This short film on Sylvia Whitman, owner of the iconic bookstore Shakespeare and Company, is part of a larger series titled “Beginnings,” a project by Chiara Clemente exploring the “early inspirations” of various artists. I came across it a few days back on the New Yorker’s Book Bench site and thought I would share. It’s a wonderful little film. Just the thought of sleeping amongst all of those books as a child…
Enjoy!
Spent nearly a whole day there when I was in Paris. What a history it has!
Unfortunately this is not the original Shakespeare & Co. where Sylvia Beech hosted James Joyce and even printed the first full edition of Ulysses. When my daughter lived in Paris, she went to the address of the original Shakespeare & Co but it had been done over and I forget what is there now. She frequented this newer shop and sent me at least one postcard along with several interesting books (she collected ancient looking books and seemed to find French translations of English or even Spanish books fascinating). I now have several copies of García-Marquez in French as well as Spanish.
The store reminds me of one I used to go to in Hitchin – it had thousands of books – I could spend hours in there LOL…
…used to read Lawrence Durrell at school too… what was the one about his life on Corfu? Went there when I was 12 and loved it
I love the remark that all of the writers in residence were Sylvia’s brothers and sisters! Thank you for sharing this video.