Shakespeare and Company in Paris
Some good friends of Nina were strolling along the Seine in Paris France recently and were lured into a quaint bookstore on the Left Bank, Shakespeare and Company. The independent bookstore lies just across the magestic Notre Dame Cathedral on Ile de la Cite and steps away from the trendy cafes of Place St. Michel.
Shakespeare and Company resides in a building that served as a monastery in the 16th century. It’s located on Rue de la Bûcherie and serves as both a bookstore and a reading library, specializing in English-language literature. The bookstore was opened by George Whitman under Le Mistral then changed to its current name in honour of an earlier store which closed during World War II. The bookstore served as a focal point for
Darwin's Paradox in Shakespeare and Company
literary culture in Bohemian Left Bank Paris. Customers have included the likes of Henry Miller and Richard Wright. The store was a base for many writers of the Beat Generation like Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and William S. Burroughs. Whitman’s daughter, Sylvia, now runs the shop and regular activities include Sunday tea, poetry readings and writers’ meetings.
The bookstore houses young writers, known as “tumbleweeds”, who earn their keep by working in the shop for a couple of hours each day. The current store is named after and in honour of an
Autographed copy of Darwin's Paradox on the shelf
earlier store which closed during World War II. George Whitman calls the bookstore “a socialist utopia masquerading as a bookstore”. The bookstore includes sleeping facilities, with 13 beds, and Whitman claims as many as 40,000 people have slept in the shop over the years.
As Nina’s friends pored over the eclectic assortment of international and local English and French books they stumbled upon a copy of Darwin’s Paradox! They had to take a picture and here it is.
That Darwin sure gets around!
And thanks, Chuck and Jane, for telling us!
