James Fugate

It turned out to be a year more daunting than many Los Angeles-area small-business owners had expected, and hopes are dimming for a noticeable economic rebound in the new year. Credit troubles continued to dog many. And though some categories of small-business lending increased, the money typically went to businesses that had plans to expand, not to those desperate to keep the doors open. Even those that managed to bring in more revenue this year often found their profit margins squeezed by customers clamoring for lower prices.

In response to the recent criticism about the sale of two anti-Semitic books at a city-sponsored festival last month, the Cultural Affairs Department has set new guidelines designed to discourage the sale of such offensive materials at publicly funded events. Adolfo V.

James Fugate and Tom Hamilton are demolition experts. For the better part of a decade, they have been about the business of demolishing the myth that black people don't buy books. Their Eso Won bookstore on North La Brea Avenue in Inglewood has become one of the foremost cultural centers in Southern California's black community, and it is an obligatory and profitable stop for virtually every black author on a book tour.

Juneteenth celebrations commemorating emancipation from slavery have long percolated through African American communities with picnics, family reunions and small parades. But 132 years after the first Juneteenth celebration, the day is exploding in popularity, and Congress recognized it with a proclamation last month. Some California cities have long marked the day. East Palo Alto, for example, is gearing up for its 15th celebration, while Stockton and others will have their first.

When Dorsey High School teacher Alfee Enciso wrote an opinion page essay urging wealthy donors to spread their wealth to impoverished inner-city schools, he had no idea how quickly his prayer would be answered. Or that manna would be forthcoming not from a Bill Gates or a Rupert Murdoch but from Julie Byren. Who? The Hermosa Beach 13-year-old, an avid volleyball player and rock climber, read Enciso's plea and was the only one to respond.

Whether the brainchild of an entrepreneurial genius or the fulfillment of an existing need, the African-American bookstore has become an integral part of life in Los Angeles. Eso-Won, Aquarian and Crossroads are three of the broadest-based African-American bookstores in Los Angeles.

Saying they are disgusted by O.J. Simpson's new book, "If I Did It," set to go on sale nationally Nov. 30, some California booksellers say they will refuse to stock the book and, if customers ask them to order it, will donate any profit.

It turns out Richard M. Nixon's posthumously released "Beyond Peace" (Random House) was not his last published word. Eight days before his death in April, he wrote a playful letter to Egil (Bud) Krogh for inclusion in "The Day Elvis Met Nixon," his former aide's firsthand account of the strange White House encounter in 1970 between the King and the Prez.

A conservative, most likely, could not have endured it. At least 2,000 cheering, swooning, chanting Bill Clinton fans flocked to Eso Won bookstore in Los Angeles on Saturday morning to tell him, about 12 times per minute, that they loved him. They did not care about Monica. They did not care whether he inhaled. Inside the independent bookstore dedicated to African American literature, most told Clinton they were honored to meet him; some said they had waited all their lives for this.

Like love, literature has the power to provoke both delight and very nasty quarrels. One such fight surrounds this week's cancellation of a reading at Esowon, the independent, black-owned bookstore that is Los Angeles' leading outlet for writing by African Americans. At the controversy's center is Wanda Coleman, the prizewinning poet and fiction writer whose 14 books include "Mercurochrome," a 2001 National Book Award nominee.