One of the oldest bookstores in Iowa is the O.G. Waffle Book Company which was existing in Marion, Iowa in 1883. That was just thirty-three years after Iowa became a state. The first owner of the bookstore was O.G. Waffle. O.G. stood for Owen Gates. O.G. Waffle ran the business from 1883 to 1931. He sold reference books to public libraries. He also sold some books to schools. Some of his salespeople went door-to-door selling books. He published one book titled, Gems for the Fireside. That was the only book he published. The title page says it was published, in 1883, by Mitchell and Waffle.

In 1931, O.G.'s son Norman took over the business. Norman and Lenore Waffle operated the company from 1931 until they retired in the early 1980s. The business grew while Norman ran the company. Norman sold reference books to public libraries, and all kinds of books to schools. They had two children, Elbert and Elizabeth. When they grew up, they had other careers and did not want to run a book store, so Nancy Jennings bought it and became the owner on September 3, 1985. Norman told her that she should not sell paperbacks but times changed and now Mrs. Jennings sells more books to schools than she does public libraries. Public libraries often buy from one or two companies that buy everything from one place and the big companies can give a larger discount. Children's librarians still like to see the pictures and see how big the print is before they buy the book. She does book fairs for schools and takes books to many reading conferences in the state. She sells children's books and adult books.

We tried to find out how many bookstores there are in Iowa today, but the latest record we could find was 132 bookstores in 1992. In Cedar Rapids alone, there are 22 bookstores. If you know how many bookstores there are in your town or if you know of a bookstore older than O.G. Waffle Book Company please write to us and tell us about it.

Compiled by Caitlyn and Erin