Literary Heartbeats

Step through an unassuming storefront in Saratoga Springs, New York. Let the city’s familiar bustle fade behind you. Sink into the creak of hardwood floors as your gaze is drawn toward a labyrinth unfolding, room after room, swollen with stories. This is the Lyrical Ballad Bookstore—a place where literary ghosts linger, and generations of readers, writers, and dreamers have lost themselves amid 200,000 volumes of wonder.

If Saratoga Springs is a city of rejuvenation and history, then Lyrical Ballad is its literary heart—a beating, eccentric, improbable heart, packed between the brick walls of a former bank, sustained by decades of passion and community. Join us on this episode of "Postcards Between Pages," where we’ll explore the origins and enduring influence of this beloved bookstore: its role as a cultural touchstone, its connection to Romantic poetry, its dazzling architectural quirks, and the stories—both rare and everyday—that have made it a national treasure for half a century.

To understand Lyrical Ballad Bookstore, we must first time-travel to two turning points: late 18th-century England and Saratoga Springs in the early 1970s. Each would ignite a unique literary revolution—one in poetic form, the other in the shape of a quintessential analog bookstore.

The bookstore’s evocative name, Lyrical Ballad, is itself a tribute. In 1798, poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge published Lyrical Ballads, a collection that became the lighthouse for English Romanticism and transformed how the common person’s voice sang through poetry. Their credo: to make poetry "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings," rendered in everyday language.

Wordsworth’s own explanation, from the Preface to the 1800 edition, anticipated the ability of art to "strengthen and purify" the common mind, asserting that poetry should "speak in the language really used by men." It was at once a democratization and a gentle rebellion: that ordinary lives and local places were worthy of lyricism.

Nearly two centuries later, John DeMarco—a Troy native and newly-minted English literature graduate—stumbled upon his own bookish bounty: some seventy-odd boxes of used books at an auction. Their abundance overwhelmed his small apartment in Troy, pushing him to rent space in Saratoga Springs, a city then on the cusp of reawakening from economic slumber.

DeMarco, smitten by the Romantic Movement’s spirit, chose the name Lyrical Ballad for his fledgling store, channeling Wordsworth and Coleridge’s vision of art for the people. A small but telling anecdote, repeated in local lore, marks the beginning: the sign painter accidentally left the 'S' off "Ballads," and correcting it cost another $50—a serendipitous imperfection, perhaps, that foretold the eccentric spirit of the shop.

It’s easy now to romanticize that moment—a lone bibliophile with a poet’s heart, boxes of orphaned books, and a vision of a business that was as much a sanctuary as a store. But as chroniclers of Saratoga often note, DeMarco’s intuition about what a bookstore could be became the bedrock of a local revival.

When you first encounter the Lyrical Ballad Bookstore, its façade does little to foreshadow the adventure inside. Set within a stretch of historic downtown, the shop occupies a portion of a 19th-century structure that was once a bank—a fact that would later offer more than just an architectural footnote.

The building’s history—tapered by time, distinguished by the original bank vault in the heart of the store—anchors visitors in a tangible past. Many architectural details remain: the barred vault door, thick supporting walls, high ceilings, and the patina of age that can’t quite be replicated.

In a city stitched together by Victorian gems, Italianate homes, and reminders of the Gilded Age, the presence of this building signals continuity. Phila Street itself, dotted with other 19th-century houses and stories of immigrant communities, philanthropy, and reinvention, offers a fitting stage for a bookseller inspired by romantic ideals.

Just as the store preserves thousands of physical books, its walls—original woodwork, decorative metalwork, and vestiges of the bank’s infrastructure—preserve a living, breathing piece of the city’s history. The vault, handsomely repurposed as the rare-book room, stands out as the store’s beating heart—a secular tabernacle where literary treasures await discovery.

But the true magic of Lyrical Ballad lies in what happens once you step inside its modest doors. A sense of scale tumbles away: what looks, from the sidewalk, like a small neighborhood shop is in fact a labyrinth. Officially, it houses eight rooms, but as viral guests and seasoned regulars will insist, "you can’t actually count the rooms." Corridors spill into alcoves, rooms into nooks, creating an inscrutable maze that defies expectation and physics alike.

The metaphor of the shop as a TARDIS—a space that is vastly larger inside than its exterior promises—has become shorthand in contemporary guides. Regulars and newcomers alike lose track of time and of themselves, winding past floor-to-ceiling stacks, handwritten labels, and mismatched shelving that only enhances the enchantment. Each turn yields a genre, an author, or a memory from another era: children’s books and illuminated manuscripts nestle beside hardboiled noir, art history, romance, maps, and ephemera.

Part of the store’s design genius is its resistance to clinical order. The curation is deliberate—rare books in the vault, horse-racing histories for the city’s thoroughbred-obsessed, local postcards and maps—but the effect is something far greater: the thrill of possible discovery at every turn. As one customer wrote, “Books are packed into every crevice, making it the perfect place to lose track of time.

And the vault itself? Behind barred doors that once secured cash and securities, you now find an even more precious and irreplaceable cargo: signed first editions, rare books, and literary artifacts of centennial vintage or greater. Photographs and visitor accounts often include posed shots of guests locked in, as if literature itself has finally claimed them in perpetuity.

If the interior is built for serendipity, the inventory takes it into the realm of legend. At its heart, Lyrical Ballad is a repository of both popular and obscure knowledge. Over the last five decades, its shelves have come to house over 200,000 volumes—an astonishing figure for any independent store, let alone one off a quiet upstate street.

Among the marvels:

Signed editions and more: One much-reported highlight is a signed copy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. While this volume is not for sale, its presence creates a sense of awe for bibliophiles—an artifact of the gothic imagination, just out of reach.

First editions and illustrated classics: Examples cited by visitors include a four-volume set of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales from two centuries ago and an 1883 illustrated edition of Gray’s "Elegy," complete with a bookmark from the 19th century.

American history and local collections: The store is renowned for its comprehensive holdings in New York State and local history, from ephemera and postcards to books chronicling Saratoga’s golden eras of health and horse racing. These regional treasures draw collectors, researchers, and nostalgic locals.

Horse-racing, art, decorative bindings: Not surprising for a city known for its thoroughbred track, Lyrical Ballad’s equestrian section is nationally recognized. Stunning bindings and art-history tomes compete for attention in rooms dedicated to fine and decorative arts—a reminder of the city’s Gilded Age grandeur.

The store’s stock, replenished daily and sourced from estate sales, private collections, and world auctions, ensures a circulation not just of books, but of stories—each item infused with a silent history of hands, desks, and living rooms long since gone quiet.

If independent bookstores are often nostalgic businesses, Lyrical Ballad has always been at the vanguard of community, acting as a literary catalyst as much as a commercial enterprise.

The store’s opening in 1971 coincided with a broader revitalization of downtown Saratoga Springs—a city once dubbed "a ghost town" in the aftermath of postwar decline. John and Jan DeMarco, as contemporaries and community members recall, became not just book dealers but pillars of the city’s rebirth. “Lyrical Ballad outlived most of the big box stores and really was the foundation for much of the revitalization of Saratoga Springs,” said former mayor Meg Kelly. “His store survived it all due to the strength of his personality.

By supporting local artists, hosting events, and serving as an unofficial gathering space, the bookstore helped create a strong literary identity that reflected and deepened Saratoga’s cultural legacy. Friends and fellow business owners, like Gordon Boyd, would later remark that DeMarco "was just a priceless community leader and an example for all other business leaders.

Children grew up discovering the magic of books, college students found unexpected sources for their studies, and local writers encountered a kindred spirit in DeMarco’s easy, welcoming way. The high-velocity shift to electronic reading put new pressures on brick-and-mortar stores, but Lyrical Ballad’s commitment to "the art of browsing and personal attention" never wavered, even as national chains rose and fell.

For most of its history, Lyrical Ballad thrived by word-of-mouth—its reputation spreading from the lips of delighted travelers, seasoned collectors, local writers, and the wider antiquarian book community.

But in recent years, the store found a new, unexpected stage: the digital megaphone of social media. In September 2022, author Melissa Caruso’s impassioned Twitter thread, filled with vivid photos and playful descriptions of getting lost—delightedly—in the store’s maze, went viral, accumulating nearly 100,000 likes and 15,000 retweets.

Viral stardom brought a wave of fresh visitors, each echoing Caruso’s sense of wonder.

This digital enthusiasm—boosted by sharing on sites like Bored Panda and niche travel blogs—has paradoxically reaffirmed the shop’s analog appeal: its charm lies in what can’t be summoned on a screen, in the serendipity of the browse and the smell of history in the stacks.

If Lyrical Ballad is a theater of books, it’s also found its way onto the silver screen. The shop’s eclectic inventory and evocative interior have been featured in several major motion pictures, both as source material for set design and as a physical location:

The Age of Innocence (1993): Martin Scorsese’s lush adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel made use of books and set pieces from Lyrical Ballad, helping to evoke the palpable detail of 19th-century high society.

Meet Joe Black (1998): Various volumes from the store appeared in this romantic afterlife drama starring Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins.

Sabrina, The Time Machine, and others: Each film drew on the historical depth and visual richness afforded by Lyrical Ballad’s stacks.

Even off-camera, the store’s atmospheric setting—vault, dark wood, and all—has inspired countless personal photo essays, blog posts, and literary travel stories.

Over the decades, Lyrical Ballad has served as stage and backdrop to hundreds of stories, both momentous and intimate.

Among the most moving is the story of Solomon Northup’s descendants. When Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave won critical acclaim and brought new attention to Northup’s story, Lyrical Ballad was able to place a true treasure—a first edition of Northup’s narrative—in the hands of Vera Williams, his great-great-great-granddaughter, during a family reunion in Saratoga. As Williams later recounted, the tangible link of holding the book added deeper meaning to the annual celebration of Northup’s legacy in his former hometown.

Other rare finds—such as a cache of letters between Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne, or a Mark Twain broadside—surfaced, in signature DeMarco fashion, unexpectedly: a trunk found in a barn, a collection unearthed in a local estate. DeMarco was legendary for both his knack for discovery and his generosity—pricing rare items far below their value to accommodate passionate collectors and scholars.

The store has hosted readings, signings, and collaborative events with local institutions like Skidmore College and the Yaddo artists’ colony. Its walls—lined with handbills and event posters—speak to generations of writers who passed through; some, like Caruso, brought national attention, while others fostered a vibrant local scene.

In the store’s present programming, intimate concerts and “Tiny Desk”-style music showcases further the bookstore’s role as a multi-arts incubator, with events featuring indie-folk artists and touring musicians taking place beneath the watchful spines of literary giants.

In 2019, Lyrical Ballad faced its most poignant crossroads with the passing of John DeMarco at the age of 70. The loss was deeply felt across Saratoga. Multiple tributes poured in from local officials, business owners, national book dealers, and Yaddo, the city’s famous writers’ retreat. DeMarco was remembered as kind, thoughtful, and modest—"every trait you hope to find in a good bookman, in a friend.

His legacy, though, was destined to endure. In June 2021, after nearly half a century as custodians, Janice DeMarco completed the transition of the shop to new owners: Jason Zerrillo—a long-time employee and devotee—and Charlie Israel, a preservationist whose own family’s roots entwined with Saratoga’s history.

"Jan DeMarco was eager to keep the spirit of the shop alive," Israel said. “Having Jay step in would help maintain the shop’s spirit. He knows the place inside-out.” Both new owners expressed a deep commitment to continuity—promising to honor the DeMarcos’ original vision, curatorial approach, and community-first ethic.

Readers can rest easy. The store still breathes, adapts, and welcomes, its wandering spirit preserved as one owner’s era yields to another.

Today, the Lyrical Ballad Bookstore stands as both a time capsule and a living institution. Despite challenges posed by e-books, online retail, and the ever-accelerating digital sphere, the store continues to adapt and participate in contemporary culture.

New events and partnerships keep the literary spirit lively. Live music nights, poetry slams, and book launches blend with old-fashioned browsing and personal recommendations. The store supports local projects such as the Little Free Library at Frederick Allen Elks Lodge—a program championing African American authors and diverse speculative fiction, filling physical and metaphorical shelves across Saratoga.

Linked with community reading initiatives, the shop serves as an informal partner for local book clubs, public library events, and student-led reading groups at Skidmore and beyond. Advocacy for book arts, authorship, and historical preservation remains at the core.

And, of course, the viral moment in 2022 catalyzed a new generation of readers and wanderers, proof that even in a digital age, the mythic pull of a magical, labyrinthine bookstore can spark curiosity—and maybe a pilgrimage—from far beyond Saratoga’s city limits.

The story of Lyrical Ballad Bookstore is, ultimately, the story of literary stewardship. In its half-century life, it’s survived every trend and turbulence: the superstores, the dotcom crashes, the rise of digital, and the pandemic’s squeeze. What has endured is the radical notion, lifted from its Romantic namesake, that books matter because people matter—and the stories that house us are just as important as the houses that store our stories.

A visitor to Lyrical Ballad can, with luck and a little curiosity, stumble upon an edition that changed the world or a paperback that changed only themselves. They may meet a knowledgeable bookseller, or a neighbor in need of a recommendation, or maybe just the thrill of a hidden hallway ending at a velvet curtain and a peek into the vault.

Independent bookstores, the great Romantic experiment in collective storytelling, are an endangered species. But for now, in Saratoga Springs, the magical labyrinth in what once was a bank, inside what once was a tack shop, remains open. And you—reader, listener, dreamer—are always invited to lose and find yourself in its winding halls.

This episode of "Postcards Between Pages" ends with my own postcard to this roadside wonderland, “To all the hands—DeMarcos, Zerrillo, Israel, and every visitor—that have kept Lyrical Ballad’s doors open, this is your story, too.”