THEORIES: ISSUE 3
Page Turner
Interview with Sarah McNally
Words by Seb Emina
Photography by Maureen Martinez-Evans
Fashion by Marcus Allen
Like fashion, literary trends come and go, but great taste resonates forever—this Sarah McNally knows to be true. Two decades after founding the first McNally Jackson bookstore in New York, she still has her finger on the pulse.
Double Duty
Sarah McNally wears Sleek Flannel Cutaway Shirt in Russet Melange ($375) and Sleek Flannel Double Pleat Pant in Russet Melange ($395) by Theory.
To own a successful bookstore in New York sounds like something of a dream job. It is also, says Sarah McNally, a real responsibility. The Winnipeg-raised entrepreneur founded McNally Jackson in 2004 at the age of 29, staking her future on a business that some were already writing obituaries for. The institution she created continues to debunk the doomsayers, having expanded into a five-location mini empire with associated ventures including stationery shops, a publishing house, and the occasional festival. New York magazine estimates McNally to be the third-biggest buyer of books on its geographical beat, which is a role she takes seriously, reading ravenously and widely to decide what titles make the cut. Besides representing quite a bit of the city’s literature perusing capacity, McNally’s stores have an informal status—through events, signings, and sheer ambience—as community spaces and cultural centers. Bookstores today have a certain cherished aura, representing as they do such endangered virtues as “sustained attention to a topic” and “taste beyond the strictures of the algorithm.” Their owner’s philosophy here is to neither condescend to her customer nor treat them like an unworthy intruder, an approach that enables the stores to resist becoming either dauntingly academic or luxury enclaves. In her South Street Seaport flagship, whose wooden staircases and exposed brick arches are catnip to readers looking to grow their “to be read” pile, McNally discusses the challenges and joys of New York bookselling in a time of uncertainty.
Seb Emina: What was it like to be raised in the world of books?
Sarah McNally: Well, my mom started the bookstore McNally Robinson in Winnipeg when I was around 6, and I started working there when I was 13. My father had a very old-fashioned approach to parenting. I never received an allowance. I had paper routes from when I was 8. It was brutal. I used to wake up at 6 a.m. and in Winnipeg you can’t expose skin for more than a minute at that time or you risk frostbite. So when I got to work in the back room at the store, it was like: What a joy. Then for college I went to McGill in Montreal, and I worked at a bookstore called Nicholas Hoare, which was really beautiful, with lots of coffee table books.
Emina: How did those early experiences influence what you do with McNally Jackson?
McNally: Winnipeg is not a fancy town, so I worked in bookstores like my mom’s that weren’t fancy, that had industrial carpeting and white-laminate shelving. Then the bookstore in Montreal was fancy. The bookstores that I’ve built myself, they’re somewhere in the middle. I never want them to feel too fancy, because I don’t think that’s the point. But then, because they’re in New York, I also want them to feel like reprieves—in the same way as parks, spaces around books are historically considered public. I don’t think people feel guilty leaving a bookstore not having bought something.
“In this vast world, we can make a tiny footprint that is elevated and beautiful. That’s the job, not to chase what sells.”
Emina: It’s getting harder for people to keep a foothold in the city unless they have a certain kind of income and therefore career path. Do you feel that change? Do you feel you have to respond to it?
McNally: I mean, I really don’t think like that. Anybody can read, and there’s no particular type of person who owns books. At the same time, prices are going up, and I am getting a little worried. Paperbacks are now mostly over $20, and there are novels over $40. At my SoHo store people will yell: “What, is there a SoHo markup here?” But the price is printed on the book; there’s no markup. Still, any paperback is cheaper than any glass of wine in basically any restaurant in the city. I think books are still relatively affordable, but the expectation is that they should be really affordable.
Emina: Do you regularly go to publishing events, book launches, readings? What do you notice about the scene today?
McNally: I don’t go to most events, but I will say the young people’s outfits are better now, compared to 10, 15 years ago when they were all quite schlubby.
Luxe Layering
Sarah wears Double-Face Wool-Cashmere Shawl Collar Coat in Palomino ($795), Sleek Flannel Double
Pleat Pant in Russet Melange ($395), and Airy Cashmere Dolman Sweater in Dark Pine ($375) by Theory.
Emina: When you do go out, what’s your approach to dressing?
McNally: Whenever I have to look halfway decent for a fundraising event or a proper cocktail function, I just wear whatever I have on plus a blazer by Theory that I’ve probably had for 12 years. Anything with that blazer looks good, so good that it actually gives me the joy that a man must get from owning a proper suit and not having to worry about it.
Emina: What is it about Theory that you’re drawn to?
McNally: It’s a great New York brand. I have never stopped wearing something I’ve bought from Theory. Every piece has turned into a lifetime commitment. I always feel good when I wear it. Every single time.
Emina: You’re someone who has to consume a huge number of books. Do you have dedicated locations where you read at home?
McNally: It depends on what I’m reading. Over the last four or five months I’ve been educating myself in early American history, specifically the period leading up to the Revolutionary War, and I have my early American history chair. I read in the library area in my house. I have a couch up in my bedroom that I read in for when I want to be alert and make notes. If it’s reading that I don’t need to make notes on, I read in bed, even if it’s 2 o’clock in the afternoon.
Emina: I read an old interview where you mentioned writing some science fiction. Did that ever come to fruition?
McNally: I think I was writing a novel about a guy in a spaceship—but no, nothing ever comes to fruition with writing. Had I been a writer, I would probably be miserable. It’s a very solitary life. When it comes right down to it, the real joy of my life, outside of my miraculous, wonderful son, are the teams of people who I’ve worked with.
Emina: It feels like you keep !nding new ways to deploy people in interesting, New York ways. You’ve got a festival now, don’t you?
McNally: We’re doing one this fall, and I think it’s going to be pretty great. I’ve been really interested in doing a festival that is very, very heavily about nonfiction—history, theory, politics. Without nonfiction publishing, civilization would crater and stumble and fall, and so my stores are aberrantly nonfiction-heavy.
Emina: And there are your stationery stores, Goods for the Study. What’s exciting you currently about the stationery world?
McNally: I’ve just designed over 100 products, and I’m having so much fun. I’m so into it. I had this idea to design these notebooks that are the exact size of the old pocketbooks. I’ve got paperbacks and hardcovers and a collaboration with Ken Buhler, a Brooklyn-based artist, who we worked with on our Marble Linen Journals.
Soft and Smooth
Sarah wears Sleek Flannel Cutaway Shirt in Russet Melange ($375), Sleek Flannel Double Pleat Pant in
Russet Melange ($395), and Airy Cashmere Dolman Sweater in Dark Pine ($375) by Theory.
Emina: What are you reading right now?
McNally: This week, I’m rereading one of my favorite books, which is called Hope Against Hope by Nadezhda Mandelstam, who was Osip Mandelstam’s widow. There’s just something to the wisdom of her voice. She writes a lot about what people thought that silence would buy them, what people thought collaboration would buy them, and how a culture of fear is instilled. I also just reread Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag; a lot of it is about war photography and how we all vacillate between attention and inattention to the suffering of others.
Emina: Do you get a kind of snapshot as to the perspective of New York at any given moment simply through what sells in your stores?
McNally: I make a point of reading at least two new novels every month, and the two I’ve read this month are the new George Saunders [Vigil] and a novel called Lázár by Nelio Biedermann, a Swiss novelist who’s 23 and an excellent writer. Then there’s something frightening happening, which is that when we did our bestsellers list for 2025, there were no new literary fiction novels on it. Have you read Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar? That was our number-two best selling book of last year but it was published in 2024. He is amazing, and it’s a special, special book, but with very few exceptions, new novels are not popping. It’s the backlist that is working.
Emina: Do these shifts worry you? Do they make you rethink what you do, or the kinds of books you stock?
McNally: One of my major roles in the company is saying, “I don’t care if it sells. If it’s not good, we cannot feature it here.” In this vast world, we can make a tiny footprint that is elevated and beautiful. That’s the job, not to chase what sells. Luckily, for 21 years, that approach has actually created enough sales that we are still here.
CREDITS
Talent Sarah McNally
Words Seb Emina
Photography Maureen Martinez-Evans
Fashion Marcus Allen
Hair Stylist Andrita Renee at The Only Agency
Makeup Artist Whittany Robinson at The Only Agency
Photo Assistant Daniel Short
Digital Technician Joshua Mathews
Fashion Assistant Izaake Zuckerman
Production The Morrison Group
Special Thanks Laird and Good Company
