Best of Boston

Founded in 1927, the Grolier is the only establishment of its kind in the nation—and probably the world: a bookstore devoted to poetry, and nothing but poetry. Its cramped interior is stacked floor to ceiling with dusty tomes by English and American poets, Celtic poets, Carribean, African, and Latin American poets, Cowboy poets, ancient Greek and Roman poets, modern European poets in translation, Nobel Laureates, and virtual unknowns. Any poetry that exists on the page also has its place on the Grolier’s hallowed shelves. For the past 40 years, Louisa Solano, proprietor and matron saint, has heroically and singlehandedly kept this phenomenon alive, for which poetry everywhere (the few, the proud) salute her.