The Raven Book Store turns a page

The Raven, Lawrence’s longtime independent bookstore, will start the New Year with a new chapter: Danny Caine, g’17, who began working at the downtown shop while a KU grad student before buying it in 2017, is selling the 37-year-old business to Mary Wahlmeier Bracciano, Chris Luxem, ’09, and Kelly Barth, ’97—booksellers with a combined 40-plus years of experience at The Raven who also have been minority owners since January 2022.

Caine expanded the store’s online sales, steered the business through the COVID pandemic, and engineered the move from the original Seventh Street location to its new, higher-profile home at 809 Massachusetts St.

His flair for social media promotion and for standing up to bookselling behemoths (“Danny and Goliath,” issue No. 1, 2022) also raised The Raven’s national profile. His book How To Resist Amazon and Why (which started as an open letter to Jeff Bezos inviting the world’s richest man to visit Lawrence to see firsthand the kind of downtown business districts his internet superstore threatens) became a surprise indie hit in 2021.

“Being a steward of The Raven for the last seven-plus years has been the biggest honor of my life,” Caine said in a press release announcing the transition, which includes a move back to his hometown of Cleveland, where he works as multimedia content creator for The Institute of Local Self-Reliance. “I’m really excited to see the amazing things Chris, Kelly and Mary will do with this wonderful store.”

Barth joined The Raven in 1997, and her tenure has spanned all three of the store’s ownership teams: founders Pat Kehde, g’80, and Mary Lou Wright; their successor, Heidi Raak; and Caine.

“After nearly 30 years as a bookseller,” Barth said, “I’m so humbled and thrilled being entrusted with this beloved store.”