Leonard Riggio was a businessman who, starting in 1971, expanded Barnes & Noble from a single Manhattan store into a nationwide book giant.
- Died: August 27, 2024 (Who else died on August 27?)
- Details of death: Died of Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 83.
- We invite you to share condolences for Leonard Riggio in our Guest Book.
Leonard Riggio’s legacy
Barnes & Noble Booksellers was founded in 1886 in New York City (as Arthur Hinds & Company), and for a time in the 1940s and ‘50s, enjoyed a brief expansion to Chicago and a number of college campuses. However, those ventures did not last. When Leonard Riggio purchased the company in 1971, it was down to a single location on Fifth Avenue. Riggio had created his own bookstore in 1965 while a student at New York University, the Student Book Exchange, and he saw the floundering Manhattan Barnes & Noble shop as an opportunity to grow.
In the years that followed, Riggio oversaw an aggressive expansion for the bookstore chain, shaping their approach to make them more inviting for casual browsing and socializing, and in doing so, making them community destinations. Part of that push included buying up competitors, which often led to criticism that Barnes & Noble destroyed local booksellers. By the late 1990s, the company had hundreds of locations, including B. Daltons, and proved to be a powerful player in the publishing market.
The rise of online commerce and digital competitors was not kind to the bookstore chain. Riggio remained executive chairman of Barnes & Noble through the company’s internet-driven downturn in the 2010s, stepping down only after it was sold to a hedge fund in 2019.
Outside of business, Riggio established Project Home Again to assist those displaced by Hurricane Katrina. He was also honored with the Anti-Defamation League’s Americanism Award in 2000, among other prizes.
Tributes to Leonard Riggio
Full obituary: NPR
