Photo by juliacsmith.

Carla Cohen, who founded and was a co-owner of Politics & Prose bookstore, has died. She was 74. Cohen reportedly succumbed to cancer of the bile ducts around 8 a.m. this morning.

Cohen and co-owner Barbara Meade sculpted Politics & Prose into a genuine landmark, a store which relied on its ability to draw in journalists, authors and other figures to speak about public affairs to survive through the multitudes of challenges that independent bookstores have faced over the last twenty years. The store has been wildly successful, even considering its decentralized location in North Cleveland Park Forest Hills. But the store was put up for sale in June, after it was revealed that Cohen was ill.

According to the Post’s report, the process of finding a new owner for the bookstore will temporarily be placed on hold to mourn Cohen’s passing:

Mrs. Cohen’s family and Barbara Meade said they are undergoing a rigorous and methodical process to identify the next owners of Politics and Prose. Many potential buyers have already stepped forward and the next step is to winnow that group to a handful, said Meade, but the process will pause during a period of mourning for Mrs. Cohen.

The City Paper’s Michael Schaffer notes that store management have not yet formulated plans to honor Cohen. Considering that, in the last two years, Washington has lost several D.C. bookstores, the fact that P & P has continued to thrive is an amazing legacy for Mrs. Cohen to hold — I’d posit that finding a new owner who can ensure that the bookstore continues along the path that Cohen helped forge would be the most appropriate tribute store management could produce.