Shakespeare & Company, Paris : An Interview with Sylvia Whitman
By: Rishabh Chaddha
Tags: Books, Bookstores, Paris, Books And Authors, Writer

After its opening, George’s bookstore quickly became a centre for Anglophone literary life. James Baldwin, William Burroughs, Anaïs Nin, Allen Ginsberg, Richard Wright, Julio Cortázar, and Henry Miller were early visitors. And — from the first day — writers, artists, and intellectuals were invited to sleep for free among the shelves. Since then, an estimated 30,000 people have stayed in the bookshop. These guests are called Tumbleweeds after the rootless, rolling plants that “drift in and out with the winds of chance,” as George described.

Photograph Credits : JONATHAN BECKER

Over the years, the shop grew from one long, narrow room on the ground floor to the labyrinth of books and nooks readers know today.

George said, “I created this bookstore like a man would write a novel, building each room like a chapter, and I like people to open the door the way they open a book, a book that leads into a magic world in their imaginations.”

Sundance Beginnings: Sylvia Whitman — directed by Chiara Clemente [https://www.instagram.com/chiaraclementefilms/] Beginnings” is a short film series directed by Chiara Clemente about the “early inspirations” of artists and creative types. Here’s the episode on Sylvia Whitman, who stepped into the role of her father, George Whitman, as the proprietor of the Left Bank literary institution Shakespeare and Company.

Q2) Shakespeare and Company is a bookstore unlike any other. It is a historical landmark or a remarkable institution, a living testament to the Lost Generation and Beatnik generation. How do these things influence the curation or selection of books for the store?

What considerations does the team of bibliophiles at the bookshop keep in mind while curating the bookstore? Do they always prefer to have Best Seller on the shelves? Or do they provide a platform to an under rated authors as well whose writing is out of the box and phenomenal but doesn’t have the means to distribute his/her book in the market or doesn’t go through the conventional publishing route.

Photograph Credits : Nice Things

Sylvia : We have plenty of Lost and Beat Generations writers in stock, along with French and English classics, as customers often come in looking for specific titles. But if these were all we had on our shelves, the bookshop might risk feeling like a museum. So we prominently display the latest releases, especially those from smaller publishers, and we aim to offer a diversity of contemporary voices and subject matters. It’s so exciting to unbox new arrivals, to hold up a recently published book, wondering whether it might become a new classic.

Along with getting recommendations from our knowledgeable booksellers, I find it essential to discover what our visitors are reading. We are lucky to welcome readers from around the globe, so we get to hear about a great cross-section of world literature, sometimes before it’s even translated into English. Our stock is overseen by the shop’s head buyer, Linda. She has been with us for more than ten years and does a beautiful job keeping our selection vibrant and in balance.

Shakespeare & Co. always take special care in making sure your books are wrapped like literary treasures before sending them out to their new homes.

Q3) When did you fall in love with books and the bookshop? What made you decide to be a bookseller? Was there a ‘eureka moment’ in your life when you knew you loved books and wanted to point your career in that direction? How would you describe your life as a bookseller living in Paris?

Photograph Credits : Nice Things

Sylvia : When I was younger, I found books quite intimidating. Having grown up in a bookstore, I felt a pressure to have read everything. So my first true connection to words and storytelling came through the theatre. I loved Oscar Wilde, Arthur Miller, Tom Stoppard, and the process of bringing their words to life on the stage. One of the first events I put on, after returning to Shakespeare and Company when I was twenty-one, was a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It took place on the sidewalk in front of the shop. I gathered the booksellers and Tumbleweeds, and we just put on the play. It was haphazard, of course, but appropriately magical and dream-like. From this time, my love for Paris and the bookstore and books all blossomed together quite quickly and naturally. Literary culture is revered in France, and Paris simply evokes poetry. It’s a wonderful place to be a bookseller. I recently read Rebecca Solnit’s Wanderlust, which has this lovely description of Paris: “Everything — houses, bridges — same sandy gray so that the city seems like a single construction of inconceivable complexity, a sort of coral reef of high culture.”

Photograph Credits : JONATHAN BECKER

Q4) What do you think is the role of an independent bookstore, or the role of booksellers at an independent bookstore?