BISBEE — Craig Harzinski, the co-owner of Bisbee Books & Music, loves reading stories with a happy ending. Imagine, then, how much he likes being in one.

Twelve months after listing the store for sale, and 70 days after announcing its imminent closure, Harzinski and co-partner Ken Mertes happily announced last week that buyers had finally been found for Bisbee’s last remaining bookstore.

“It’s an amazing thing,” Harzinski confessed. “A man came in one day, wanting to buy a book. Next thing you know, he bought a bookstore.”

Final papers were signed Jan. 7, and the new owners will take over the day-to-day management of the store early next month.

Books and literature have been part of Bisbee’s DNA since 1882, when Copper Queen Mining opened Arizona’s first public library in its company store.

Novelist J.A. Jance, a 1962 graduate of Bisbee High, based her popular Joanna Brady mystery series here. Poet Richard Shelton’s touchstone “Going Back to Bisbee” was published in 1992.

But for the last 11 years, there has been only one bookstore in town: Bisbee Books & Music, in the old Phelps Dodge Building at the foot of Main Street.

Bisbee Books & Music co-owner Craig Harzinski listed the store for sale one year ago.

“When we bought the store six years ago, our plan was to work for three more years and then retire,” Harzinski said of he and Mertes. “Retire-retire. But then Covid happened. All the uncertainty after Covid happened. Finally, about a year ago, Ken and I decided it was just time. We had taken the store as far as we knew how, and it was time for somebody else to make it even better.”

They listed the store for sale last January, hoping a buyer could be found by summer. True, the independent bookstore business is seldom a get-rich enterprise, but tourism gives this one a steady revenue stream. And it is, after all, in Bisbee.

“We had a ton of people come in and express interest,” Harzinski said. “Several contacted our broker, but I’d say we had two very serious buyers. The first couldn’t quite get her financing together, and the second had a health issue come up at the last minute. By September, we were pretty much back where we started.”

The homemade sign that had been at the store’s entrance from Oct. 29 until last week.

On Oct. 29 — in a message headlined “Sad, Sad News” — the store told its customers it would close Dec. 31 if a buyer did not come forward before then.

“We both felt horrible about it. We know how much the store means to the people who live here, but we had started to make other plans … thinking the store would be sold.”

Harzinski said they stopped ordering books in a conscious effort to reduce inventory. They began discounting stock on the shelves and planning a liquidation sale.

Then, on the afternoon of Nov. 22 …

“I was behind the counter when a man walked in looking for a book,” Harzinski recalled. “He was moving to Bisbee from North Dakota, in town looking for a house, and had learned about our store from the library across the street. We began talking about Bisbee and books and the bookstore … and we’ve been talking pretty much ever since.”

Harzinski and Mertes are planning an open house next month to introduce the new owners to the Bisbee community, and the occasion will be bittersweet for many of those who drop by.

Bisbee Books & Music co-owner Craig Harzinski announced last week that a buyer had been found for Bisbee’s last remaining bookstore.

Local poet, essayist and longtime Bisbee resident Ken Lamberton, the author of “Chasing Arizona,” said Harzinski and Mertes will be missed.

“Craig and Ken have been great for all of us, especially our local writers,” Lamberton said. “Our books are on their shelves. They host readings almost every weekend. If you like being around books and book people, their store is about as good as it gets.”

Jason Macoviak, manager of the Copper Queen Library, agreed.

“Over the years, Bisbee Books has become an integral part of our community,” he said. “Craig and Ken have done a wonderful job of curating a collection that highlights our unique history, culture and art. I also admire their commitment to raising the voices of local authors through their signings and readings. Independent bookstores are important to every community, and that’s certainly the case here.”

Ironically, Harzinski and Mertes moved to the Bisbee area in 2018 to open a restaurant. When the deal fell through, they began looking for alternatives. That December, they found themselves running a bookstore.

Bisbee Books & Music is the last remaining bookstore in Bisbee.

“We just loved the idea of working in Bisbee,” Harzinski said. “We had no idea what we were doing. Neither of us had ever worked in retail, much less a bookstore, but we were lucky. The people here taught us how to do it. They told us what kind of books they liked, what art supplies they needed. They’ve been amazing to us, right from the start.”

The drive from Green Valley got old, he confessed, but his days in the store never did.

“We loved the time we spent in the store. We met people from all over the world, looking for just the right book to take home. The best part was helping them find just the one they wanted, even though they didn’t know it when they walked in.”

An eclectic place well-known for its arts and artists, Bisbee has supported local booksellers for almost 100 years. Atalanta Books & Music, David Eshner Books, The Book Stall, Walter Swan’s One-Book Bookstore …

Today there is only one, but the tradition will continue.

As for Harzinski and Mertes, they have rented a house in Porto, Portugal, and will be moving there this spring. There are bookshops in Porto, too, so who knows where this might lead?

FOOTNOTES

  • Tucson author Becky Masterman has a new addition to her family of mysteries. “Her Prodigal Husband,” a spin-off from Masterman’s Brigid Quinn series, was released Jan. 7 by Severn House. It is her sixth novel.
  • Poets Ilya Kaminsky and Katie Farris will read from their latest works Thursday, Jan. 23, at the University of Arizona Poetry Center. The program will begin at 7 p.m. For more information, visit poetry.arizona.edu.
  • The Tucson Festival of Books has announced its schedule of panels and presentations for the weekend of March 15-16. It can be viewed on the festival website: tucsonfestivalofbooks.org.
4React

Become a #ThisIsTucson member! Your contribution helps our team bring you stories that keep you connected to the community. Become a member today.

Browse previous Bookmarks columns and keep up with news from the Tucson book community by following Bookmarks Arizona (@BookArizona) on X, formerly known as Twitter.