Leonard Riggio, the founder of Barnes & Noble who built a single bookstore into a national chain, died on Tuesday in New York City at the age of 83, according to the company.
A statement from his family said Riggio passed away “after a courageous battle with Alzheimer's disease.”
The arrogant Mr. Rizzio's nearly half-century reign began in 1971, when he used a $1.2 million loan to buy the Barnes & Noble name and its flagship store on Lower Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
“His leadership spans decades, during which he has not only grown the company but also fostered a culture of innovation and a love of reading,” Barnes & Noble said in a statement.
“Len's vision and entrepreneurial spirit changed the retail landscape.”
He acquired hundreds of new stores over the next two decades, and in the 1990s launched a nationwide empire of “superstores” that combined the discount prices and huge capacity of chain stores with the comfort of sofas, reading chairs and cafes.
“Our bookstore was designed to be welcoming, not intimidating,” Riggio told The New York Times in 2016. “It wasn't a place for the elite. You could come in and get a coffee, sit and read as many books as you wanted, and use the restroom. These were innovations on our part that no one thought were possible.”
He took the company public in 1993 and opened more stores after that: Barnes & Noble was opening more than one new store per week in 1997.
“This was a big leap forward because it helped bring hardcovers, which had previously been a shipping industry commodity, to the mass market.” “It's a big step forward,” publishing industry veteran Lawrence Kirshbaum said in a 2023 interview.“Barnes & Noble has brought reading into living rooms outside major metropolitan areas.”
The bookstore chains became so powerful that they were blamed for driving smaller independent bookstores out of business.
“The reason I'm a predator is that when a great independent bookstore opens a branch, I feel like I'm welcoming a savior,” Mr. Riggio told The Wall Street Journal in 1992. “I think every new bookstore should be celebrated, regardless of its history.”
Rizio dedicated her life to literacy, education and the arts, supporting organizations such as the Children's Defense Fund, the Anti-Defamation League and Dia, a contemporary art museum in the Northern Beacon.
He also founded the nonprofit Project Home Again with his wife Louise, a charity that built and donated 101 homes to New Orleans after it was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
A lifelong New Yorker, Riggio grew up in Brooklyn and attended New York University, where he worked at the campus bookstore.
He dropped out of college in 1965 and opened his first bookstore, SBX (Student Book Exchange).
His father was a taxi driver and a boxer who twice beat Rocky Graziano, which is probably why the bookstore founder was often described by the media as “gritty” and “brave.”
Rizzio lived in an apartment on Park Avenue and owned a Tudor mansion with a sculpture garden in Bridgehampton.
He served as grand marshal at the 2017 New York Columbus Day Parade, mingling with friends such as singer Tony Bennett and former New York City Mayor David Dinkins.
“My nationality is New York City,” he told Businessweek magazine in 1998. “I don't mean that I'm a New Yorker in the sense that The New York Times is a New Yorker. I mean that in the Horatio Alger sense.”
Barnes & Noble's revenue began to take a hit in the late 2010s due to increasing online competition and the failure of its Nook e-reader business.
Riggio sold the company in 2019 to Elliott, the activist investor group founded by billionaire Paul Singer.
He stepped down from B&N in 2016 but remained optimistic about the company's future and determined to hold on to a significant stake despite stiff competition from Amazon and the e-book industry.
“There's always been pessimism about the future of publishing, but the industry has been thriving,” Riggio told The Washington Post in 2016.
He is survived by his wife, three daughters and four grandchildren.
