′55″N 79°22′39″W / 43.648544°N 79.377594°W
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