Shakespeare and Company is the name an iconic independent English-language bookstore on Paris's Left Bank. It was first opened by the American Sylvia Beach, in 1919, at 8 rue Dupuytren and is famous as it was, at the time, a gathering place for many then-aspiring writers such as Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Djuna Barnes, James Joyce and Ford Madox Ford. Closed during WWII, it was reborn again at 37 rue de la Bûcherie, in the 5th arrondissement, and is still in operation today. For book-lovers and literary history buffs, it is an absolute must-see landmark in the city. Just find a vacation rental in Paris and visit it for yourself.
Sylvia Beach, an expat from New Jersey, established Shakespeare and Company in 1919, as a lending library as well as a bookstore. It moved in 1921, to a larger location at 12 rue de l'Odéon and was run there until 1941 and was the epicentre of Anglo-American literary culture and modernism in Paris. In fact, the store was almost a second home to the Lost Generation, made up of writers and artists such as Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, George Antheil, Djuna Barnes, Mina Loy, and Man Ray and James Joyce used it as his office. Importantly, the store was a literary safe space where books, such as D. H. Lawrence's “Lady Chatterley's Lover” and Joyce's “Ulysses” (which Beach published), that has been banned elsewhere could be accessed. WWII saw the shop closed and though Hemingway personally “liberated” it upon the end of the war, it did not reopen.
In 1951, a new English-language bookstore called “Le Mistral” was opened on Paris's Left Bank by American ex-serviceman George Whitman. It, too, became a focal point of literary culture in bohemian Paris and attracted the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and William S. Burroughs. Considering the importance of the store to the literary scene and how it had been the spiritual successor of Shakespeare and Company, Beach decided to gift him the name of the store and, in 1964, after Beach's death and in celebration of the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's birth, it was reborn.
So, the tradition and life of Shakespeare and Company continued. When Whitman died at the age of 98 in his apartment above the store in 2011, his daughter, Sylvia Whitman took over. It remains a cultural hub in France and is now a site of pilgrimage for literature lovers the world over. For more information on Shakespeare and company as it exists today and what you can expect upon visiting, be sure to read on to the next post.
In 1951, a new English-language bookstore called “Le Mistral” was opened on Paris's Left Bank by American ex-serviceman George Whitman. It, too, became a focal point of literary culture in bohemian Paris and attracted the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and William S. Burroughs. Considering the importance of the store to the literary scene and how it had been the spiritual successor of Shakespeare and Company, Beach decided to gift him the name of the store and, in 1964, after Beach's death and in celebration of the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's birth, it was reborn.
So, the tradition and life of Shakespeare and Company continued. When Whitman died at the age of 98 in his apartment above the store in 2011, his daughter, Sylvia Whitman took over. It remains a cultural hub in France and is now a site of pilgrimage for literature lovers the world over. For more information on Shakespeare and company as it exists today and what you can expect upon visiting, be sure to read on to the next post.
Photo credit: Shadowgate / CC BY 2.0
