George Whitman, owner of Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris, died last week at age 98. He left behind one of the greatest bookstores in the world, a ‘great good place’ that welcomed booklovers and writers and became an iconic, must-visit living Parisian landmark.
Sylvia Beach was the original founder of the original Shakespeare and Company in Paris. In 1919, with a check for $3,000 from her mother, she opened the first English language lending library and bookshop in the French capitol.
After two decades of saintly devotion to Anglophone readers in Paris, Sylvia shuttered the store. Faced with the Nazi threat, she hid all the books upstairs and effectively erased any trace of the place she’d so lovingly tended.
After the war, American GI George Whitman, a free spirit and bibliophile, arrived in Paris. He opened a small bookshop named the Mistral, and later moved to the rue de la Bucherie, across from Notre Dame cathedral, and launched his own version of Shakespeare and Company.
These two Americans staked a claim in Paris for those who devoted to books and the people who write them. Sylvia and George shared the characteristics one needs to operate a bookshop: blind faith, tenacity and above all else, an unshakable commitment to books.
I wonder what Sylvia and George would think about electronic publishing and the ability to buy and consume books without ever having to encounter another person. I think it’s great, and I also believe that we need the quirky, creaky bookshops of the world.
No online shopping or tablet reading can replace the poignancy of being in a space devoted to and packed with collections of paper that can transport, transform, and enliven. The act of browsing in a space packed to the ceiling with books is one of the simple pleasures of life.
A bookish legacy continues
Both Sylvia and George died peacefully in their respective apartments above their respective Shakespeare and Company bookshops. George’s young daughter Sylvia will continue to operate the iconic Paris bookshop.
The legacy that has been given – a place where book signings, concerts, film screenings, festivals, discussions and yes, indeed, even the commerce of books — will continue, accompanied as always by the sound of the bells of Notre Dame ringing out from across the street.
I think if Sylvia could see the bookshop now, she’d be smiling, knowing that her cause of serving writers and readers continues. Rest in peace, George Whitman, and may your bookish legacy live long and strong.
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