Carla Cohen, famed owner of the iconic Washington, D.C. bookstore, Politics & Prose, died on October 11 as the result of a year-long battle with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare form of cancer. Her bookstore, opened with Barbara Meade in 1984, was something of an institution for D.C. literature lovers, famous writers, and the social/political elite. John Updike, J.K. Rowling, Alice Walker, David Halberstam, and Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter were some of the many notable visitors.

Politics and Prose went on to receive numerous awards from newspapers, publishers, and booksellers associations. In 1999, Publishers Weekly named it bookseller of the year. That same year, Cohen had this to say in an interview with the Washington Post, “If I could only… do something in my life that would bring nothing but pleasure to other people… and that’s how I feel about what I do now.”

The staff at Politics and Prose, originally run entirely by Cohen and Meade, now consists of approximately 60 people. The business is currently up for sale with the hopes that somebody will carry on its legacy as an influential, highly successful, and most-of-all charming purveyor of literature.