Books Inc.

Books Inc. traces its story to 1851, when Anton Roman, an immigrant from Central Europe who had struck gold at Shasta City, opened a bookstore there. He moved it to Montgomery Street in San Francisco in 1855. Alex Robertson inherited the business in 1882, rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake and fire, and ran it until 1924. Leon Gelber and Ted Lilianthal followed on Sutter Street. In 1946 Lew Lengfeld bought the store and gave it the name Books Inc. Lengfeld died in 1996 as national chains arrived on the West Coast. The company closed ten of twelve stores and entered Chapter 11, emerging in August 1997 with four shops under Michael Grant and Michael Tucker. Tucker led the company until 2019, when Andrew Perham, with the firm since 2010, took over. The Campbell store trades at 1875 S. Bascom Avenue, Suite 600, in the Pruneyard. In January 2025 Books Inc. again filed for Chapter 11, citing rising costs and the shift to online buying. In September 2025 it asked the bankruptcy court to approve a sale to BI Acquisition Co., a Barnes & Noble affiliate, for 3.25 million dollars. KQED reported that the nine remaining stores would keep the Books Inc. name. The company's own website now carries the Barnes & Noble copyright and describes its beginnings in the Gold Rush days of 1851.