Egmont Arens
Egmont Arens (December 15, 1889 – October 2, 1966) was an American publisher of literature and art, and an industrial designer and commercial artist specializing in marketing and product packaging.
Career
Washington Square Book Shop
Egmont Arens purchased the Washington Square Book Shop at 27 West Eighth Street in Greenwich Village, New York City from Frank Shay, and operated the store from 1917 to 1923. "[T]he Washington Square Book Shop, presided over by Egmont Arens and Josephine Bell, was during the Twenties the Greenwich Villagers’ favorite shop . . . In what a high-pitched anticipatory mood we ducked into this book shop once or twice a week to see what was new on its magazine rack. Here were the publications of the new movements in American art and thought and literature. Here were the reviews that were stimulating the young." A photograph of Arens in the bookshop circa 1918 by Jessie Tarbox Beals is on the Greenwich Village History Digital Archive. View photograph.
