Jacobson's: I Miss It So! The Story of a Michigan Fashion Institution by Bruce Allen Kopytek (review)

Book Reviews 145 romantic labor of lumberjacks and placing the lumberjack’s labor into a narrative of national development. Fiction by William Davenport Hulbert and Stewart Edward White portrayed loggers as frontier heroes, battling company foremen and natural conditions to emerge in a contradictory cultural space, in which lumbermen were committed both to the progress of civilization and to the ineffable qualities of nature. Knott uses Harrison’s and Caputo’s appropriation of Ojibwe myth to argue that this literature is not merely inherently interesting but can also foster our own forest longings. “Older ways of imagining our relationship with the forest and its creatures can restore a sense of harmony with the natural world we inhabit,” he argues (p. 267). Knott’s insightful and entertaining book can help us do exactly that. Kevin C. Armitage Miami University of Ohio Bruce Allen Kopytek. Jacobson’s: I Miss It So! The Story of a Michigan Fashion Institution. Charleston, S.C.: The History Press, 2011. Pp. 202. Appendices. Photographs. Paper, $19.99. There was always something elusive about Michigan’s high-fashion retailer, Jacobson’s. It was a quiet, dignified specialty store that rarely made the news. The company had a strong, loyal customer base at its stores throughout Michigan, from communities such as Grosse Pointe, to Birmingham and its hometown in Jackson. And as many of the country’s high-end merchants, including Bonwit Teller, Sakowitz, and I. Magnin, fell to a changing retail environment based on value and convenience, Jacobson’s somehow remained. Jacobson’s: I Miss It So! is a long overdue tribute to this beloved Michigan institution, which was often called Jake’s by those who shopped there. Bruce Kopytek skillfully combines the art of storytelling with cold, hard business facts. Very few of Jake’s former customers know that the company had a short-lived store in Petoskey in the 1940s that was managed by a quirky married couple with questionable business practices. They also do not possess the official recipes for the store’s famous cheese soup and fisherman’s salad, or know which floor the Miss J Shop was located on in Ann Arbor. Kopytek provides that information. The book also documents the store’s expansion to Florida, as Jacobson’s continued to serve the needs of Michigan’s Florida-bound snowbirds. Jacobson’s: I 146 The Michigan Historical Review Miss It So! has more photographs than one might expect from a book of this nature, the majority of which are reprinted through the generosity of the Ella Sharp Museum in Jackson. Most Michigan cities outside Detroit had their own Jacobson’s store, usually located in the city’s core business district. Therefore, each city has its own Jacobson’s story and most receive a chapter in this book. The same is true for the store’s locations throughout Florida and in various areas of America’s heartland. The book makes a perfect gift for anyone who craves more information on Michigan history, wants to learn more about his or her specific “Jacobson’s city,” or is simply a retail enthusiast. Many of Jacobson’s customers and fans were in denial when the company decided to liquidate the business in the summer of 2002. The store had put on a brave face throughout tough economic times, and many customers thought that the store was invincible and took its survival for granted. However, its closing was inevitable. Through its numerous photographs, recipes from the store’s famous restaurants, and stories from former customers, employees, and executives like Mark Rosenfeld, Jacobson’s continues to live on thanks to Bruce Kopytek’s book. Michael J. Lisicky, Retail Author and Lecturer Baltimore, Maryland Margaret A. Leary. Giving It All Away: The Story of William W. Cook and His Michigan Law Quadrangle. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2011. Pp. 304. Appendices. Illustrations. Index. Paper, $25.00. William A. Cook received two degrees from the University of Michigan in the 1880s and subsequently became “fabulously wealthy” as a New York-based corporate lawyer. Cook’s philanthropy was responsible for his most significant accomplishment: the construction of the Law Quadrangle at his alma mater. Margaret Leary, director of the University of...