Look to Lazarus: The Big Store (Landmarks)

Department stores were a midwest institution, none more prominent in downtown Columbus Ohio than F&R Laazarus & Company.

For more than 150 years, F&R Lazarus & Company was the heart of downtown Columbus. Headed by the first family of American retailing with an eye for flair and a devotion to the customer, this uniquely midwestern institution won the hearts and minds of a community. Look to Lazarus draws on the memories of those who worked and shopped in this grand emporium to tell the unlikely story of a love affair between a city and a store. It was a love affair born of the solemn promise You can always take it back to Lazarus, no questions asked.

The family that shops together doesn't necessarily write together, but the Meyers family felt it was the best way to tackle a book about Lazarus. After all, the story of the renowned department store was their story, too (the shopping part, anyway). David holds degrees from Miami University and Ohio State University, where his wife, Beverly, obtained a BS in art education. Elise, their daughter, earned a BA in art history from Hofstra University.

After a thirty-year career in corrections, David now works at Columbus State Community College. Besides stints as a teacher and event planner, Beverly was a professional puppeteer and handled publicity for the Big Apple Circus. Elise has been a freelance magazine writer, a performer at Disney World and a member of a professional theater company in New York. She is also employed at Columbus State. David and Elise previously collaborated on Central Ohio's Historic Prisons (Arcadia, 2009) and Historic Columbus Crimes: Mama's in the Furnace, The Thing & More (The History Press, 2010).