A SHORT HISTORY OF UNITY BOOKS

Unity Books began as an antidote to the ordinary. Founded in 1967 by sportsman and philosopher Alan Preston in a space measuring 4 feet at its narrowest in Wellington's Empire Building, Unity Books was filled with titles that reflected a higher ideal: history, classics, philosophy and politics - serious books.

Refusing to be discouraged, either by the lack of prime real estate or the first week's sales (somewhere in the region of $30), Alan forged ahead with his uncompromising vision of a world where books were taken seriously.

Unity relocated four times, ultimately ending up at 57 Willis St, and Alan also opened a branch on Auckland's High St in 1989. Both shops developed a reputation for stocking obscure and interesting books from overseas, for responding positively to customers' part-remembered titles and plot-lines, for supporting literature in New Zealand, and maintaining the status of Unity as anything but ordinary.

Alan's vision has not only survived, it has taken off, with Unity becoming as much an institution as it is a bookshop. Alan's vision lives on in our general chaos, faithful dedication to the notion of good books as being crucial to good lives and of Unity being a world within a world, where you can always find what you are looking for.