A short history of Hampton Pages Booksellers, written by Timothy Dupree.
I spent fifteen years between a New York auction house and a small academic press in New Haven. Both jobs taught me the same lesson, in different rooms: that books are physical objects with a life of their own, and that the people who care about them tend to find each other.
By the spring of 2011 I had two things — a small inheritance from my grandmother in Sag Harbor, and a stubborn idea that Southampton was missing a proper literary bookshop. So I rented a narrow room on Clark Street with a south-facing window, asked a carpenter friend to build the shelves in white oak, and opened the door in October with about nine hundred titles.
That a bookshop is not a warehouse, and not a brand. It is a room where someone has read most of what is on the shelves and is willing to talk about it. Every book in Hampton Pages has been chosen by hand. There is no algorithm, no co-op fee, no front-table-for-sale.
We sell fewer titles than a chain. We hope you find better ones.
The shop is owned and operated by Timothy Dupree. Three booksellers — Helen, Maya, and Joaquín — make the shelves possible: Helen runs the photography wall, Maya covers translated fiction, and Joaquín hunts down first editions on weekends.
We are at 2424 Clark Street, Southampton, NY 11968. The door is open Monday through Saturday, 10am to 7pm, and Sundays 11am to 5pm. You can ring the shop at (631) 287-2299, or write to privacy@carloslabascalbooks.com.