Sherman's Bookstore, Park Ave. & Mulberry St.

Between 1970 and his death in 1987, Abe Sherman insulted strangers and loyal customers alike at his bookstore, which once occupied the storefront on the southwest corner of Mulberry and Park. By the time he opened this store, he was in his seventies and had been selling books, magazines, and newspapers since the 1910s. He became an iconic figure in Baltimore at his newsstand at the base of the Battle Monument at Fayette and Calvert streets, which he established in 1919. His customers over the years included Babe Ruth, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mayors Thomas McKeldin and Donald Schaefer. Sherman’s was known from early days as a source for newspapers and magazines from all over the world. Later on, customers came looking for left-wing and countercultural publications, as well as rock posters and psychedelia.

Sherman tolerated no nonsense in his store. “No browsing” signs were posted throughout. Within seconds of entering he would snarl out his greeting: “Are you buying or reading? If you wanna read, go up to the Pratt”-- referring to the Enoch Pratt Library up the street on Cathedral. 

Writer David Robert Crews recalled, “Abe Sherman was a tough and scary man, until he got to know you. But he always watched every move every customer made, in his store. He would stand right behind you, while you looked at magazines or books, with his arms folded over his chest and a thoroughly unfriendly look on his face. He admonished any customer who did not put a book or magazine back exactly where they had picked it up from. And you had to perfectly and evenly straighten up any pile of magazines or books that you took one from.”

Sherman wouldn’t hesitate to throw out customers if they pushed back. A 1982 Associated Press article reported that when one customer called him a jerk, he responded, “Of course I’m a jerk. I was a jerk to let you in here in the first place.” And then he showed him the door.

Despite-- or because-- of all this, one of Baltimore’s premier curmudgeons developed a loyal following. Crews remembered, “When he got to know that you were serious about buying any of his avant-garde . . . publications, posters, or hippie pins, he was one neat old dude.”

Sources:

Bawlamer: An Informal Guide to a Livelier Baltimore. Baltimore: Citizens Planning and Housing Association, 1981.

D. Borsella, Baltimore Timeline, http://www.baltimoretimeline.com/Dorbaltimorecirca1960s.htm.

David Robert Crews, qtd. in “Abe Sherman’s Newsstand/Bookstore,” Baltimore or Less, Jan. 13, 2014 (originally published in the Magic City Morning Star, March 13, 2008), http://www.baltimoreorless.com/2014/01/abe-shermans-newsstandbookstore/ 

James Rowley, “He Keeps an Eye on All Suspects,” Nashua Telegraph (NH), January 26, 1982,