The Regulator(ˈregyəˌlātər) Bookshop

The Regulator(ˈregyəˌlātər) Bookshop

By Tom Campell

A small and perhaps improbable(imˈpräbəbəl) bookstore opens its door for the first time on a cold Saturday morning. It is early in December, 1976. There’s a vague(vāg) memory of snow flurries(ˈflə-rē,ˈflərē) in the air.

We set things up so that our first customer that morning was Agnes Birkhead, the grandmother of one of the store’s founding lights. Agnes had been the court(kôrt) stenographer(ˈstenō) at the Scopes(skōp) “monkey” trial(ˈtrī(ə)l) and gone on to be Sinclair Lewis’s personal assistant. Agnes Birkhead was a touchstone(ˈtəCHˌstōn) for us, a connection to a strong American tradition(trəˈdiSHən) of truth-seeking and independent thinking. We hope that, 30 years on, our actions continue to honor(ˈänər) her memory.

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Thinking back on The Regulator’s earliest days, it’s clear that the bookstore was founded in a completely(kəmˈplētlē) different universe(ˈyo͞onəˌvərs), in a place you just can’t get to anymore. The power’s down, the roads are out, the trails(trāl) are unmarked and overgrown. In this far away place there was a working textile(ˈtekˌstīl) mill(mil) across the street, and Ninth(nīnTH) Street was populated by “mill village(ˈvilij)” shops-a couple of grills(gril) that only served breakfast and lunch, a hardware store, a post office, McDonald’s drug(drəg) store. Durham(ˈdo͝or-,ˈdərəm) was still a tobacco(təˈbakō) and textile town, and though we didn’t really know it at the time, the bookstore’s opening was a harbinger(ˈhärbənjər) of change to come. More change than we could ever have imagined(iˈmajən) at the time.

But one thing has remained(riˈmān) constant through all these years-the amazing support that this town has given to our community-oriented bookstore. That an independent bookstore the size (and may we humbly(ˈhəmbəl) say) status(ˈstatəs,ˈstātəs) of The Regulator continues to succeed(səkˈsēd) in a city the size of Durham is highly unusual. Durham certainly gets its share of bad press, and gets the cold shoulder from many of our haughtier(ˈhôtē) Triangle(ˈtrīˌaNGgəl) neighbors(ˈnābər). But here at the Regulator we’ve come to know that there’s a lot more to this town than the conventional(kənˈvenCHənl) wisdom(ˈwizdəm), and the media, give it credit(ˈkredit) for. We wouldn’t want to run a bookstore anywhere else. Thank you, Durham, for thirty wonderful years.

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https://www.regulatorbookshop.com/our-history