Barnes and Noble founder Leonard Riggio dies aged 83

The founder of the bookselling giant Barnes and Noble Leonard Riggio has died aged 83, after battling with Alzheimer’s disease.

Riggio was born in Manhattan’s Little Italy before spending his early years in Brooklyn where he attended Brooklyn Technical High School. He graduated from the school in 1958 at the age of 16, having skipped two grades. He began attending night school at New York University, where he climbed the ranks in the college bookstore (starting out as a stock boy) instead of sitting in class.

Barnes & Noble was founded in 1971 by Riggio when he acquired the Barnes & Noble trade name and bookstore in New York City. In addition to founding Barnes & Noble Booksellers, the largest operator of retail bookstores, Riggio also founded Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, the largest operator of college campus bookstores, MBS Textbook Exchange, the largest wholesale textbook distributor, and GameStop, the largest operator of video game and entertainment software stores. At the peak of his career, the companies founded by Riggio operated more than 5,000 retail stores across the 50 states, employing more than 100,000 people.

Riggio was also invested in social causes, launching education programmes, fighting for civil rights and donating houses in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

His philanthropic worked earned him numerous awards, including the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and the Frederick Douglass Medallion. In 2002, he received the Americanism Award, the highest honour bestowed by the Anti-Defamation League. The award cited his work “to celebrate diversity and make the dream of freedom and equality a reality for so many Americans”.

Nihar Malaviya, chief executive officer at Penguin Random House (PRH), and the PRH team said: “In mourning the passing of Len Riggio, we also celebrate the life of a book-loving visionary who transformed the way America reads. By establishing Barnes & Noble bookstores everywhere across our country—many in locations that never before had a retailer completely devoted to books—he made books accessible and affordable to millions of readers. Len was a giant, commercially and culturally. It is a privilege to benefit from all he contributed to our world. Our thoughts are with his wife Louise and his family.”

Len, as he was known, is survived by his wife of 43 years, Louise, and his three devoted daughters, Lisa Rollo of Jupiter, Florida, Donna Cortese of Oyster Bay, New York and Stephanie Bulger of Bridgehampton, New York. He is also survived by his loving brother Stephen of New York City, along with four grandsons, Steven, Anthony and Joseph Cortese and Leo Bulger, nieces Laura Nayar and Christina Fitzsimmons and nephew, Jake Riggio. He was preceded in death by his parents, Stephen and Lena Riggio, his brother Vincent “Jimi” Riggio, and niece, Melissa Ann Riggio.

A Mass of Christian burial will take place on 30th August 2024 at 10am at The Basilica of St Patrick’s Old Cathedral, 263 Mulberry Street, New York, with a public celebration of Riggio’s life to be announced at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in his memory to the Alzheimer’s Association.