Get ready for an STL mashup for the ages as the Veiled Prophet takes on World Wide Magazine in an epic night of conspiracies, comedy, and pure WTF-ery!

Devin Thomas O’Shea will deliver a talk on the hottest book of the summer, The Veiled Prophet: Secret Societies, White Supremacy, and the Struggle for St. Louis, and archivist Jim Varagona will present clips from beloved cult public access series World Wide Magazine’s episodes on the VP Fair!

• 6 PM: Doors open for meet and greet and book signing

• 7 PM: Talk on the Veiled Prophet by Devin T. O’Shea

• 7:30 PM: Program of curated clips of World Wide Magazine at the VP Fair introduced by Jim Varagona

• 8:45 PM: Q&A with Devin T. O’Shea, Jim Varagona, and WWM cast members!

The Veiled Prophet: Secret Societies, White Supremacy, and the Struggle for St. Louis, by Devin Thomas O’Shea
A provocative look at the secret society that has controlled St. Louis for over a century, revealing how shadowy elites organize themselves against working-class power, Devin Thomas O’Shea’s The Veiled Prophet is the definitive history of the Veiled Prophet Society in all its violence and pageantry, offering a colorful alternate history of the United States through the lens of the Midwestern elite. O’Shea follows the Veiled Prophet Society from its origins in the wake of the 1877 general strike, through the 1904 World’s Fair, to the height of the Prophet’s—and St. Louis’s—influence during the Cold War. The Veiled Prophet examines the unexpected ways this secret society has shaped the course of history, from the CIA to the Vietnam War to the assassination of Martin Luther King.
The Veiled Prophet will be available for sale on site, or buy a copy now!

World Wide Magazine, presented by Jim Varagona World Wide Magazine was a public access television program in St. Louis from 1986–2001. Its creator, Peter E. Parisi, chronicled the city in his own way, pushing the limits of freedom of speech. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he and his crew of misfits attended the annual V.P. Fair downtown. The National Park Service tried to keep them out, but a very public media battle in 1991 led to their filming rights being reinstated. This compilation captures plenty of revelry, hoosier patriotism, and bratwurst. Go along for the ride with Pete, Big Daddy, Marty, Marty’s Brother Mark, Dumptruck Dave Perry, Miss Cathy, Black Jesus, The Mad Russian, and more. This presentation is curated and will be introduced by Jim Varagona, archivist of The Pete Parisi Archives.

Japanese Americans have played a far more significant role in St. Louis history than many people realize. Although they have always represented a small percentage of the region’s population, their legacy can be traced across more than a century of local history, from the 1904 World’s Fair to the aftermath of World War II and to the cultural programs, landmarks, and architecture that still exist today.

Join us on Thursday, July 16 for the next Unseen STL History Talk with Robin A. Hattori.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m., the talk begins at 7 p.m., and admission is $5. (Note: our cover charge helps support equipment and other expenses to bring you these talks. No one who wants to attend will be turned away for lack of funds.)

Books of a Certain Age is a salon (or if you’re less snooty, a book club) for the discussion of writing by women of the past, centering on the mid-20th century but ranging earlier and later by whim. Think of authors such as Iris Murdoch, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sybille Bedford, Elsa Morante, Penelope Fitzgerald, Magda Szabó, and Muriel Spark. Meetings are held on the fourth Thursday of every other month.

Our June selection is An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge. Get your copy ahead of time, in the store or online.

Join author Devin Thomas O'Shea, Leviathan Bookstore, poet and journalist Jacqui Germain, and the St. Louis Public Library for an engrossing discussion of the author's new work, The Veiled Prophet: Secret Societies, White Supremacy, and the Struggle for St. Louis.

If you’d like to reserve a copy to pick up during the event, order here.

About the book: Every December in downtown St. Louis, the city’s upper crust attend a garish costume party that doubles as a debutante’s ball. The daughters of high society are paraded to the throne of a cloaked monarchical figure, and bow to the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan. At first glance, the event seems outdated and clownish, but in truth, the Veiled Prophet Society has functioned as an exclusive club for the “city fathers,” where solidarity is built between wealthy men who head major U.S. corporations, banks, and control whole industries. At the Veiled Prophet’s Ball, these titans of capital come together to crown one of their daughters the Queen of Love and Beauty, and celebrate the breaking of strikes, the sabotage of protests, and the enforcement of racial hierarchies.

Devin Thomas O’Shea’s The Veiled Prophet is the definitive history of the Veiled Prophet Society in all its violence and pageantry, offering a colorful alternate history of the United States through the lens of the Midwestern elite. O’Shea follows the Veiled Prophet Society from its origins in the wake of the 1877 general strike, through the 1904 World’s Fair, to the height of the Prophet’s—and St. Louis’s—influence during the Cold War. The Veiled Prophet examines the unexpected ways this secret society has shaped the course of history, from the CIA to the Vietnam War to the assassination of Martin Luther King.

Yet the power wielded by the Veiled Prophet has not gone uncontested. Since the Gilded Age, the Prophet has faced resistance from orphans armed with pea-shooters, Communist Party organizers during the Depression, Civil Rights icons, and renegade debutantes. The Ferguson uprising of 2014 was only the most recent challenge to the Prophet’s influence.

As the fight for the soul and streets of St. Louis intensifies, it’s more critical than ever that we expose the sordid history of these powerful, masked figures and their control over our democracy.

History is often told through major events, court cases, and political movements. But sometimes it can also be found in the laws that governed everyday life and the people who challenged them. For more than 140 years, St. Louis enforced an ordinance that regulated how people could dress in public, shaping the experiences of generations of queer, transgender, and gender-nonconforming residents.

Join us on Thursday, June 18, at Leviathan Bookstore for our next Unseen STL History Talk, Dressed to Defy: St. Louis and the History of Anti-Drag Laws. In recognition of Pride Month, local historian and archivist Miranda Rectenwald will explore a little-known chapter of St. Louis history and the people whose lives were affected by it.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m., the talk begins at 7 p.m., and admission is $5. (Note: our cover charge helps support equipment and other expenses to bring you these talks. No one who wants to attend will be turned away for lack of funds.)

Whether you are a serious writer, casual reader, or passionate journal-keeper, you are invited to join other Asian and Asian-American creatives for an evening of community and connection.

Join us on Tuesday, June 9, from 6-8pm at Leviathan Bookstore (3211 S Grand Blvd). We will begin with a short reading and panel discussion featuring local writers Melody S. Gee, Minsoo Kang, & Jasmine Sawers, followed by an informal reception with Asian-inspired soft drinks and desserts catered by Cake by Jade.

Please note that this event is intended for Asian and Asian-American identifying creatives. This includes those who identify as mixed-race, adoptees, South Asian, Southeast Asian, Central Asian, West Asian, and East Asian.

Organized by Lauren Yu-Ting Bo with funding support from the Regional Arts Commission.

To learn more about the panelists and register for the event, go to the Meetup page.

Join Leviathan Bookstore at Clements on Monday, June 8 to raise a glass in honor of Christopher Marlowe, the original Elizabethan bad boy. Poet, playwright, and spy, his radical life and art launched a literary movement that's lasted more than 400 years. Actors will declaim his verse, musicians will sing his songs, and the rest of us will down specialty cocktails courtesy of Truckey. Learn more about Marlowe's remarkable story so we can properly toast his eternal memory and the eternal damnation of his foul murderers!

Long before modern debates about policing, public health, and morality, St. Louis was at the center of national conversations about prostitution, vice laws, and which people society should punish. The city’s approach became one of the most controversial urban experiments of the late 19th century, and its legacy still raises difficult questions about power, class, and who gets labeled a “social evil.”

On Thursday, May 21st, Unseen STL History Talks welcomes Ben Gall, who will examine some of the history of sex work and vice laws in St. Louis from the mid-19th century through the early 20th century.

Doors swing open at 6:30 p.m., giving you ample time to explore the shelves and connect with fellow history buffs. Talks start at 7 p.m., with a $5 cover helping support this speaker series.

Join us on Tuesday, May 12 to celebrate the publication of On and On by Eric Von Schrader.

If you’d like to reserve a copy to pick up during the event, order here.

About the book: "A mystical morality tale for our time, set in a hilariously dysfunctional, amoral corporation, where one brave soul is trying to survive while holding on to her convictions."

Cheryl Ricard's passion is the struggle against climate change, but saving the planet doesn't pay very well. She can't make the rent on her apartment, her refuge from a world where she doesn't quite fit in. Social anxiety and occasional angry outbursts have cost her relationships and jobs. So when her cousin helps her get an interview at Success Dynamics, Inc., a company that helps big businesses motivate employees to work harder, she knows she has to step up—even though it means selling out.

Cheryl finds herself in a bizarre corporate world she had never dreamed of, surrounded by video screens playing company propaganda, required to wear mandatory earbuds that give her unwanted advice as she wanders the vast corporate campus, continuously tracked by the HR department. She meets weary bureaucrats, true believers, pompous has-beens and playful geniuses, and finds herself in a complicated relationship with her boss, the star salesman of Success Dynamics, Jack Weatherly. She detests everything about him and he sees her as a clueless nobody, even though he depends on her competence.

Then one night Cheryl and Jack get stranded in the desert on a company outing gone wrong. Cold and lost, they find refuge with a mysterious cult of stargazers, an encounter that leaves them baffled and intrigued—and permanently changed in unexpected ways.

When Cheryl discovers an explosive secret about Success Dynamics' most important client, she's determined to expose it, but doesn't know how. The only person she can turn to is Jack. Will he risk his success to do what he knows is right?

About the author: Eric von Schrader was born and raised in St. Louis, where his books are set. His Intersecting Worlds trilogy grew out of thoughts about what the city is, what it was (all the way back to ancient times), and what it might become.

He enjoys dreaming, speculating, and crafting stories that take readers on surprising journeys. Before writing fiction, he made documentary films, produced television shows, helped start a community radio station, and worked as a writer and consultant for businesses. He and his wife live near the ocean in Carpinteria, California.

You’ll want to carve out time on Saturday, April 25 to celebrate Independent Bookstore Day. We, along with stores across the country, will be highlighting what makes us unique and worth applauding. It’s an all-day party we’re throwing for ourselves and you’re invited!

Want more specifics? Here you go:

• Free Dad’s cookies for as long as they last.

• Exclusive books and merch available only at participating stores.

• All customers will receive a custom-made crossword puzzle; complete and return it the following week and earn a discount coupon.

• Every customer wearing a Leviathan Bookstore shirt will receive 10% off their purchases.

• Spend at least $50 and get a free pick from our Blind Date with a Book Box.

• Find the Golden Ticket hidden somewhere in the store and win a year’s-worth of free audiobooks, courtesy of our friends at Libro.fm!

This will also be the opening day of a summerlong Missouri Indie Bookstore Tour. Start your road trip here!

Books of a Certain Age is a salon (or if you’re less snooty, a book club) for the discussion of writing by women of the past, centering on the mid-20th century but ranging earlier and later by whim. Think of authors such as Iris Murdoch, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sybille Bedford, Elsa Morante, Penelope Fitzgerald, Magda Szabó, and Muriel Spark. Meetings are held on the fourth Thursday of every other month.

Our April selection is Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald. Get your copy ahead of time, in the store or online.

Just across the river sits a city whose story is inseparable from St. Louis, yet is often reduced to scurrilous headlines rather than understood on its own terms. East St. Louis was once a powerhouse of industry, a place where railroads converged, factories ran day and night, and thousands of workers built their lives. What happened there is part of a larger story that still shapes the region today.

On Thursday, April 16th, Unseen STL History Talks welcomes historian Andrew Theising for a deep dive into the story of East St. Louis.

Doors swing open at 6:30 p.m., giving you ample time to explore the shelves and connect with fellow history buffs. Talks start at 7 p.m., with a $5 cover helping support this speaker series.

As part of our continuing effort to turn our shop into St. Louis’s baseball book headquarters, we invite you to join us on the evening of Thursday, March 26 (after the Cardinals home opener) to hear from David Henkin, author of Out of the Ballpark: How to Think About Baseball.

If you’d like to reserve a copy for pickup during the event, order here.

About the book: Out of the Ballpark strips away the mythology that has accumulated around baseball in the United States to better appreciate the different sites of the sport's development and the various sources of its appeal. It explores baseball's function as a modern entertainment spectacle and moves across time and space to examine its history since the nineteenth century and beyond US borders. Henkin takes readers inside the structures of clubs and leagues, interprets the sacred scripture of rulebooks, and illuminates some of baseball's rites and rituals that are often associated with honor and manhood. He charts baseball's significance along the routes of American and Japanese imperial expansion and the shifting maps of race and ethnicity in the US. Baseball is found at negotiating tables that pit capital against labor and in pivotal moments in the history of mass media. Here, we are shown how baseball might offer a complex and capacious space for thinking about such things as spectatorship, success, community, order, and contingency in the modern world.

About the author: David Henkin has taught U.S. history at the University of California, Berkeley, for the past three decades. For far longer, and for no apparent biographical reason, he has rooted passionately for the St. Louis Cardinals. Henkin is the author of five books, including The Week: A History of the Unnatural Rhythms that Made Us Who We Are.

There is history beneath St. Louis that most of us drive over every day without a second thought. Not abandoned tunnels or lost breweries, but something far older. Entire landscapes were shaped by people whose presence here predates the city by centuries, and their story is still unfolding.

Kyle Olson, an archaeologist and historian who teaches the archaeology of the St. Louis region at Washington University in St. Louis, will be this month’s presenter. His field school—where he first learned to excavate—was at Cahokia’s Mound 66 (“Rattlesnake Mound”) with Dr. Tim Pauketat, one of the leading Cahokia scholars.

Doors swing open at 6:30 p.m., giving you ample time to explore the shelves and connect with fellow history buffs. Talks start at 7 p.m., with a $5 cover helping support this speaker series.

Join us on Sunday, March 8 to celebrate the publication of a memoir of love, sadness, music, friends, laughter, food, and heartbreak. In his mid-fifties, John Pipkins was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma, a disease most often found in children. Love, John is the story of his three-year journey navigating the labors of treatment and everyday life as told by his partner, Bill Waggoner. It is a glimpse into how they lived their ordinary life when thrown into extraordinary circumstances. (Proceeds from this book will be donated to Center for Advanced Medicine at Siteman Cancer Center, BJC Health Care, St. Louis, Missouri.)

If you’d like to reserve a copy for pickup during the event, order here.

Books of a Certain Age is a salon (or if you’re less snooty, a book club) for the discussion of writing by women of the past, centering on the mid-20th century but ranging earlier and later by whim. Think of authors such as Iris Murdoch, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sybille Bedford, Elsa Morante, Penelope Fitzgerald, Magda Szabó, and Muriel Spark. Meetings are held on the third Thursday of every other month.

Our February selection is The Sweet Dove Died by Barbara Pym. Get your copy ahead of time, in the store or online.

Unseen STL History Talks returns this month with a powerful look at how one St. Louis park helped shape the city’s early civil rights story.

We’re honored to welcome Marvin-Alonzo Greer of 4theVille for an evening that reframes Fairgrounds Park as a key site in St. Louis’s ongoing struggle for civil rights.

Doors swing open at 6:30 p.m., giving you ample time to explore the shelves and connect with fellow history buffs. Talks start at 7 p.m., with a $5 cover helping support this speaker series.

Our fair city turns 262 on Valentine’s Day, so we and our good friends at Clements are throwing a party and you’re invited! There will be themed drink specials all evening, and we’ll be on hand with books, performative excerpts, and city trivia.

Our Grand/Cherokee collabs have become quite the popular scene, so don’t miss this one!

Join us on the evening of Thursday, February 12 for a conversation with Matthew Knox Averett about his book Canfield Drive: A History of Race and the American City on a Street in St. Louis.

If you’d like to reserve a copy for pickup during the event, order here.

About the book: On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown and a friend were walking down Canfield Drive, a residential street in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson. There, they encountered Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson. Moments later, Brown was dead on the street--shot by Wilson at least six times. That evening, a memorial appeared on the pavement where he had fallen. In the days that followed, vigils turned into protests, and protests into an Uprising, as police in riot gear faced off with a grieving, outraged community. For nearly two weeks, Ferguson commanded the nation's attention. The killing of Michael Brown was an outrage and it should not have happened. But Canfield Drive was primed for tragedy long before that fatal encounter because the street was already a place of racial conflict. This was no accident.

Canfield Drive: A History of Race and the American City on a Street in St. Louis uncovers the deeper history behind the street where Brown died, tracing how race and the built environment have long intersected in St. Louis--from the city's founding to the Ferguson Uprising. The book follows the story of Black space across two centuries: from early Black communities, to the birth of the St. Louis Blues, to the Halcyon days of The Ville, to the destruction of Mill Creek Valley, to the tragedy of Pruitt-Igoe, and to the construction of Canfield Drive. Though Canfield Drive is the first comprehensive history of St. Louis's Black urban landscape, it is more than just St. Louis's story. Canfield Drive details the racial engineering of the American city. Here is the machinery of American segregation laid bare: occupancy covenants, court decisions, racial steering, white flight, public housing, voucher systems, and predatory policing that combine to transform neighborhoods into traps. Here too are the people who fought back, building community against staggering odds and securing civil rights reforms that transformed America's understanding of government's obligations to its citizens.

Canfield Drive provides a powerful lens on the national story of race and the American city and reveals how Michael Brown's death was not just one officer's deadly decision, but the inevitable outcome of America's built environment--a tragedy centuries in the making, on a street designed for violence. This is how a place becomes a powder keg. This is how history erupts into headlines. This is the story behind the story that America couldn't look away from. This is the story of how a street came to matter, and how it came to stand for something far greater than itself.

About the author: Matthew Knox Averett is Professor of Art History at Creighton University where he teaches art history courses from the Renaissance through Modernism, focusing on urban and architectural history and the intersection of race and the built environment. A selection of his publications includes "'Veggendo Roma' The Urban Image of Rome in the Age of Dante" to Le città di Dante (2021) and "'Noble Edifices' The Urban Image of Papal Rome, 1417-1667" to Interpreting Urban Spaces in Italian Cultures (2022). In 2015, he edited and contributed chapters to The Early Modern Child in Art and History (Routledge). At Creighton, Averett has held leadership roles in Creighton's anti-racist initiatives, and from 2020 to 2022, he served on the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accountability, and Sustainability Committee of the Society of Architectural Historians.

Join us on the afternoon of Sunday, February 8 to meet author Dave Lange and take home an autographed copy of his new book, St. Louis Soccer: An Illustrated Timeline. This event will mark the book’s debut and Dave’s first appearance in the city to promote it, and he’ll be joined by special guest Ty Keough. Ty played soccer for SLU High School and St. Louis University, where he was a four-time All-American, before playing professionally in the NASL and MISL, and for the US Olympic team.

To reserve a copy for pickup during the event, order here.

About the book: While soccer's surge in popularity is a recent phenomenon in the United States, the sport has been deeply embedded in the fabric of life in St. Louis for 150 years. St. Louis has developed more than 75 men and women who have represented their country in international soccer, fielded more than 90 national championship teams, and sent more than 30 players, coaches, and officials into national soccer halls of fame. St. Louis is the site of the first international soccer match played in the United States in 1884 and the birthplace of one of the nation's first professional soccer leagues, formed in 1907. St. Louis has long been home to World Cup players, starting with Ralph Tracey in the first Cup in 1930 and continuing in the 2020s with Tim Ream, Josh Sargent, and Becky Sauerbrunn. From the very first game in 1875 to the five St. Louis players who helped the United States stun England in the 1950 World Cup to the latest national champions in the 2020s, St. Louis Soccer chronicles all the key moments in the 150-year history of the world's most popular sport in America's first soccer city.

About the author: Dave Lange has covered soccer for local and national media and authored two books about soccer: Soccer Made in St. Louis: A History of the Game in America's First Soccer Capital and Year One: St. Louis CITY SC from Reedy Press. Lange was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame for his work in soccer media and serves on the board of the Society for American Soccer History. He also is a nationally licensed youth soccer coach. Follow Dave at his website soccermadeinstlouis.com

“On February 7 at 7 PM please join us on the second floor of O'Connell's Pub for the second iteration of the not-quite-quarterly series Public Practice and snag a lil zine on creative process ‘Personal Practice’ (vol. 2)! Featuring the inimitable poet Billy Youngblood, ferociously smart creative nonfiction-ist Rachel Greenwald Smith, and virtuosic translator (and former STL resident) Ena Selimović serendipitously joining us from out of town. Plus: special returning guest Saint Louis's funniest puppet troupe FOOLS ERRAND. What's an anti-antisocial reading? I guess it's a way of gathering to celebrate the beautiful hard work and play of making something and sharing it and by doing so to reject AI and other technologies of the fascist state.... Fuck ICE, come hang out, love you.”

We’ll be on hand to have a great time and sell you some books by the participants.

Join us on the afternoon of Sunday, February 1 to celebrate the publication of the marvelous new book Subterranean St. Louis by photographer Jason Gray. As much a work of art as history, it deserves a place on the bookshelf of every Mound City enthusiast.

If you’d like to reserve a copy for pickup during the event, order here.

About the book: St. Louis is a city with a lot going on just below the surface. This sometimes-secret world includes pitch black tunnels and caves, the long, lonely halls of past institutions, and the ruins of former factories. It also includes the hum of industrial activity, the frantic pace of scientific or cultural innovation, and the maze of infrastructure running invisibly beneath it all.

Subterranean St. Louis: Below Ground and Behind Barriers explores what exists just out of view for most of the city's residents. It is a book that is both a guide and a glimpse into a community whose long history has observed plenty of prosperity and failure (sometimes in seemingly equal measure), though whose self-determination and grit ensures its perpetuation.

St. Louis-native and photographer, Jason Gray, takes the reader below the surface of this intensely interesting city with an extraordinary collection of images spanning more than ten years of work investigating the region's industrial, cultural, and civic infrastructures.

About the author: Jason Gray is an artist exploring his relationship to St. Louis, Missouri, and the world through post-documentary photography. Mr. Gray also works as a freelance editorial, art, and event photographer. Jason is currently the Image Rights Manager at the Saint Louis Art Museum, where he has also worked as a Preparator and Photography Studio Manager. His previous roles have included Director of Exhibitions at the International Photography Hall of Fame, Curator at The Dark Room Photo Gallery, and Community Manager for the Americas at F-Stop Gear. Additionally, Jason is the Founding Director of Photo Flood Saint Louis, a community for photographers with 700 members.

Brodernism is a disparaging critical term for the kind of long, difficult, maximalist literature that’s often but not always written by dudes. Think Ulysses, Gravity’s Rainbow, 2666, but also The Making of Americans and Ducks, Newburyport. Easy to mock and not always easy to read, but exactly the sort of challenge some of us want in a book. Which is why we’re embracing the term and hosting a bi-monthly book club to wrestle with this literature together.

At our first meeting we’ll be discussing Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon, and we’ll also be taking suggestions for titles to put on our collective reading list for the rest of the year.

Get your copy ahead of time in the store or online.

Two veteran St. Louis sportswriters talk about their long careers and the special relationship this city has with its teams. Derrick Goold is a Mizzou grad who has worked for the Post-Dispatch for more than a quarter-century, covering baseball, hockey, and college athletics. He is the author of 100 Things Cardinals Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, which contains a foreword written by Stan Musial. Jim Thomas retired from the Post-Dispatch in 2023 after a 48-year career and is the author of The Franchise: A Curated History of the Blues.

Doors swing open at 6:30 p.m., giving you ample time to explore the shelves and connect with fellow history buffs. Talks start at 7 p.m., with a $5 cover helping support this speaker series.

To reserve a copy of Derrick’s book, order here.

To reserve a copy of Jim’s book, order here.

Join us on the evening of Tuesday, January 6th as we welcome Jocelyn Jane Cox to read from her memoir Motion Dazzle. In it, a former skater juggles toddler care, her mom's dementia, and a zebra-themed party, drawing on past performance grit to navigate the "sandwich generation" in this heartfelt story of motherhood and multigenerational love. Her appearance at Leviathan Bookstore is the perfect way to kick off the US Figure Skating Championships, which open here in St. Louis the following day.

If you’d like to reserve a copy for pickup during the event, order here.

About the author: Jocelyn Jane Cox competed in the United States Figure Skating Championships four times with her older brother and went on to coach the sport for over 20 years. She received her MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College and is a Pushcart Prize nominee for both her fiction and nonfiction.

When the nights grow long and cold, there’s nothing better than huddling together to purge our collective fears with some cathartic tale telling, which is why reading scary stories together was once as much a part of traditional holiday celebrations as eggnog and Santa Claus. You didn’t think Charles Dickens invented the idea of Christmas ghosts all by himself, did you?

We, along with the good people of Clements (locksmiths by day, bartenders by night), are reviving this tradition with an evening of fellowship centered on drinks and vintage tales of dread. There will be readings to send a shiver up your spine, appropriately mournful carols, and smoothly spiced cocktails to savor. We’ll be on hand with books for sale to top off your stockings and encourage you to share this storytelling tradition among your own family and friends. It’ll be the most spirited occasion of the season!

Our regular Unseen STL History talk goes interactive this month, as we’ll be discussing our favorite local history books. All attendees are welcome to suggest a favorite and explain what they like so much about it, and we’ll try to have as many as possible of those on hand. It’s the perfect way to create a wish list for yourself or a loved one this holiday season!

Doors swing open at 6:30 p.m., giving you ample time to explore the shelves and connect with fellow history buffs. Talks start at 7 p.m., with a $5 cover helping support this speaker series. But this month we’re waiving the cover charge. Happy holidays!

“We shed as we pick up, like travelers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it.”

In honor of the long and prolific life of playwright Tom Stoppard, who died on November 29 of this year at the age of 88, Leviathan Bookstore is hosting a live reading of his work on the evening of Thursday, December 11. We’ll be presenting Arcadia, which takes us back and forth between the centuries and explores the nature of truth and time, the difference between the Classical and the Romantic temperament, and the disruptive influence of sex on our orbits in life—"the attraction," as one character says, "which Newton left out." It has been called by one critic the “greatest play written in the English language in the last 150 years.”

And when we say we’ll be presenting, we mean you, too. This is an interactive event and there are a dozen roles to fill, so don’t be shy about stepping up to perform one. No costumes or memorization required—we’ll all have scripts in hand for this table read. Pick up a copy in advance if you like or purchase one that night.

If you’d like to reserve a copy of Arcadia, order here.

Join us on Sunday, November 23 to meet Emily Bain Murphy, author of Ivory City, a romantic historical murder mystery set at the 1904 World's Fair. It’s a treat to read, and we’re even more excited about the book because Leviathan Bookstore has a very small place in it. You can learn more about that and ask Emily anything else you like while you’re here—she’ll be greeting guests and signing copies throughout her allotted time.

About the book: Cousins Grace and Lillie have been best friends since birth, despite Grace's vastly inferior social status ever since her mother married for love instead of wealth. When Lillie invites Grace to the biggest event of the century--the legendary World's Fair, also known as "The Ivory City"--Grace hopes her fortunes might be about to change. But when a member of their party is brutally killed at the fair, and suspicion falls on Lillie's brother Oliver, Grace must prove Oliver's innocence before her beloved cousins' family is ruined forever. Along the way, she'll discover that the city's wealthy elite--including Oliver's handsome but irritable friend Theodore--aren't quite who they appear to be. And amidst the glitz, glamor, and magic of the Ivory City lurks a danger that just may claim her life.

TL; DR: The Devil in the White City meets Pride and Prejudice.

If you’d like to reserve a copy for pickup during the event, order here. All pre-orders will include a limited-edition Ivory City art print!

Few stories in St. Louis history are as dramatic as the rise and fall of the Lemp brewing empire. It is a tale of ambition, innovation, and heartbreak, spanning generations of a family whose fortunes shaped the city’s identity.

St. Louis historian Chris Naffziger uncovers the surprising story of Adam Lemp, founder of the Western Brewery—better known today as the Lemp Brewery. Drawing on newly discovered contracts and German-language newspapers, Naffziger reveals Lemp as a shrewd, ambitious immigrant who turned early failure into remarkable success. His research traces Lemp’s tangled partnerships, courtroom dramas, and the unexpected women who financed his rise—laying the foundation for one of America’s great brewing dynasties.

Author Stephen P. Walker will then talk about Adam’s son William assuming control of the business upon Adam’s death. This will include a history of the William J. Lemp Brewing Company, its growth, and later collapse under Prohibition. Stephen will also introduce the main family members and discuss their place within Lemp history, the untimely deaths in the family, aspects of their personalities, the current state of the brewery and Lemp Mansion, and what made the Lemps significant to St. Louis history.

Doors swing open at 6:30 p.m., giving you ample time to explore the shelves and connect with fellow history buffs. Talks start at 7 p.m., with a $5 cover helping support this speaker series.

To reserve a copy of Chris Naffziger’s book Adam Lemp and the Western Brewery, order here.

To pre-order a copy of the new edition of Stephen Walker’s Lemp: A Haunted History (due in late November), order here.