Indulge your passion for books

at Edmonton's Oldest Independent Bookstore!

THE STORY SO FAR

When Mel opened Hurtig Books in 1956, it quickly became a community cultural center, where conversations & chess games were as popular as the books he selected for sale. In 1972 Hurtig sold his bookstore to the Julian Books chain who in turn sold it to Audrey & Ewart Whaley, and their partner, Ammon Ackroyd (whose wife's name is Audrey, hence Audreys is a plural, without an apostrophe in the company name). Three years later the bookstore was moved to its present location in the historic MacLean Block.

In 1988, the Whaleys sold their interest in the bookstore to Steve & Sharon Budnarchuk, the store's current proprietors who are proud to carry on the standards & tradition established by Hurtig & the Whaleys. The first years of their ownership were focused on computerizing the store, completing massive renovations and beginning their commitment to community involvement. They have sponsored the City of Edmonton Book Prize since its inauguration ten years ago. Each has served as a volunteer member of numerous boards including: the Fringe theatre Adventures, the Alberta Book Fair Society, the Downtown Business Association, the Edmonton Community Lottery Board, the Retail Merchants Association of Alberta, Project Adult Literacy Society, the Canadian Children's Book Centre and this year, Steve is the President of the Canadian Booksellers Association, while Sharon chairs the Edmonton Litfest committee. This May, Audreys won the City of Edmonton Mayor's Award for Sustained Support of the Arts.

Audreys Books has been twice nominated for the Canadian Bookseller of the Year Award, and won the award in the same year that Hurtig Publishers was named Publisher of the Year. The store continues to be recognized for service excellence and a superior collection. Sharon & Steve attribute this success to the dedication of their booksellers; they each choose the books for their departments, and as a result they are collectively the best-informed booksellers in Alberta, in charge of one of the finest book collections of its size, including over 100,000 volumes comprising 60,000 book titles.

The Budnarchuks are very grateful for the support of their thousands of loyal customers, many of whom shopped at the original Hurtig Books. With modern communications, Audreys now has customers from Pincher Creek to Frobisher Bay, Halifax to Victoria, as well as numerous international clients around the world.

They dedicate this anniversary to all the people who worked in Hurtig's and Audreys over the last fifty years.