CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 12/28/2016

Shakespeare and Company, Paris: A History of the Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart

"I live for the day when I'll have a bookstore to embellish this workaday world. I now own one of the best private libraries in the Latin Quarter and, living as I do on less than a dollar a day, I have accumulated a small capital augmented by English lessons and occasional book sales. I've talked with Sylvia Beach, the daughter of a minister from Princeton, New Jersey, who started a bookstore in Paris that became the rendezvous of Andé Gide, James Joyce, and the most famous writers of Europe. There is a possibility that she would consent to go into business with me—although I've been avoiding offers of partnership, it would be an honor and a privilege to work with Sylvia Beach, should she decide to re-open Shakespeare and Company. Either way, I hope finally to have a niche where I can safely look upon the world's horror and beauty." – George Whitman, Spring 1950, Paris