Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The Last Page in Danger of Turning to Its Own Last Page
By Isabel Claremont, The New Yorker
If you’re a New Yorker or ever even visited the city, chances are you’ve probably been to The Last Page.
This independent bookstore is an iconic destination for booklovers.
In a literary haven like New York City, it can be hard to pick which bookstore to shop at, but The Last Page is an obvious choice.
Perhaps it’s a testament to the evergreen nature of literature or the burgeoning of spicy books from BookTok, but The Last Page is beloved by many.
But if you’ve visited the store, you’d know the real magic extends far beyond the books.
A few years ago, we published an article about the owner and founder, Leo Martin.
He had become a mystical figure at the store.
He’d pull books out for customers beneath his desk and remember their names, even if they only visited once or twice.
Leo had the magic touch of being able to find a book you didn’t know you were looking for but fell in love with anyway.
He was the friendly face that New York City needed.
Sadly, he passed from a heart condition earlier this year (read our obit here). He left the store to his grandson, Henry, with his second-in-command, Carmella Sanchez, working closely.
When I conducted that interview with Leo years ago, he gave me a tour of the store before we sat down in his office to chat. Leo’s office wasn’t the stuffy room of a cog in the machine. Instead, there were pictures hung on nearly every inch of the wall, piles of books and papers everywhere.
I was surprised, but pleased, to find it had barely changed. Henry and Ella have managed to balance the chaos of his office with somewhere that was easy to work and find desk space.
“It’s like he’s still here,” Ella explained. “I don’t think either of us have the heart to move his stuff around too much.”
“Ella nearly threw a book at my head when I moved a stack of papers slightly to the left.”
I waited for her to deny it, but she only shrugged. “He shouldn’t have touched it,” she said teasingly.
I should note that I had no intention of writing another article about The Last Page. There was always public interest in the store, but it was like the Empire State Building. So many people had written about it at this point—was there anything new I could contribute to the story?
Until Ella called me and said The Last Page was in severe danger of closing and asked if I’d be willing to help. I don’t typically do house calls, but I made an exception.
When I was thirteen, I moved to New York City with my family. I was angry and frightened. I was in an unfamiliar city and no one understood the war waging in my head and heart (my first boyfriend was back home in Minnesota and no one cared about my heartbreak!).
I had to pick a book out for summer reading and I could not have cared less what I picked. I was standing in the Young Adult aisle, looking for the thinnest book I could find, when Leo came in. He asked if I needed help and I told him I didn’t care what book I read.
He replied softly, “I didn’t ask if you needed help picking out a book. I asked if you needed help.”
I cried in the YA aisles with Leo kindly patting my shoulder. He didn’t patronize me. He told me the first heartbreak was always the most difficult, that being scared was normal, and that I’d fall in love with New York. That I had another chance to fall in love, right here, right now in this city.
Like magic poured from his fingertips, he reached out to the shelf and pulled out The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith. He thought I might like it.
But in the pages of that book, I fell in love with New York City. Maybe it’s the power of books to show you that others can relate to those feelings. But maybe it’s the power of Leo to show you the others who do relate.
So for Leo Martin, I took the house call and I am more than happy to report that the magic of the store is alive and well in Carmella Sanchez and Henry Martin.
Ella spoke with passion about their upcoming event to raise money to save the store.
“Book fairs are one of the first places kids fall in love with reading,” she said.
“Or The Last Page,” Henry added.
“Exactly. So many kids come to our storytime and get a book here that changes their perspective on literature. Why not combine the two into one big fair here?”
“I’ve been to a few with my kid. He’d always read the book out loud in whatever voice Leo had done that day,” I said.
Ella smiled widely at that. “He would be very happy to know you said that.”
It’s clear that Leo’s magic lives on between these two. I lingered after our interview, watching the way they interacted with customers. Ella’s enthusiasm and Henry’s kindness made two halves of the hole Leo left in the store.
The Last Page will be hosting a book fair on July 26, for one day only. You can buy tickets here. Like every tourist website insists, The Last Page is not to be missed.