AMESBURY — The town's historic downtown shopping district has come alive in the past decade with funky cafĂ©s, sophisticated chocolatiers, trendy clothing and toy shops, and a number of unique restaurants offering a full day of fun for the North Shore shopper.
But until last weekend, there was one niche that seemed to have been overlooked among the broad spectrum of new stores electrifying the downtown.
Thanks to entrepreneur Joanne Wimberly of South Hampton, Amesbury can now finally lay claim to its own independent book store — Bertram and Oliver Booksellers — which opened at 73 Main St. Saturday to an appreciative crowd.
Curious shoppers have been stopping into the store for weeks leading up to the shop's opening, eager to find out what was moving into the high-profile downtown location, Wimberly said.
"I can't tell you how many people popped in," said Wimberly, who's been moved by the supportive responses she's been hearing from the community.
Comments have ranged from an enthusiastic, "Oh, my God, it's a bookstore" to "Thank you for coming to Amesbury," Wimberly said.
"And we're not talking about just a few people," she added.
The dream of opening a bookstore is one Wimberly has been fostering since she was a child. She's been reading and collecting books for as long as she can remember.
"I've always collected books, and I loved reading," Wimberly said. "I always thought about opening a bookstore. It was one of those dreams or fantasies that someone has."
Until last spring, Wimberly's 30-year career centered on providing training for a biotech firm in Cambridge, and she loved what she did. It was through a conversation with a friend — fellow downtown merchant Nancy White of Real Bodies — that pushed Wimberly to seriously consider trading in a corporate career for an opportunity to turn her girlhood fantasy into a reality.
"Now all we need is a bookstore," White said to Wimberly one fateful day when the two were discussing the area's shopping landscape.
"She was relaying this to me, and I said, 'You know, you're right,'" Wimberly said. "I went home and thought about it over the next few months. It was time to rethink doing something else that I found exciting and fun."
Just as poets, writers and artists have been doing for years, Wimberly looked for guidance and inspiration on how to proceed amid the pristine natural beauty of the nearby Plum Island sanctuary.
"I took a week's vacation from my job and went off and spent a lot of time at Plum Island," Wimberly said. "I did some bird watching. It's one of my favorite places — it's a good place to just sit and really think about things. It was there I decided (the bookstore) was the right choice."
Wimberly borrowed on the names of her two cats to come up with the bookstore's new name — two felines that happen to be named after two of Wimberly's favorite fictional characters: Bertram "Birdie" Worcester, a character drawn by author PG Woodhouse, and Oliver Twist, one of Charles Dickens' most famous fictional heroes.
"I have a lot of cats, and those are two," Wimberly said. "I was trying to conjure up the image of an old-fashioned book shop, and Bertram and Oliver lent itself to what I was looking for."
Fresh on the heels of the store's opening, Wimberly is thrilled she took the plunge.
"I couldn't be happier," Wimberly said. "I've never worked so hard my whole life as I have these past weeks, but I've never been so happy. I'm surrounded by books."
Wimberly has yet to hang her official Bertram and Oliver sign, but already she's getting a steady stream of business from book lovers across town.
"I have a broad range that I think would meet anyone's passion for books," said Wimberly, who stacked the shop's book racks with best-sellers, crime novels, cookbooks, fiction, mystery and children's books ahead of her opening.
"I have a good section on poetry, biography, humanities, and young adult and teen books," she said. "I've got some true crime, current affairs and politics, and current books on the economy. I take orders, too."
Wimberly stresses that her shop will be one that evolves to please the reading fancies of the community, and she has already placed some orders at the urging of would-be customers.
"Someone came in and asked if I had anything on Deepak Chopra, so I ordered some of those yesterday," Wimberly said. "I have to listen to the community."
On Saturday, Aug. 15, Bertram and Oliver will host its first author book-signing, when New Hampshire's Nancy Mellon comes to talk about her new book titled "Body Eloquence," which speaks to the power of myth and story in awakening the body's natural energy.
Other programs being undertaken by Wimberly is a Building Baby's Library program, whereby parents of newborn babies are invited to select a free book from her shelves to start their collection. And she's talking to others about the possibility of launching a book club.
"I think there are a lot of ideas on the table, and it's a question of what to pilot first," Wimberly said. "That'll be the fun part."
