The story of Gelber-Lilienthal Book store is mingled with the story of one of the West's greatest literary magazines: Overland. Anton Roman, the original publisher of Overland, opened a bookstore, and in 1880, sold his store to George Billings, allowing him to re-start Overland, and later his stock of books to Alex Robertson and partners, who used it as the basis for Pearson & Robertson's. After Robertson bought out his partners, and the great 1906 Earthquake destroyed their original Montgomery Street store, Robertson moved the shop to 336 Sutter St. The whole shebbang was bought after Robertson's death in 1924 by Antiquarian bookseller Leon Gelber and his partner, Ted Lilienthal. The store was one of the key locations in San Francisco for the literary set from the 1920s through the late 1940s, when Gelber died and the store merged with Books, Inc., a company that remains active to today. As Gelber-Lilienthal, it served as a book-seller, an art gallery, and event space. The store's clientele included many important San Francisco writers, including William Saroyan, Henry Miller, Dashiel Hammett, Lillian Hellman, and John Steinbeck. From A Self-Guided Tour of Saroyan’s San Francisco by Dori Myer "In 1937, Saroyan liked to visited the Gelber-Lilienthal Book Shop at 336 Sutter Street, a place for writers and literary types. The shop opened in 1924 by antiquarian Leon Gelber and businessman Theodore Max Lilienthal. Artist Valenti Angelo made the above woodcut of the location in the 1920s, when it had a high ceiling and a quaint Olde English appearance." This is mentioned in Letters from Rue Taitbout (p. 125) and Obituaries (p. 5)"