It takes a special person to open a bookstore, someone with a mix of optimism, compassion, endless curiosity about the lives of others and, perhaps, a bit of delusion. 

In the five decades since Mary Stuart Kellogg and her sister, Rhoda Norman, established Maple Street Book Shop, generations of readers have embraced the little wood-frame sanctuary as a second home.

In celebration of Mary Kellogg’s life and her gift to the New Orleans literary landscape, novelist Christine Wiltz reflects on this influence.