The original Shakespeare and Company in Paris was opened in 1919 by American bookseller, Sylvia Beach, pictured above. In 1922, Sylvia published James Joyce’s book, Ulysses, when nobody else would touch it.
Her bookstore was a haven for the Lost Generation of writers, and you’d often find literary greats such as Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, T.S Elliot and Ernest Hemingway, to name but a few, hanging out there regularly.
Just the thought of being there at that time in Paris has me going off into rapturous daydreams. I truly believe I was born in the wrong decade.
Unfortunately, during the Nazi occupation of Paris in 1941, Sylvia shut up shop and never reopened. However, all was not lost. In 1951, George Whitman took up the mantle, opening a new shop on Rue de la Bûcherie, with Sylvia’s blessing. She referred to it as the “spiritual successor” to her own.
March 14 is the birthday of Sylvia Beach, born in Baltimore, Maryland (1887). She founded an English-language bookstore and lending library called Shakespeare and Company, on the Left Bank of Paris. It opened just as the "lost generation" was discovering that city, and it became a central feature of the Parisian literary scene of the 1920s. Beach also published books, including the first — blue and white — edition of James Joyce's Ulysses (1922). |
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And speaking of shows...
I was among the people who watched the movie within the first few weeks it was out! My oldest sons can count how many times they went to see it...but I don't remember. I went only once (until it was available on TV and recorded in videos and then DVD's.) I admit to owning the first 5 Star Wars movies on DVD's.
Today's quote:
A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water." Eleanor Roosevelt said, "We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are to live together we have to talk." And, "You wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do."
Today's art:
