A Washington institution is changing hands. Politics and Prose, the District’s leading independent bookstore, is up for sale, reports the Washington Post. The store’s 74-year-old owners, Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade, cite fatigue as their motivation for selling their business. Their 26-year-old store is a prominent destination for authors on book tours. Christopher Hitchens is scheduled to appear at Politics and Prose tomorrow, and recent authors who have made store appearances include Yann Martel, Sebastian Junger, and Jonathan Alter. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a Politics and Prose employee said of the impending sale, “We’re all a little nervous. It’s not that we’re going out of business. It’s just that the owners are getting up there in age.”