Midnight Special Bookstore
The Midnight Special Bookstore was an independent bookstore in southern California. It catered to a leftist clientele. Its merchandise and events emphasized current events such as the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Chinese democracy movement and U.S. intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq.
History
Founded in 1970 as a co-op in Venice, the shop "was run predominantly by volunteers" until around 1985.In 1980 it moved from Venice to
1350 Third Street
in Santa Monica, then in 1992 moved again to 1318 Third Street Promenade. For more than ten years, the mall's landlord charged the shop less rent than other tenants were paying, but with a change in management and success in attracting upscale tenants, the mall operator asked for an increase that would "more than double" the rent. For this reason, the bookstore moved out of its Third Street location in March 2003. Its stock was kept in storage for eight months. In November 2003, the store reopened at 1450 Second Street in Santa Monica, then finally closed around June 2, 2004. Its owner cited weak sales and continuing financial difficulties as the reason for closing:
Authors who appeared at the shop:
- Cecilia Brainard
- Octavia Butler
- bell hooks
- Paulo Coelho
- Slavoj Žižek
- Eduardo Galeano
- Viggo Mortensen
- Dave Eggers
- Elaine Brown
- Lalo Alcaraz
- Walter Mosley
- Trinh Minh-ha
- Edward Said
- Junko Mizuno
- Margaret Randall
- Maya Angelou
- Tariq Ali
- Michael Ventura
- Paul Krassner
- Tavis Smiley
- consumer advocate David Horowitz
- Bernadette Devlin
Robert Greenwald and Oliver Stone, actor David Warshofsky, Elaine Brown of the Black Panther Party, UCLA professor Khaled Abou El Fadl; and musicians Dave Marsh, Jello Biafra, Frank Zappa and Ray Manzarek.