Eat My Books
When I walked up the rickety stair case at Shakespeare and Company on the left bank of Paris I honestly thought I might never leave. Books in every spare corner, piled high, messy, old, cramped, an old piano, a window out into the street, a few plants scattered about. I think there was a cat up there. I cannot remember now but certainly it had ambience. Out of all the bookstores in the world and this one still exists for the hungry likes of the poets, artists, writers and pilgrims who will make there way down past Place Saint-Michel for a walk along the Seine to the famous bookstore.
Opened in 1919 by Sylvia Beach an American woman in Paris. Back in the 1920s the store was more like a lending library for artists and writers who would make their way to the 5th Arrondissement to source their books in English. Sylvia Beach was always a head of the game, a book store to cater to the Americans in Paris, and later to publish Ulysses for James Joyce who at the time was a little too avant-garde to hook a publisher.
In A Movable Feast Hemingway describes the joy of discovering the bookstore. At the time he was too poor to even pay the lending library fee but Beach was trusting and insisted he borrow the books and come back and pay. For Hemingway it was humble beginnings, to take home DH Lawrence and Dostoyevsky he was sincere and gracious that any one would even trust him. Chapter Three of A Movable Feast is titled Shakespeare and Company.
When the German army rolled in in 1941 the book shop would close down and never reopen. In 1951 a new bookstore running under the name ‘Le Mistral’ would open to serve the literary culture and the next generation of writers and poets by George Whitman. Some time later Beach and Whitman would come together at a dinner. Beach insisted he have the iconic title ‘Shakespeare and Company’. Beach died in 1962 and two years later on Shakespeares 400th Birthday Whitman would rename the store ‘Shakespeare and Company’. To this day the bookstore is still running under the management of Whitman’s daughter Sylvia and the legacy continues on.
And still until this day it is a pilgrimage of sorts because we all want to visit that famous book store in Paris just down the road from the Notre-Dame. In 2019 we were staying in the Latin Quarter not far from the bookstore and certainly visiting was on my mind. It was our last day in Paris. I wanted to buy A Movable Feast but in truth I already had the book from Audible yet not a physical copy. After parting with about twenty Euros for coffee, croissant, pain au chocolate and orange juice for the family I thought to myself I will be back in two months with my Mum it can wait. Maddy decided to spend five euros on the lucky dip, a random book from a selection of literary classics. When we sat a few doors down for our espresso she opened her book. It was quite a giggle, I don’t think she has read it yet!
Two months later I did return, the Notre Dame had caught fire, the beautiful Gothic spires were down, the road cordoned off but Paris was still Paris. Mum and I had four nights in the City of Lights to explore and of course to get to down to Shakespeare and Company to buy A Movable Feast…..
Me, ha, out the front of the Bookstore….On a gorgeous spring day in Paris, what a lark
Years ago when there was talk of everything going online and the book industry going down I never believed it for a minute. Holding a book and reading a book and sitting with a cup of tea has to be one of the great true pleasures of my life. It is not the same on a bright screen. I feel naked without a book in my bag. I even carry them in my suitcase anywhere I go, even if they are stupidly heavy. I don’t care. I am hungry for books piling them high all over the house. There is always something to look forward to when you have a tall pile of books to devour.
Popular Culture and Film Locations:
These three films famously have used the bookstore in film production…
Before Sunset - 2014
Julie & Julia - 2009
Midnight in Paris - 2011
