The American Book Center

The American Book Center began in 1972, when American entrepreneurs Sam Boltansky and Mitch Crossfield opened what they initially called the American Discount Book Center on Amsterdam's Kalverstraat, importing remaindered English-language books from the United States to sell in the Netherlands. The business grew from that single import-focused shop into a multi-store, family-owned chain that has stayed independent for over five decades, adding locations in The Hague and Leidschendam alongside Amsterdam. Its best-known address today is on the Spui, a small square in central Amsterdam near the Begijnhof, where the store relocated in October 2006 into a building with its own layered history: over roughly 160 years it had previously housed a gentlemen's cultural club, a luxury jewelry store, and a grand piano showroom before becoming a bookstore. The Spui shop spans multiple floors stocked with English-language fiction, nonfiction and periodicals and has appeared on various 'most beautiful bookshops' lists compiled by travel and design publications. The business has stayed under the same family ownership structure since its 1972 founding, a continuity that is unusual among Amsterdam retail businesses of its size and age.