Hemingway, Sylvia Beach and Adrienne Mnoonier (Image:www.martinestimuli.com)

During the last years of the Great War, the daughter of an American clergyman tripped over the threshold of Adrienne Monnier’s bookshop on the Rue De L’Odeon in Paris. She was conducting research for the Biblioteque Nationale and, had been drawn back to the city that she had frequented a few years previously, when her father had been appointed assistant minister for the American Church in Paris.

The two women became lovers until Monnier’s suicide in 1955 and, it was with Monnier’s help that Beach set up an English language bookstore and lending library in Paris called ‘Shakespeare and Company’, located at 8 rue Dupuyten.

The store quickly attracted both French and American readers, to the point that in 1921 it expanded to premises on rue de l’Odeon, just across the street from Monnier’s shop.

It was Sylvia Beach’s championing of the now notorious ‘Lost Generation’ of writers who haunted Paris in the 1920s, however, which has made both her and her bookstore famous.

The library became the epicentre of Anglo-American literary culture and the meeting place for the likes of Joyce, Hemmingway, Pound, Stein and Fitzgerald. Sylvia not only encouraged their writing but in many cases, managed everything from their accounts and postage to their accommodation and patronage.

Indeed, without her determination, support and innovation Ulyses is unlikely to have achieved public recognition. Not only did she publish the book in Paris but, also coordinated the smuggling of volumes over to America where, prohibition had clamped down on the distribution of pornographic material, as well as whiskey (no wonder Paris was a more attractive destination for the fast living, liquor loving, bohemian set).

Having survived the Great Depression through the financial support of the ‘Friends of Shakespeare and Company’ club- whereby subscribers paid 200 francs a year to attend readings at the bookstore, hosted by renowned French and American authors- Beach was forced to close the store in 1941.

In August 1952 another American in Paris, George Whitman, opened Le Mistral, in a 17th century building on the Rue de la Bûcherie, close to Notre Dame, in 1951, using the large collection of English books that he had amassed during his studies at The Sorbonne. Influenced by the hospitality he had experienced from local people when travelling in South America, he ensured that his bookshop became a sanctuary for both established and aspiring writers and artists.

The likes of Allen Ginsberg and Anaïs Nin have shared tea and pancakes with George and his hospitable charm and idealism are evident in an interview with The Independent in which he states:

‘I like you to open my door the way you open a book, a book that leads into a magic world in your imagination. I created this bookstore like a man would write a novel. And the girls who come in here are coming into a novel.'

The tea is not only reserved for the superstars of the literary world however, over 50,000 creative heads have lain on Shakespeare and Company’s pillows and ‘tumble weeds’ in fact still sleep amidst the bookshelves for free- in return for working in the book shop. With its regular Sunday tea and writers events, the bookstore clearly channels Sylvia Beach’s utopian ideals and it was this that, upon her death in 1964, spurred George to rename the shop ‘Shakespeare and Company’ in her honour.

Sylvia Beach Whitman, George’s daughter has now taken over the day to day running of the shop but, endeavours to ensure that his original ethos is maintained.  Young writers still live and work in the shop and, she has also expanded the eclectic calendar of events and talks to Shakespeare and Company’s own literary festival ‘Festival and Co’ which has hosted writers such as Jeannette Winterson and Paul Auster among others.

At the end of 2011 I sent questions to Whitman to investigate how she felt about channelling her forbearer’s pioneering spirit. In that time, unfortunately, Sylvia’s father passed away and, we understandably lost contact. A week ago, however, an email with Sylvia’s signature landed in my inbox. It was an apology for the delay in replying accompanied by a completed interview. At first I thought (as the email suggested) that, although this was a most wonderful gesture, the questions would be somewhat redundant.

However, as I re-read the interview I realised that it had come to represent the original history of Sylvia Beach’s own struggles to maintain her vision and energy in circumstances beyond her control.

It was a surreal experience encountering my own excited voice, inspired by a recent trip to Paris and a romanticised fervour for the Beat poets, now countered by the somewhat more contemplative tone of Sylvia- following the loss of such an inspiring figure in her life. The intermingling of past and present could almost be a metaphor for the echoing within the bookstore itself-both haunted by the conversations of the great figures of literature whilst also nurturing the dreams of young authors, fervently scribbling their dreams amidst the books.

What is inspiring- and the determination to reply to my questions is surely testimony to this- is that Shakespeare and Co’s strength is in its existence as an autonomous idea. As much as it is a physical place it is also the meeting point of all of those 50,000 consciences that have passed through its doors. As long as people need a Shakespeare and Co, as long as people need a Sylvia, as long as people need books, they will find it.

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(Interview with Sylvia Beach Whitman, questions c. December 2011)

The history of Shakespeare and co. stretches back to the 1920’s. What is it that makes this institution so successful and such an enduring feature of Paris’s Left Bank?

We feel very fortunate to still receive many visitors from around the world, especially now in the age of the internet and e-book. I can think of a few obvious reasons: it is easy to find us - we are very lucky to be situated opposite Notre-Dame Cathedral in the heart of the city. Secondly, the style of the bookshop is unique - people seem to like the fact that we have a wishing well, a piano, a mirror of love for example!

Sylvia Beach first dreamt of bringing French literature to the American reader- before the financial practicalities of setting up a store in New York caused her to reverse the idea to an English lending library in Paris. What does the shop have to offer of local Parisian writers?

We host many events where writers meet and some of the events are bilingual others completely in French or English. We also have a number of workshops, tea parties, concerts and plays that happen and these attract local writers and artists. 

How has George Whitman built on and continued the legacy of Sylvia Beach?

He always admired her support for writers and he continued that by hosting at least 6 writers, artists or aspiring writers every night by giving them a bed and often a meal and of course reading their work. Similar to Sylvia Beach, he was also more concerned in sharing books rather than selling them.

The idea of aspiring writers tapping away upstairs while books are sold below generates an incredibly organic and cyclical mood to the shop. Does Shakespeare and co. still operate an open door policy to those whishing to stay and write?

Yes. We love the atmosphere created by having young writers and combining the residency with book selling. Currently we have two young Canadian writers, a German regular visitor and a bookseller from New York staying with us.

Festival and co. has been a great success, what has been planned for the coming year?

Thank you! We are not planning another festival for the moment as we have so many other projects but we do hope to continue it in the future. Having said that we may put on a mini-Shakespeare festival for the upcoming anniversary in summer 2014. It would involve readings as well as promenade plays taking place in the park next to the bookshop.

Shakespeare and co. plays host to many different literary types. What effect does this have on the atmosphere of the shop and its events?

I think visitors feel immediately that they are entering a place that is vibrant and energetic. It also amuses them to see these bohemian types reading bare-foot in the library amongst tourists.

The Left Bank has a rich intellectual history, of which Shakespeare and co. is an integral part. How has the shop balanced its intellectual reputation with the immense tourism the Left Bank attracts?

It's true that the area is dramatically changing and the number of souvenir shops and bad cafés are rising! But there are still a number of charming bookshops as well as the bouquinistes on the quai of course. We find that  that balance is something we seek in everything we do. How to remain authentic even when you are on the tourist map. Well, we try not to be too commercial in our stock… we could let key-rings and mugs take over the space for books but we don’t, we try and order an eclectic selection of titles, we continue traditions like hosting writers. One recent change is we ask people not to take photos in the shop as we want people to feel comfortable browsing and to really enjoy their experience with us.

Shakespeare and co has been a haven for many writers. The first, run by Sylvia Beach was the base for Hemmingway and Fitzgerald continuing with George Whitman’s reopening welcoming Beat generation writers Burroughs and Ginsberg. To what extent does the shop foster the same avant garde atmosphere today?

I think it’s easy to romanticize the past… The Lost and Beat Generation were not termed that until years after they had starting writing and collaborating together. I don’t think it’s easy to see a movement happening when it is occurring, only after do we see it clearly. We just try and be as open as possible to all sorts of writers from all sorts of styles/ countries.

SylviaBeach oversaw the transfer from lending library to bookshop. Does Shakespeare and co. still hold the original library books?

George did say he had a number of books from the original but I don’t think there were many and they are now mixed in with the rest of our library collection on the first floor where people are welcome to sit and read all day.

Henry Miller once described Shakespeare and co. as ‘a wonderful land of books’, what is it that best captures its spirit for you?

"A Socialist Utopia masquerading as a bookstore" in the words of my father

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Just as George described Shakespeare and Company as a ‘three word novel’, in the story of this interview I had encountered three Sylvia’s. With Whitman's optimism for the future, in spite of personal adversity, I’m sure there will be more.

For events and further information about Shakespeare and Company see the store’s website