Terence Holliday, an avid reader, worked at Brentano's in 1919, in order to learn "something about the book business." In 1920, Terence and his wife Elsa (Smith class of 1911) opened their bookshop on 10 West 47th Street in New York City. The bookshop began to slowly grow, despite the Holliday's choice to ignore the advice of Frank Crowningshield of Vanity Fair, to "have a couple of attractive young ladies serve tea in the shop every afternoon." Initially, the bookshop specialized in importing English books, as well as offering unusual and rare books, especially first editions of contemporary authors and private press books. Later, the Hollidays promoted the works of younger British and American poets and novelists, such as W. H. Auden, Thornton Wilder, Virginia Woolf, Aldous Huxley, Katherine Mansfield, William Faulkner, and T. S. Eliot.

In 1925, the bookshop moved to 49 West 49th Street. This location was a propitious one, since there were specialty bookshops in the area. Rather than competing for customers, the bookshops cooperated, making referrals and placing orders for each other. Unfortunately, some of the larger publishers in competition with the Holliday were not nearly as gracious. The import of English editions was made difficult by the existing copyright laws, and the invention of "limited editions" from the larger houses also threatened business.

The Hollidays weathered the Depression, with Terence lecturing occasionally and writing articles to make ends meet. However, by 1950, the difficulties of running the bookshop began to wear on Terence, and the Hollidays began to look for a buyer for their shop. A run of bad luck ensued, including two destructive fires of suspicious origin.

In 1951, the Hollidays sold their bookstore to Robert T. Vanderbilt, and retired in Milford, Connecticut. Terence Holliday died in 1969 at the age of 84. Elsa Detmold Holliday died in 1991 at the age of 100. After 31 years of existence, the Holliday bookshop had become more than a bookshop; it had become an "Institution."

The archive of the Holliday Bookshop contains book catalogues, correspondence, writings, publicity, and photographs, dating from 1921 to 1979. The archive was donated to the Mortimer Rare Book Room in 1994 by John Detmold, in memory of his aunt, Elsa Detmold Holliday, class of 1911. The collection is divided up into five series, in 52 folders.

This collection is organized into five series:

• I. Book Catalogues, 1921-1937
• II. Correspondence, 1921-1973
• III. Publicity, 1924-1979
• IV. Writings, 1929-1930
• V. Photographs

The collection is divided up into five series, in 52 folders.

Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:

Holliday Bookshop Collection, Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College.

The archive was donated to the Mortimer Rare Book Room in 1994 by John Detmold, in memory of his aunt, Elsa Detmold Holliday, class of 1911.