Gotham Book Mart Inventory Goes to Penn

In 2007 Gotham Book Mart shut its doors after 87 years of being in business, and owner Andreas Brown held a court-mandated auction, selling the entire contents of the shop for $400K (though it was reportedly worth several million). CityRoom is reporting that now, nearly two years later, "about 200,000 items have been donated to the University of Pennsylvania" by an anonymous donor (the same who purchased the entire contents of the store's inventory). The lot includes “proofs, advance copies, pamphlets, photographs, posters, reference works, catalogs, broadsides, prints and postcards,” as well as books "from the personal libraries of Truman Capote and Anaïs Nin," and signed items from Arthur Miller, John Updike, Woody Allen and Tennessee Williams (who was a clerk at the store at one point). The site wonders if Leonard A. Lauder, former chairman of Estée Lauder, previous benefactor of the bookstore, and graduate of Penn (class of 1954) was the donor.