Booksellers & Stationers in San Francisco
8 stores · curated ORBIS register
Books cast in hot metal, letterpress-printed, and hand-bound entirely in one San Francisco workshop since 1974.
Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti founded City Lights Booksellers & Publishers in 1953, and it remains both an independent bookstore and a publisher. Its North Beach rooms anchor Beat-era literary San Francisco.
Green Apple Books is an independent San Francisco bookstore founded in 1967 by Richard Savoy on Clement Street. It has since grown into three sister stores, still majority book-focused despite selling records and gifts.
Celia Sack opened the Noe Valley cookbook shop in 2008, a regular stop on Bay Area chef book tours.
Nobuo Mihara co-founded Paper Tree in 1968; the Japantown origami shop continues.
The Aesthetic Union is a letterpress printing studio in San Francisco operating for over a decade, offering custom letterpress printing, retail paper goods and art prints, workshops starting from $100, and press rental facilities. The shop stocks greeting cards and stationery featuring collaborative designs with artists Wyatt Hersey and Cane Howlet.
The Booksmith is a general-interest bookshop on Haight Street in San Francisco, serving neighbourhood readers as well as visitors. The store moved to 1727 Haight Street in 2021, continuing a bookselling history that began elsewhere on the street in 1976. Its author programme and broad selection give readers reasons to return beyond buying a particular new release.
Founded 1974 by architect Bill Stout; one of San Francisco's essential design bookstores. AIA California: launched 1974 with Steven Holl; ~70,000-volume catalogue; Eames Institute acquired shop and publishers after Stout's 2022 retirement.