Oscar Wilde, Co-Founder

[It is with heavy hearts that we have seen the passing of our beloved kitty, Oscar Wilde. He came to us off the street as we were in the midst of restoring our building and creating the bookstore that our friends and customers now know. He became woven into the fabric of our shop and our lives. To say that he was special would be an understatement. He had the most remarkable personality, the quintessential Gentleman Cat… Oscar Wilde, Esquire, B.C.E. (Best Cat Ever). Our hearts are broken. Goodbye, dear Oscar.]

In the autumn of 2008 Village Lights Bookstore was just beginning to take shape. One day a young black and white cat sauntered through the open front door of the presumptive bookstore. Every bookstore requires a bookstore cat, does it not?? So the tuxedoed kitty immediately made himself at home, curling up for a nap on a bench by the window, as sawdust and the cacophony of construction whirled around him. An exceedingly easy-going, urbane, and cultured creature, this black and white feline fellow surely belonged to someone—that is what we suspected (and feared, since we were quickly becoming quite fond of him). The obligatory “Found Cat” posters were placed along Main Street, while we secretly prayed that no one would answer. A week later, with no responses, the posters were ripped down! Village Lights Bookstore now had its first resident feline—a tuxedoed Gentleman Cat named (what else) Oscar F. O. W. Wilde, Esquire, B. C. E. (Best Cat Ever).

Oscar Recommends

Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde By Oscar Wilde, Jack Zipes (Afterword by), Gyles Brandreth (Introduction by) Cover Image

Catwings By Ursula K. Le Guin Cover Image