More older Americans are still working-but not all of them want to

I like the whole atmosphere, the customers who come in, and of course all the books and the ideas in them that open entire new worlds.

Fred Bass, 88 

Co-owner, Strand Book Store in New York, N.Y., with his daughter, Nancy Bass Wyden, wife of Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat 

“I’ve worked here for more than 70 years, starting when I was 13 and came after school to help my father. It’s in my blood. I moved the store from Fourth Avenue, where there used to be 48 booksellers,to 828 Broadway. We own the building now and have the space we need for thousands of used, rare, and new books. It was row by row, building this place. I used to work six days a week, 10 hours a day, and on the seventh day visited private libraries. I’m obsessed with this business. But now I’m working for my daughter. She’s in charge.