April Fool!

We couldn’t resist this one, after Karen walked into a local shop just two weeks ago and was asked if she was “back.” At first she thought this meant back from New York, but it turns out that even now people really think that she, and Berkshire Publishing, moved to Seattle three years ago.

You may remember our surprise news of 1 April 2016:

We are delighted to announce that Berkshire Publishing will be relocating to Seattle, Washington. Not only is composting mandatory in Seattle, but it is the home of the Big History Project and of Amazon.com.

Amazon is a major internet company that uses books as its public brand and has prospered for over 20 years without making a profit. While Berkshire has had a rather contentious relationship with Amazon, we have concluded that Amazon offers the best possible leadership model for a truly 21st-century publisher. Stay tuned for our new address as we trade our view of the Berkshire Hills for one of the Olympic Mountains.

Fast forward to 1 April 2019

The 2016 April Fool’s Day joke will clearly never die, so we figured that it was time to “move back” to lovely little Great Barrington. (Seattle, we’ll miss you. Love the crab at Pike Place Market.)

The Amazon part of the 2016 story, she thought, would have made it clear that that was a joke. Karen has been a widely cited critic of Amazon’s treatment of publishers, and you can even listen to a podcast with that story at Copyright Clearance Center’s Beyond the Book: Up Against Amazon with Karen Christensen. (Before that, Karen had been interviewed by the Seattle Times, then by the New York Times and The Nation.)

We were tempted to say that we were moving back because Great Barrington now has its first marijuana store, but we don’t want to be living down that story for years.

We also thought of telling a story about the success of the Train Campaign, Karen’s engrossing volunteer project. But we don’t want anyone to think the restoration of passenger service to New York’s Grand Central Terminal is a joke or a pipe dream. It’s a real prospect, and you can learn more, sign up for news, or make a donation at www.TrainCampaign.org.

Of course, it’s well known that Karen Christensen made Great Barrington the hub of China publishing in the United States, and the local economic development community is already drawing up a new plan for Berkshire County China trade.

PS, a little fact-checking: “Great Barrington Bans Plastic Bags”; “Water Bottle Ban Won’t Take Effect Until May; and medical and recreational marijuana cannabis is now available at Theory Wellness in Great Barrington. We hear that there were lines outside the door even in the depths of winter. And the pear trees in the photo above were cut down and replaced a few years back. The new ones are bigger now, but it’ll be a long time till they reach similar magnificence.