Literary Field's

Marshall Field's, the department store division of Target Corp. (Minneapolis), has announced a partnership with Barbara's Bookstore, the largest independent purveyor of books in the Chicago market, for the September opening of a Barbara's Bookstore within Field's flagship State Street store in Chicago.

The shop, the first Barbara's Bookstore location in a department store, will occupy 2400 square feet of the lower level, near the store's Marketplace Foods. The shop will be a full-service bookstore featuring popular literature and children's books, frequent author appearances and book signings and other events such as the Marshall Field's Children's Stage, Family Field Trips and Field's Go Read events.

“Our guests will find great prices on a more current assortment of books, including a full spectrum of children's books, and a wider variety of periodicals,” said Ralph Hughes, Marshall Field's regional director.

Barbara's Bookstore opened its first store on Wells Street in Chicago in 1963. There are currently seven stores throughout Chicago, and the retailer has earned a reputation among Chicagoans for its knowledgeable staff, access to authors and connection to book aficionados.

Barbara's Books is the latest in an ongoing campaign by the retailer to introduce new boutiques with exclusive merchandise throughout the historic State Street store. Most recently, Field's welcomed fine British shirt tailor Thomas Pink, New York-based home designer Thomas O'Brien and the home design of London-based Designer's Guild. A high-end stationery purveyor, Papyrus, is also in the works.

“Marshall Field's is reinventing virtually every floor of the State Street store with new partners and improved signage, merchandise presentation, visuals and sound,” the retailer said in a statement, “making Marshall Field's State Street store the premiere destination in retail.”