History
Founders Ken Gjemre and Pat Anderson opened the first store in 1972 in a former laundromat in Dallas, Texas, filling the shelves with 2,000 books out of their personal libraries. The founders believed in offering great products at great prices, selling new and gently-used books, magazines, music, movies, collectibles and game software at half the original price or less.
Pat Anderson’s daughter, Sharon Anderson Wright, is the company’s current President and CEO. In 2009, Sharon's sister Ellen O'Neal stepped up to the position of Chairperson of the Board in order to become more involved with the family business and carry out the mission of her mother.
As committed to employees as it is to profitability, Half Price Books has been generous with employee benefits from its earliest days, including abundant paid vacation, holiday and sick leave, affordable health, dental, vision and life insurance, quarterly bonuses, and a company-matched 401(k) plan.
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“... in a history of spiritual rupture, a social compact built on fantasy and collective secrets, poetry becomes more necessary than ever: it keeps the underground aquifers flowing; it is the liquid voice that can wear through stone.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“Let it suffice that in the light of these two facts, namely, that the mind is One, and that nature is its correlative, history is to be read and written.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)