Left Bank Books is an independent bookstore located at 399 N. Euclid Street in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri.

It was founded by students in 1969 as a leftist collective to sell underground, counter-cultural, feminist, and anti-establishment books, newspapers, and magazines—the first to do so in the St. Louis region.

Left Bank Books was founded by a group of Washington University in St. Louis graduate students in July 1969.

[6] In 1998, Left Bank Books was a plaintiff in an antitrust lawsuit by the American Booksellers Association against national chain bookstores Borders and Barnes & Noble.

[16] In 1999, the store refused to host former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for a book signing due to his role in the Vietnam War.

[17][18] For many years, Left Bank Books maintained an art gallery in the lower level of its Euclid Street location that exhibited artists before they were more widely recognized.

The Left Bank Books River City Readers Program connects financial donors to children in St. Louis Public Schools.

[25] The store compiled the #BlackLivesMatter reading list, which included books such as Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time, and Jesmyn Ward's Men We Reaped.

[26][27][28] The store's Black Lives Matter window display was the subject of a customer complaint that lead to an article in Huffington Post.

[33] The non-profit Left Bank Books Foundation was formed in 2008 by a collection of current and former owners and other community members.

[32] The Foundation receives the majority of its funding from small individual donations to the Friends of Left Bank Books.

The Foundation sponsors literary events and also works with St. Louis Public School children through the store's River City Readers Program.

Left Bank Books is frequently recognized for its contributions to the Central West End neighborhood, its wider community activities, and promotion of regional literary culture.

In 2003, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen passed a resolution recognizing Left Bank Books' "more than 30 years of commitment and service to the City of St.

[41] It was also the subject of a short story by Guggenheim Fellow Kathleen Finneran in the anthology My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read and Shop.