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Shakespeare and Company, Paris: A History of the Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart
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About Shakespeare And Company, Paris: A History Of The
Product Description A copiously illustrated account of the famed Paris bookstore on its 65th anniversary This first-ever history of the legendary bohemian bookstore in Paris interweaves essays and poetry from dozens of writers associated with the shop--Allen Ginsberg, Anaïs Nin, Ethan Hawke, Robert Stone and Jeanette Winterson, among others--with hundreds of never-before-seen archival pieces, including photographs of James Baldwin, William Burroughs and Langston Hughes, plus a foreword by the celebrated British novelist Jeanette Winterson and an epilogue by Sylvia Whitman, the daughter of the store’s founder, George Whitman. The book has been edited by Krista Halverson, director of the newly founded Shakespeare and Company publishing house. George Whitman opened his bookstore in a tumbledown 16th-century building just across the Seine from Notre-Dame in 1951, a decade after the original Shakespeare and Company had closed. Run by Sylvia Beach, it had been the meeting place for the Lost Generation and the first publisher of James Joyce’s Ulysses. (This book includes an illustrated adaptation of Beach’s memoir.) Since Whitman picked up the mantle, Shakespeare and Company has served as a home-away-from-home for many celebrated writers, from Jorge Luis Borges to Ray Bradbury, A.M. Homes to Dave Eggers, as well as for young authors and poets. Visitors are invited not only to read the books in the library and to share a pot of tea, but sometimes also to live in the bookstore itself--all for free. More than 30,000 people have stayed at Shakespeare and Company, fulfilling Whitman’s vision of a “socialist utopia masquerading as a bookstore.” Through the prism of the shop’s history, the book traces the lives of literary expats in Paris from 1951 to the present, touching on the Beat Generation, civil rights, May ’68 and the feminist movement--all while pondering that perennial literary question, “What is it about writers and Paris?” Review Now, much to the delight of its many customers and occasional tenants, the shop’s history has been compiled into a book all of its own, entitled Shakespeare and Company Paris: A History of the Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart – a satisfyingly weighty hardback tome which places poetry, handwritten notes and even music scores side by side with biography and literary extracts in a chronological order so charming that it hardly seems possible that it can be so extensive. ― Another Magazine It’s gritty, indulgent, wild, perfect and pure inspiration. A must-have for anyone who believes in the power of the independent bookstore. -- Kate Layte ― Lit Hub Edited with love with Krista Halverson, [this] is the nearest thing you'll get to this wonderful book shop on Paris' Left Bank without actually crossing the Channel... Order the book and that will tide you over until your next- or your first- visit. -- Erica Wagner ― Harper's Bazaar This profusely illustrated 65th-anniversary tribute to Shakespeare and Company, the renowned Left Bank bookstore and mecca for 20th-century literati, is delectable eye candy for lovers of books and reading. ― Publishers Weekly A new history on one of the world's great bookshops. ― Lithub To call Shakespeare and Company a bookstore doesn't do it justice. The Paris landmark is a literary salon and an unconventional hotel where guests, called Tumbleweeds, help run the shop. Now the English-language bookstore has published its first title. Shakespeare and Company, Paris: A History of the Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart, a glorious volume thick with old photographs, newspaper clippings, and reminiscences. Many celebrated writers including James Baldwin, Allen Ginsberg, and Anais Nin considered the shop their home away from home. -- Jan Gardner ― Boston Globe Drawing on never-before-seen archives, it's the first book to share the full story of the legendary shop founded by Whitman's late father, George, an American expat, in 1951. A decade-by-decade narrative is interwoven
