by MICHAEL TITOWSKY

Bernard Titowsky first opened the Austin Book Shop in April of 1954. The store was located at 82-60A Austin Street, about a half a block west of Lefferts Boulevard. With the help of his wife, Rita Migliaccio Titowsky, Bernie's store gained a very dedicated following. When still holding down his "day job" (a teacher at NYC high schools and junior high schools), Bernie kept the store open on weekends and also did a large mail order business, selling old, rare and out of print books to colleges and universities around the world. After retiring from the teaching profession, Bernie increased his retail hours. In 1970, the Austin Book Shop moved around the corner to 82-60 Austin Street, the retail space located just off of the LIRR platform in the Kew Gardens station. Then, as the business grew, Bernie took back the space at 82-60A, running the retail business out of the smaller store on Austin Street and the mail order business out of the larger space.

The Austin Book Shop was truly unique. In the days before there was a Barnes & Noble in every mall, the independent book stores were the places where book lovers went to find those rare gems that they treasured. [Cont'd next page]