Harvard Book Store was founded in 1932 by Mark S. Kramer, a native of Boston. With $300 borrowed from his parents, he opened a small shop selling used general interest books and remainders at 19 Boylston Street (now JFK Street). In 1934, he married Pauline, and she joined the business. Early on, the Kramers established a reputation for personal service and broad inventory, which still distinguish the store from its competition. In 1962 their son Frank Kramer entered the business and actively directed the company until 2008. Carole Horne joined the company in 1974 as a bookseller, and is now the general manager.

In June of 2008, Frank announced that he was ready to sell the store. In his announcement he said he was looking for someone “who would keep Harvard Book Store alive as the vibrant independent bookstore it has been for seventy-six years, one who knows and loves the store for what it has been, and who has a vision for a future that honors our unique history.”

When Frank announced the sale of the store in October 2008 to Jeff Mayersohn and Linda Seamonson, he said “I’m overjoyed to tell you that I have found that person. Jeff Mayersohn has been a loyal Harvard Book Store customer for over thirty years, is a serious booklover and, recently retired from the tech world he, with his wife Linda, is the ideal new owner for Harvard Book Store.” Jeff is president of the company.

Over the years, Harvard Book Store, Inc. has operated a number of stores near university campuses. Stores at Northeastern, Boston University, and the New England School of Law were parts of the business at various times.

In Cambridge, the store moved to Mass. Ave. in 1950, occupying the single storefront next to Bartley’s (1248 Mass. Ave.). In 1971 , we opened a second store at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Plympton St. (1256 Mass. Ave.). At that point, the 1248 store carried used textbooks, used paperbacks and remainders; the 1256 store carried new books and had a very academic inventory. We also had a law book annex in the space at the back of the Harvard Crimson that sold books to law students all over New England. In 1980, we were able to combine 1256 and the middle storefront (1252) into one store with new, used, and remainder books. In 1987 we put all three storefronts together into the space we occupy today. When the Crimson reclaimed their space in the mid-1990s, we closed the law book store.

In 1980, the company opened the Harvard Book Store Café on Newbury Street. The first bookstore café in Boston, and one of the first in the country, the Café pioneered bookstore author events in the area, working with the Boston Public Library to bring many important authors to the city. In 1994, the lease could not be renewed and the Café closed, leaving the store we have today as our sole operation.

In 2007, we celebrated the store’s 75^th anniversary, and in recognition of the Kramer family’s and the store’s importance to the community, the city of Cambridge designated the corner of Mass. Ave. and Plympton St. as “Frank, Mark and Pauline Kramer Square.”

Harvard Book Store has always been very active in the community and in bookselling—holding active roles on American Booksellers Association committees and boards, and in the New England Independent Booksellers Association. Frank was a founder of Cambridge Local First, a strong and successful local independent business alliance.

Harvard Book Store has won many awards, including Publishers Weekly Bookseller of the year in 2002 (a national award), the bookstore in Forbes Magazine’s "best shops in the world” in 2006, and a three-time Best Bookstore in Boston Magazine’s Best of Boston issue.. We are regularly picked by local newspapers and magazines in various "Best Of..." categories. Respondents to a 2007 survey of the Harvard community, taken by the university, named Harvard Book Store as their favorite place to shop in Harvard Square.