When in Paris … Shakespeare and Company

When a writer and avid reader finds herself in Paris, it is almost sacrilege not to pay a visit to Shakespeare and Company.

It was also close to my hotel, so made for an easy trip.

The original bookstore opened in Paris in 1919 (in a different location in the Left Bank) by Sylvia Beach. Beach plays an important role in literary history, not only for her well loved bookstore, but also because she was the one to publish James Joyce’s Ulysses in 1922. The bookstore was a magnet for expatriates in Paris in post-WWI and the interwar period.

Hemingway refers to Shakespeare and Company in his A Moveable Feast and it was a favorite meeting point for the Lost Generation and many of its most famous authors: Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Joyce and Pound. Sadly, it would close its doors in 1941, with the German occupation of Paris.

In post-war Paris, another American would open a new English-language bookshop. In 1951, George Whitman would open Le mistral, but the name would be changed in 1964 to Shakespeare and Company to honor Sylvia Beach and the important Paris institution.

The new Shakespeare and Company would attract a new generation of writers to the bookstore and lending library. This was the Beat Generation, with authors like Burroughs and Ginsberg. In those days, it also served as a type of informal hostel to writers and wannabe writers.

It’s well worth a visit during your trip to Paris.It can be found on 37 rue de la Bûcherie and it has a café right beside it. Looking forward to my next pilgrimage.