Given our old-school predilection for print, we found a kindred spirit in Starshaped Press, the print shop behind this exclusive letterpress print depicting our beautiful building.
Welcome to the Bookshop
Exhibition Titles
The Writer's Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands
It's one of the first things we discover as children, reading and drawing: Maps have a unique power to transport us to distant lands on wondrous travels. Put a map at the start of a book, and we know an adventure is going to follow. Displaying this truth with beautiful full-color illustrations, The Writer's Map is an atlas of the journeys that our most creative storytellers have made throughout their lives. This magnificent collection encompasses not only the maps that appear in their books but also the many maps that have inspired them, the sketches that they used while writing, and others that simply sparked their curiosity. Philip Pullman recounts the experience of drawing a map as he set out on one of his early novels, The Tin Princess. Miraphora Mina recalls the creative challenge of drawing up "The Marauder's Map" for the Harry Potter films. David Mitchell leads us to the Mappa Mundi by way of Cloud Atlas and his own sketch maps. Robert Macfarlane reflects on the cartophilia that has informed his evocative nature writing, which was set off by Robert Louis Stevenson and his map of Treasure Island. Joanne Harris tells of her fascination with Norse maps of the universe. Reif Larsen writes about our dependence on GPS and the impulse to map our experience. Daniel Reeve describes drawing maps and charts for The Hobbit film trilogy. This exquisitely crafted and illustrated atlas explores these and so many more of the maps writers create and are inspired by--some real, some imagined--in both words and images. Amid a cornucopia of 167 full-color images, we find here maps of the world as envisaged in medieval times, as well as maps of adventure, sci-fi and fantasy, nursery rhymes, literary classics, and collectible comics. An enchanting visual and verbal journey, The Writer's Map will be irresistible for lovers of maps, literature, and memories--and anyone prone to flights of the imagination.
$49.00
Iconic Transit Maps: The World's Best Designs
This visually stunning collection of iconic and historic subway, light rail, and streetcar maps from fifty of the world's most exciting cities is a map- and transit-lover's dream. Transport maps are some of the most frequently consulted and memorized navigation tools on earth. Millions use them daily to guide their journeys. Some have gained such familiarity they're revered as design classics, hunted by collectors. Taken for granted, without these everyday objects passengers would quite literally be lost without them. Best-selling author, Mark Ovenden who curated this collection dating from their earliest appearance 160 years ago, dissects the design decisions which led to today's intelligent wayfinding tools. Divided by continent, it features archival and modern maps from a dizzying array of locations--from Algiers and Cape Town; Boston and Chicago; Mexico City and Montreal; Bangkok and Beijing; Delhi and Doha; Amsterdam and Prague; to Auckland and Sydney.Perfect for the seasoned traveler, transit enthusiast, or anyone intrigued by the art and science of mapmaking this book provides a unique and informative exploration of urban mobility as it celebrates the functionality, universal appeal, and iconic status of transit maps.
$40.00
Cartographic Treasures of the Newberry library
What makes a map a treasure? Cartographic Treasures of the Newberry Library is an extended meditation on this simple question that defines a simple answer. The maps in this catalogue were selected from the approximately 300,000 historic maps in Chicago's Newberry Library. They include many of the Library's oldest, rarest, and most exquisite maps--treasures in the conventional sense of the word. But there are also "common" maps that are treasures because they capture so well the spirit of their age, illuminating the geographical outlook of the people who made and used them.
$15.00
New Arrivals
Reader in Training Mini Tote Bag
Get your future reader started on the right track with their own mini tote! 100% cotton canvasBottom gusset10.5"w x 10.5"h5.5" strap (hanging)Made in the USA
$16.00
Black Lit Classics
Show your love for classic literature with our Black Literary Classics Enamel Pin! This vibrant pin features a charming stack of some of the best literature of our time, a stylish nod to the power of storytelling and literary giants. Wear it proudly on your jacket, bag, lapel to celebrate these timeless voices. It's the perfect accessory for bookworms, educators, and anyone who appreciates the richness and diversity of American literature. Add this little stack of inspiration to your collection and let your bookish pride shine!
$14.00
Blue Book Snakes
Bring the reading room home with my handmade book accessories! Based on the book handling supplies you can find in many special collections libraries, these accessories feature lovely marbled fabric. The snake weights are 20” long and weigh about 5 oz, to keep overly enthusiastic pages laying flat. Their marbled fabric coordinates nicely with the accents on the support pillows!
$25.00
Aztec Sun 1000
The Aztec Sun Stone, or Piedra del Sol, is a monumental basalt sculpture created between 1502 and 1520 during the reign of Moctezoma II. It is a ceremonial calendar representing the Aztec worldview, depicting the creation myths, and featuring a central image of the sun god Tonatiuh. Discovered in 1790 in Mexico City, the stone is now a national symbol displayed at the National Museum of Anthropology This puzzle, designed by Michael Angulo, is 1000 pieces, and 26 inches completed.
$26.95
Public Programs
Super Indian Vol.3
The highly anticipated volume of Super Indian adventures, with 64 full-color pages, is finally here. The new trade paperback contains two “Super Indian” issues, plus a special “Laguna Woman” stand alone comic. Additionally, the volume includes two “Real Super Indian” profiles featuring Major League Baseball All-Star Allie Reynolds and noted American Indian Movement activist Fern Eastman Mathias. Experience Super Indian’s developing superhero powers and see how he battles newer, more evil villains on the Leaning Oak Reservation.
$24.99
Candy House
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ONE of the TOP 10 BOOKS OF THE YEAR by THE NEW YORK TIMES * ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY * SLATE* THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER * Also named one of the BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR by Vanity Fair, Time, NPR, The Guardian, Oprah Daily, Self, Vogue, The New Yorker, BBC, Vulture, and many more! OLIVIA WILDE to direct A24's TV adaptation of THE CANDY HOUSE and A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD! From one of the most celebrated writers of our time comes an "inventive, effervescent" (Oprah Daily) novel about the memory and quest for authenticity and human connection. The Candy House opens with the staggeringly brilliant Bix Bouton, whose company, Mandala, is so successful that he is "one of those tech demi-gods with whom we're all on a first name basis." Bix is forty, with four kids, restless, and desperate for a new idea, when he stumbles into a conversation group, mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or "externalizing" memory. Within a decade, Bix's new technology, "Own Your Unconscious"--which allows you access to every memory you've ever had, and to share your memories in exchange for access to the memories of others--has seduced multitudes. In the world of Egan's spectacular imagination, there are "counters" who track and exploit desires and there are "eluders," those who understand the price of taking a bite of the Candy House. Egan introduces these characters in an astonishing array of narrative styles--from omniscient to first person plural to a duet of voices, an epistolary chapter, and a chapter of tweets. Intellectually dazzling, The Candy House is also a moving, speculative fiction testament to the tenacity and transcendence of human longing for connection, family, privacy, and love. "A beautiful exploration of loss, memory, and history" (San Francisco Chronicle), "this is minimalist maximalism. It's as if Egan compressed a big 19th-century novel onto a flash drive" (The New York Times).
$17.99
Insider: Malcolm Cowley and the Triumph of American Literature
A finalist for the 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction - Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker A delightful and majestic reckoning with the ascent of American fiction in the twentieth century through the prism of the under-known man who had an astonishing amount to do with it Malcolm Cowley is not a household name today, but the American literary canon would look very different without him. A prototypical "man of letters" of his generation--Harvard University, a volunteer in the French ambulance corps in World War I, a rite of passage in Paris after the war--he became one of the few truly influential critics of the 1920s and '30s, along with his close New Republic colleague Edmund Wilson. Cowley's early support of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and their set--and indeed for framing this group in generational terms in the first place--secured his place in literary history. Most people are lucky to be part of a single game-changing era in their careers; for Cowley, it happened again and again. After emerging from the political fray of the thirties badly damaged, he retreated behind the scenes as a tastemaker whose import has awaited Gerald Howard to be brought into full view. The process of canon formation is a murky business, and Cowley was a prime mover in it for the better part of four decades, through the Lost Generation, the Beat Generation, and the counterculture of the sixties. Without him, the odds would be much longer that the names William Faulkner, Jack Kerouac, and Ken Kesey, to name just three, would have ever echoed. In The Insider, Gerald Howard gives an intimate accounting of the fever graph of a fascinating and multifaceted career in the literary trade that uses that career to tell a much bigger story of how American literature took the course that it did from the 1920s to the 1960s. It's a story of an art form, and an industry, and a country experiencing wrenching change, and the people who made a home in the storm and in no small part shaped it. Howard's own career as a literary weathermaker is justly acclaimed, and he has brought all his talents of head and heart to bear in crafting this extraordinary book. It's a gift to booklovers and a major contribution to the cultural history of this country.
$35.00
Newberry Exclusives
Baseball Cap - Black with Mulberry Logo
This imprinted cap is made from 100% cotton.Each cap features an unstructured, low-profile design with a soft-lined front.Designed with a six-paneled crown and a pre-curved visor.Includes a self-fabric closure strap with an antique silver buckle.
$19.95
Yellow Manuela Tote
This bright yellow tote features artwork from a woodcut lace border detail with grasshoppers and other local flora and fauna, from a doctoral Thesis Print on Logic. Original printed on satin by Manuela Cereza and defended in the Cathedral of Puebla, Mexico, in 1746.Call number: Ayer BC60.F74 1746$20.00
$23.00
Newberry Gift Certificate
Give the gift of choice to your favorite reader or Library fan!Sold in $25, $50, $75 or $100 dollar amounts, A Newberry Bookshop Gift Certificate can be used on any item in the Newberry Bookshop, including sale merch and Adult Ed titles.
$0.00
Gangland Map of Chicago 1932
This reprint edition of the 1932 Gangland Map of Chicago utilizes the devices of a classic seafaring map to humorous effect: a compass rose, cartouches, and (instead of sea monsters) neighborhood dangers. Printed on acid-free, heavy-weight paper, the map can easily be framed and used to decorate your den of iniquity.24in tall, 30in wide.
$24.95
Pop Up Newberry
In honor of the Newberry's 2023 exhibition, Pop-Up Books through the Ages, Hannah Batsel and Shawn Sheehy created a wonderfully wild (and also architecturally accurate!) pop-up version of the library. Brimming with detail and imagination, the pop-up is a celebration of the centuries of history lurking within the Newberry's walls.There are plenty of Easter eggs for keen observers to uncover: The mysterious unfinished arches on the exterior of the Newberry building, the bust of Walter L. Newberry at the foot of the library's main staircase, and an early 20th-century postcard Ferriswheel located in the library's third-floor reference center.Batsel wanted to give expression to the sense of possibility and discovery she feels when she’s in the Newberry.“ You don't know what you're going to find when you go around a corner at the Newberry. In our pop-version of the library, if you're willing to pry into little crevices and look into windows, you will be rewarded.”Hannah BatselArtistBatsel's illustrations bring the pop-up Newberry to life, while Sheehy's paper engineering gives it a structure worthy of the library's iconic architecture.“ The building has a lot of character. The building IS a character. There was strong interest in featuring it in the pop-up.”Shawn SheehyPaper Engineer
$9.95
The Newberry 125: Stories of Our Collection
Published to commemorate our anniversary, The Newberry 125: Stories of Our Collection features images and essays highlighting 125 outstanding items from our collections. Each item is presented with a one- or two-page spread that includes stunning high-resolution photographs and an essay by a Newberry curator, librarian, or researcher documenting the item’s historical context, literary significance, and amusing tidbits about production, reception, and provenance.Arranged so as to tell both the story of the library as an institution and its collecting history, The Newberry 125 covers a wide range of topics, including American culture; the history of Chicago and the Midwest; geography and exploration; religion; music and dance; medieval and Renaissance studies; and the indigenous peoples of North America.The collection includes items as varied as a painting by 19th-century artist Elbridge Ayer Burbank; the correspondence between Ernest Hemingway and Sherwood Anderson; the earliest print version of Voltaire’s Candide; and a copy of Ptolemy’s Geographia that dates from the fifteenth century.The Newberry 125 serves as a wonderful introduction to our collection and provides a new and fascinating lens through which visitors can view our library.To mark its 125th anniversary, the Newberry has assembled one hundred and twenty-five of its most significant objects in one beautifully illustrated volume. Arranged in order to tell both the story of the library as an institution and its collecting history, The Newberry 125 covers a great breadth of topics including: American culture throughout the ages; the history of Chicago and the Midwest; geography and exploration; religion; music and dance; Medieval and Renaissance studies; and the indigenous peoples of North America. Each of the highlighted items has been photographed in stunning full color and is accompanied by a brief description, its call number, and a concise yet informative essay by a Newberry curator, librarian, or researcher on the object's importance to the collection. By describing the unique physical qualities of these items, as well as their great scholarly import, these essays remind us how irreplaceable many of these maps, books, and documents are--and how much they still have to offer us. The pieces themselves show us the amazing power of physical objects, particularly the products of humanists over many centuries. Included are items as varied as a painting by Elbridge Ayer Burbank, the correspondence between Ernest Hemingway and Sherwood Anderson, the earliest print version of Voltaire's Candide, and a copy of Ptolemy's Geographia that dates from the fifteenth century. The Newberry 125 is as wide-ranging and impressive as the library itself, and it serves as a wonderful introduction to the collection, as well as a new and fascinating lens through which visitors and fans can view the Newberry.
$35.00