Walter Goldwater

[7] The bookstore specialized in African, African-American, and Caribbean (West Indies) literature as well as used, old, and rare books.

[2][6] Around 1932 or 1933, Whittaker Chambers tried to recruit Goldwater to open a bookstore near Columbia University to serve as a meeting place for Communist (Soviet) underground agents as well as mail drop.

[2][8] Others whom Chambers tried to recruit in the same period included: Herbert Solow, David Zabladowsky, Diana Trilling, and Robert Cantwell.

[9] Goldwater purchased an estimated ten thousand "little magazines" (e.g., Bibelot, Black Cat, Yellow Book, and Philistine) from nearby Pratt bookshop.

[2][6] Goldwater helped found the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America and collected books printed in the 15th century.

[4] In 1993, a long interview was published in the Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook, in which Goldwater recounted all the booksellers he had known in his life.

[2] University Place Book Shop closed in 1995, mostly due to rising costs and a debt of $64,000 in unpaid rent.