It was soon so popular that they had to relocate to a bigger space on Rue de l’Odéon, the same street as Monnier’s own lending library. Please send money.’ So, with a little financial support and the help of Monnier, who became her lifelong friend and lover, Shakespeare & Co.
In 1919 a decisive telegram was sent to her mother: ‘Opening bookshop in Paris. That a woman should run such an enterprise was rare and impressive, and it galvanised Beach to open one herself. Soon after, she visited La Maison des Amis des Livres, a bookshop on the banks of the Seine that was owned by Adrienne Monnier. She was a europhile after living in France from 1901 to 1905, when her father was assistant minister of the American Church in Paris, Beach travelled back to Europe a number of times and even lived in Spain before returning to Paris at the end of World War I to study literature at the Sorbanne.Īdrienne Monnier, Sylvia Beach and James Joyce at Shakespeare and Company, Paris 1938. īeach was born in the United States in 1887, and lived on Library Street in Princeton, New Jersey. Today, Beach leaves behind two particularly astonishing legacies: not only the world’s most famous bookshop, but also the publication of one of Modernism’s greatest works, James Joyce’s Ulysses. It was celebrated and frequented by exceptional artists and authors, from Simone de Beauvoir to Man Ray, and Beach’s collections helped promulgate English-language writing across Europe. A century ago, she opened a higgledy-piggledy bookshop and lending library on Paris’ Left Bank called Shakespeare and Company.
This International Women’s Day, Peter Harrington celebrates Sylvia Beach, the trailblazing bookseller and publisher who helped shape the literary landscape of her age.
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