| Title | : | Shakespeare and Company, Paris: A History of the Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9791096101009 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 384 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2016 |
The book has been edited by Krista Halverson, director of the newly founded Shakespeare and Company publishing house.
Shakespeare and Company, Paris: A History of the Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart Reviews
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Absolutely loved this book. I smiled all the way through. What a storied history.
After reading, I realized I had picked a few books from George's journal notes in the early part to save to a list for my future reading. Only after reading was it clear that across the miles and time that George is still sharing books. -
This book is absolutely magical. It brings me back to the moment of wonder when I walked through the doors of this amazing place and lights the fire of desire to return. Even though I never met George, after reading this book, I feel as if he is now part of my soul. The bookstore and the book have rekindled my desire to read and made words mean something again. I will be reading this book over and over until the pages are unable to be read.
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Мені пощастило двічі: я доглядала за чудовими папужками, і як нагороду отримала скарб - книгу-біографію однієї особливої паризької книгарні. Дякую хазяйці папуг, що привезла мені цю книгу, а не банальну шоколадку. Не пам’ятаю, щоб коли-небудь читала такі великі, якісні, ілюстровані, хаотичні книги, з малюнками та коміксами, фотографіями й автобіографіями відвідувачів, уривками спогадів, історією довжиною в життя і далі, листами, цитатами та поезією. Більше ніж книгарня, місце богеми - тут можна було вмоститися на нічліг, спонтанно влаштуватися на роботу, поїсти супу, переночувати, провести поетичні читання, закохатися, написати власну книгу, ну і звісно - читати, читати, читати. Відвідувачів хазяїн називав «перекотиполями», адже через книгарню пройшли тисячі; багато хто зайшовши на півгодинки залишався на кілька місяців - за нічліг треба було розплатитися трьома речима: залишити ф��то з автобіографією на двох сторінках, трохи допомогти з хазяйнуванням і прочитати бодай одну книгу. Власник Джордж Вітман, той ще Безумний Капелюшник - воював з касовими апаратами і ніколи не вів фінансовий облік (можна було купити книгу за копійки, і знайти в ній заховані й забуті заощадження), влаштовував посеред книгарні вогнище, запрошував і переховував усіх мандрівників і романтиків, сперечався із покупцями, і звісно ж до смерті був закоханий у книги. Настільки, що часто виганяв покупців, які націлились на книги, які він так не хотів відривати від серця (що аж надто нагадує одного хитрого ангела...). Книгарню-острівок любові до сих пір утримує донька Вітмана (годі й уявити її шалене дитинство), тож ви і зараз можете зайти туди, якщо часом будете проходити біля Нотр Даму. І наостанок, ще один доказ містичної присутності Азирафаїла - лозунг на одній зі стін книгарні «Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they turn out to be angels in disguise».
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I understand now why George couldn't write another word after the title bc anything after it paled in comparison, i found among the pages full of the Tumbleweeds's biographies my own feelings mirrored, the generosity i myself experienced in Shakespeare and co, the Lovely people i met there, the Atmosphere itself, the feeling that this is more than a bookshop, that the walls have been witness to so many things;
The short time i spent in Shakespeare and co was one of the few moments i felt completely and utterly alive, just remembering makes my heart beats a bit faster♥ -
George Whitman's bookstore, Shakespeare and Company (named after Sylvia Beach's store from earlier in the 20th century which hosted much of the Lost Generation of writers) has been likened to the Mad Hatter's tea party. After reading this wonderful book, I should say so. From Jeanette Winterson's "Forward" to Sylvia Whitman's (George's daughter) "Epilogue," this book takes its reader on a journey, with George at the helm, through a marvelous literary history, beginning in 1951 to the present day. This is by far the best book about books, bibliomania, bibliophiles, etc. that I have ever read. And believe me, I have read a lot of those kinds of books. I've never had the privilege, yet, of visiting the bookshop, Shakespeare and Company. I now want to more than ever, to not only hand them money for books, but to just breath in its history, memories, special moments, and such. Fortunately, I've been to Lawrence Ferlinghetti's shop in San Francisco, City Lights Books. Ferlinghetti is featured in this book as a frequent guest at Shakespeare and Company and friend of Whitman's.
This book is mostly about Whitman and his bookstore, but it also includes snippets from various "tumbleweeds" who stayed, lived, and worked in the bookshop. The segments from these tumbleweeds help solidify the bookshop's charm and mystique. To add more charm to this book, there are also pieces, intermittently dispersed throughout, of writers who either had readings or were also tumbleweeds, at one point or another, in Whitman's shop. Their insights into Whitman and the bookstore are priceless.
Having never met George Whitman, that opportunity, unfortunately is now lost, I get the sense that this book is a nice painting of his personality and his passion for the written word, but only a tiny piece. I imagine that Whitman was the consummate bibliophile, who "suffered" from acute bibliomania. This is a good thing, mind you. I highly recommend this book for those of you who love reading books about books and books about bibliophiles. I'm so glad I stumbled onto this book. I'll be even happier the day I stumble into Shakespeare and Company for the first time. -
A comprehensive history of the Paris bookshop Shakespeare and Co. Beautiful collection of photos, stories, cartoons and poems. Makes you want to visit as soon as possible.
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Shall we invent a way to travel through time? Yes? That's great! You should know that I (desperately) want to go back to the moment I walked into the world of Shakespeare & Company. It's probably the most enchanting place I've ever visited. To use the words of Jeanette Winterson:
'The shop is like a Tardis - modest enough on the outside, a labyrinth on the inside. Every vertical space is shelved with books of every kind. A rickety staircase carries you like a fairy-tale hero to a warren of rooms on the first floor where you will find treasure. There's a piano, a typewriter in a booth, a few armchairs, a couple of cats, a big reading room looking out onto Notre-Dame...It is uplifting to be here.'
Sounds like heaven on earth, right? Well, it is. Shakespeare & Company (or The Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart) is a place that everyone should visit once. You should get a copy of their 'official' autobiography when you're there. I just finished it, and I've to say that it filled my heart with joy.
So, that's why I want to go back in time. Are you coming along? -
A brilliant biography book of one of the most beautiful bookshops I’ve ever been to - Shakespeare’s and Co. Truly exceptional and impressive collection of pictures, stories, even cartoons are introduced in the book. I tried hard to read it as long as possible as I did not want to lose this sense of being an unknown explorer at the amazing maze of books right in the heart of Paris.
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A wonderful book about the world famous Parisian bookshop, drawing together photos, drawings, workers' autobiographies, writers' memoirs, and even a comic strip, running alongside a fascinating chronology of the shop and its founder, George Whitman. I visited it a few years ago, then read a piece by Jeanette Winterson about the time when she stayed and worked there. All it took was a glance at this book to make me want to read more about it. The design and production values are yet another example of how much love and thought goes into all that is a part of this inspiring institution.
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BRB, going to be a drifter and become a Paris Tumbleweed ❤️
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Absolutely my favourite nonfiction book ever! So much LOVE!
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What a lovely lovely book. I've been to Shakespeare & Co before, but I MUST go again, now having a way better sense of its vast and rich history. If I had known it was an option to stay there....Loved all the pictures (A child through and through haha) and the excepts of poetry and biographies and anecdotes from Tumbleweeds. The magic of the place and of George is preserved in this book and I'm so grateful that I got to touch a piece of it.
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I decided to read this book when I was feeling particularly frayed, thinned, washed out. I thought it would be a nice bit of light reading. The history of a bookshop; what could be nicer? Instead, I found myself simultaneously euphoric and heartbroken. I'm not the sort of person who cries when they read, but I cried with this book. It was so genuine. I felt shattered. It's the story of the shop, but an autobiography. The character of Shakespeare & Co. is imbued in everything from this books egalitarian selections of primary sources to the beautiful and unorthodox binding. It's a scrapbook, an art book, a family photo album. I know this sounds cheesy and exaggerated, but I never expected to find so many feelings in the life of a bookstore. I felt as though all of history was lining up at the storefront, suddenly comprehensible to me. And I'm hopeful, because despite the changing times the shop survives and carries on, if slightly less bohemian and slightly more sanitary than before.
If you love books, if you are a romantic, and if you like finding hope for yourself in odd places, then get your hands on this book. Put down whatever volume you currently have in your hands, get rid of your to-read list, and pick this one up instead. I cannot recommend it enough. -
OK. While it is not a great book, it is a book I thoroughly enjoyed. I even wrote to the bookshop the following:
I am a lover of books. I taught high school English for 30 years and now teach composition and literature at the college level. This past year, after moving to a new neighborhood, I co-founded a community book group that has grown from 6 to 23 members in less than a year. As Thomas Jefferson wrote, "I cannot live without books."
I found myself unable to stop reading your bookshop's history book. In fact, I even skipped a couple meals I was so engrossed. Not only does the book capture the romance of the bookstore, it makes me want to never stop reading. It reminds me of the joy that comes with reading and the sweet pain that comes with learning and growth. It is a book that speaks life.
When my husband and I were in Paris this past April, I knew I had "gone to heaven" when I set foot, for the first time, into Shakespeare and Company. I cannot wait to return. Thank you for providing a history of the bookstore that will allow me to live vicariously in the sacred space of Shakespeare and Company until we come again next April. -
This is an incredibly moving book about a magical bookshop. We need more Georges in the world and I hope Shakespeare and Co has every success without losing it's essence. What great writers are yet to pass through it's doors.
"Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise."
"There are so many great books in the world all of them islands in the infinity of man's ignorance." George Whitman (page 66)
What a life!
"What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the
world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me,
what is this quintessence of dust?"
Hamlet (2.2.295-302) William Shakespeare -
"Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise."
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Shakespeare and Company is one of the most famous bookstores in the world. Sylvia Beach started it in 1919 as a young American living in Paris. It was an anchor for so many famous writers -- Hemmingway, Fitzgerald, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein. Writers would come and literally stay at the bookstore. In 1941, the bookstore was closed and Sylvia was interned. After WWII, George Whitman, a friend of Sylvia's, opened it up again and it has remained both a wonderful bookstore and a gathering place for writers and readers, both famous and unknown throughout the years. Whitman opened up his bookstore as hotel/hostel in exchange for writing a one page bio for him, working a couple of hours in his store, and promising to read a book a day (he referred to the many people who would come and go from his store as tumbleweeds. No one was a stranger here, everyone was welcome -- the store famously has "Be not inhospitable to strangers lest they be angels in disguise" on the walls. The book is full of letters written to George by tumbleweeds, biographies that people wrote, photos from the last 100 years, poems, and more. Reading this over the course of this week was like getting to return to Paris for a few hours every night.
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This is a wonderful history of the current Shakespeare and Company, which was originally founded as Mistral Books by George Whitman, and was renamed Shakespeare and Company in the 60s. The first chapter is an homage to the original Shakespeare and Company, an English-language bookshop opened by Sylvia Beach in 1919 and closed in 1941 during the Nazi occupation of Paris. Whitman opened a bookshop of sorts from his apartment in Paris in 1947, during his student days at the Sorbonne and which evolved into today's Shakespeare and Company. Sylvia Beach was a frequent supporter of Whitman's efforts, and eventually gave him permission to use the 'Shakespeare and Company' name for his store. More than a bookstore, Shakespeare and Company is a cultural and literary phenomenon, and this history provides an outstanding dual portrait of both the place and the founder--Whitman and his store are inextricably linked and deserve no less than this beautifully designed and copiously illustrated book. Highly recommended for anyone who loves browsing in bookstores and reading books.
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Deeply enjoyed reading about this iconic bookstore and the eccentric George Whitman and his Tumbleweeds. It does not cover the period of time Sylvia Beach had her bookstore between the great wars but then I hadn't realized that her shop had been shut down and Whitman's started out under a different name. I ordered her book so I could read about the expats but valued reading about the Beats and the 60s/70s from the viewpoint of Shakespeare and Company. It was sad to read about it's decline into the 90s but it ends with Sylvia Whitman taking over and cleaning up, I'm excited to visit the store again and see what has remained the same and evolved too.
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Very impressive to a auniq bookstore policy and activities .
الكتاب بمثابة أرشيف تضمنه صور بقالب تحرير فني فاتن، لنشأة المكتبة وتسميتها والأحداث الفارقة التي عايشتها ومع أسماء لامعة خلدها الأدب لاحقا .
ولا تختلف روح المكتبة الحاليا مع تاريخ أول مكتبة لاصدارات ناطقة باللغة الانجليزية أقامتها السيدة سيلفيا بيتش (1919-1941)، حيث جذبتها ومالك المكتبة الأخرى السيد جورج ويتمان حياة البوهيميا في فرنسا، حيث حرية القلم والعلاقات بلا قيود ولا عقاب .
الكتاب غير مترجم للعربية ومتوفر بمكتبة شكسبير أند كومباني، فرنسا .
. -
This book was special to me if just for the experience of reliving the history of such a place. All of the characters that assemble throughout the book and their stories and all the stories of people who found a reason to STAY at this bookstore just to experience the moment had me looking forward to reading it every day....
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This thorough and fascinating history of the world-renown Paris bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, features news stories, letters, diary entries, personal reflections, and lots of photos highlighting each decade from the 1920s to the present. The book provides insight into the evolution of the shop and its caretakers, as well as the parade of literary customers from Hemingway to Dave Eggers. If you've had the pleasure of visiting, you'll learn so much more about where you've been, and if you haven't been, you'll want to go.
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This book is só lovely. It's wonderful to read about the history of this famous bookstore, but the book is not just about that, there's also beautiful pictures and a lot of contributions by famous writers and by some tumbleweeds. There's a lot of material from George Whitman's archives and even a small graphic novel-part about Sylvia Beach's life. A must-read for anyone who loves Shakespeare and Company.
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A book and a monument that you can wander through just as if you were in a bookstore itself.
This is a truly wonderful tribute to and history of the Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris. It includes a mini-graphic novel that tells the story of
Sylvia Beach's original Paris book store from the 1920's-1930's which was closed due to the German occupation of WWII and never reopened. It tells the story of
George Whitman's youth through his diary entries and then his founding of his own store called Mistral Books in Paris in 1951 and how he inherited the Shakespeare and Company name from Sylvia Beach herself. The rest of the history is divided up into chapters by decade where the entries include photographs, archival tumbleweed (Whitman's petname for overnight guests) biographies, present day tumbleweed memories, newspaper clippings, etc. with an overall through-text (in oversize font to distinguish it from the rest) by editor
Krista Halverson and a concluding section by Sylvia Whitman. Whitman's daughter Sylvia took over the store in 2005 and has modernized it into the 21st century with an online presence that will hopefully ensure its survival for times to come. -
Well, that settles it. I must visit this masterpiece.
To anyone who loves bookshops, loves books, or loves curiosities, please pick this up this gem. Chockful of pictures, poetry, newspaper clippings, comics, and short bios written by guests of the store (appropriately-dubbed "Tumbleweeds"), this reads more like a scrapbook than a history book. Shakespeare and Company has an extensive history, stretching over a century, the helm passing from Sylvia Beach to George Whitman to Sylvia Whitman, courting the Lost Generation as well as the Beatniks. This is not merely a store, but a destination for lost travelers. Sound bohemian? Definitely. And that's a compliment. -
This book has a lovely, appealing layout with all sorts of printed ephemera concerning the storied shop. If you're looking to reminisce or become enthused about visiting Paris, this book will stoke the flames.
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“Read a book a day” was one of the guidelines of George Whitman to those “tumbleweeds” who visited his English language bookstore Shakespeare and Company in the Latin Quarter of Paris across the Seine from Notre Dame Cathedral.
So what better way to honor that request than with a freshly purchased copy of “Shakespeare and Company: A History of the Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart”; the autobiography of a hundred year old bookstore, and at the same time a tribute to the man who gave his life to books, who fused so much of his own persona into the DNA of that crumbling old building that it is now impossible to distinguish them.
I came to Paris, flying through for work and making a quick stop, for two express purposes. I wanted to spend some time at the Louvre; to see some beautiful things and commune with the energy of those who left a footprint in a world that was forced to consider them, and to visit Shakespeare and Company. For a while I have felt the need to sit in the most famous bookstore in the world and read a whole book through. To perhaps discover renewed energy for my own writing in a place that has inspired so many others. You see; I also am a novelist, a writer, an erstwhile poet and playwright – if not a particularly successful one. How different is that from the other tumbleweeds who wandered through dreaming of a career in letters and ending up as noodle factory managers or housewives somewhere in middle America?
I read through the store’s autobiography while sitting on a bed on the second floor overlooking the Seine and Notre Dame surrounded by a constant churn of humanity; a herd of Chinese looking for the bathroom – “No you can’t take pictures in here”, it’s a steadfast policy – young people sketchpads out in a desperate attempt to look troubled and deep and yearning. A washed up technocrat who considers himself a writer – oh wait that’s me!!!!!!
I was very glad for my time at Shakespeare and Co., although it was too short. Abroad for work, I did not have the time to tarry as I perhaps would have in other times, when I was younger and more foolish or more daring. Yes, I am immensely grateful for the visit; even though let’s be honest, I don’t think George would have liked me very much. I would never have been one of his favorites. Shakespeare was his “communist utopia masquerading as a bookstore” and my writing is deeply conservative and faithful when it is not libertarian (Tolkien and Lewis meet Vargas Llosa maybe, with a hint of Pilgrims Progress thrown in). I have no time for mayhem – which if the “History of the Rag and Bone Shop” is to be believed is what the 100 year history of Shakespeare and Co. has been like. I think I’d have had a better time with Tolkien and his Inklings sitting around an Oxford bar than listening to Sartre and Neruda discussing the emerging Marxist world.
I do think it’s funny that the bookstore is in the tumbled down remains of what was a monastery from the 1600s; because I’ve also had a dream niggling at the back of my mind for years of starting my own Shakespeare, in an old 17th century monastery high in the Venezuelan Andes. A bookstore and writing salon for those who want to reach back. Instead of drugs and sex, we would have devotions led by a mystic priest in the ancient chapel at dawn and then hard work outside to clear the head for words to enter, as they always do when our brains are not clouded with substance or groggy with sleep. Exercise in the cool Andean morning air; and instead of late nights and alcohol induced utopias we’d have early mornings and the goodness of a life lived close to the land. A testament to self-discipline that makes good writing deep and meaningful as it connects with what came before and points the way to what is just now becoming visible from over the curvature of the earth.
But alas, I lack the courage. That and Whitman’s communist utopia has been fully realized in Venezuela, making attracting writers to that socialist paradise difficult. But back to Paris – yes, I was very glad for my visit on a cold drizzly morning. And congrats to Shakespeare and those who keep alive the 100 year old dream of a palace of words along the Seine. The world is better for it. -
My favorite book I've read this year. An absolute dream.
It chronicles the life of a Parisian bookstore and its eccentric American owner (the store and the man are sort of strangely intertwined, reflecting one another. Both are wild and sprawling and messy and fiery and filled with stories (Double entendre. High five.)). George Whitman apparently spent his childhood in China, his youth hitchhiking around Mexico and serving in the army, and then somehow ended up living in Paris for 50 years all the while befriending and housing some of the world's most influential artists in his ramshackle bookshop, hiding money in old books, and burning his own hair off rather than cutting it. You know, your standard dude. A real All-American guy. We all know one.
Okay but seriously, George Whitman seems to have been a true character, unique and whimsical and passionate, and his bookstore is just the same. It seems almost like it doesn't belong in this world; but, at the same time, nothing could possibly belong more. And the book is such a pretty volume--filled with pictures and poems and paintings and scanned scraps of paper--that when I first started reading it I vowed I wouldn't mark it up by highlighting or annotating my favorite parts, but that lasted maybe 100 pages (longer than I'd typically last, I'll admit. I like to ruin things).
I mean, frick though. How was I supposed to not highlight this thing? George required each of his guests (who often slept between the bookshelves for days, months, or even years at a time) to write a biography and attach a picture of themselves before leaving, and by the end of his life had housed more than 40,000 drifters (He called them Tumbleweeds, which was probably the most "American" thing he ever did). And every few pages throughout the book is a scan of those very biographical pages, mostly written in typewriter font (before transforming to the, in my opinion, more *meh* regular laptop computer Times New Roman bullsh*t of the 2000s (less fun)). They are short, but usually brutal and beautiful one-way conversations with the lost boys and girls that somehow ended up in George's far-flung bookshop for vagabonds. It's dreamy. It's freaking Peter Pan, but it's REAL.
I love this book. I LOVE this book. Once I finally let myself start marking it up it was like releasing a hound. I began hungrily flipping back and forth through the thick colorful pages and relishing the clean, patient sound (clean and patient, really. I'm sticking with it), turning the book all directions like some kind of mix between a bible and an atlas. It felt like religious fervor. I studied it until I lost track of time (I rarely--unfortunately--lose track of time). I cried over it. I laughed into it with these kind of spastic over-excited chuckles that were almost embarrassing (the cats were all who heard, though, and they and I are cool, so it's fine).
There's just something about books, and there's something about writers, and there's something about this dying world with its little lights. Life is inexplicably mythical and bright and heavy and spiritual and free and fierce all at once, isn't it? So I guess I'd say this book felt like it was about life-- like peeking in on it at its most potent and watching it flow through the changing-sameness of decades, a fly on the wall (or a book on the shelf?) for all of it.
I'm gushing. I don't care. Humanity matters. And what are bookshops but curators of all our infinite human stories?
It's magic. It's magic. Books and life are the same. -
This marvelous book is as heartwarming, lovely, and whimsical as the real bookstore that is its subject. Shakespeare and company is one of Paris’ most beloved and iconic stores: it’s a place of wonders where you can spend hours leaving through troves of books, and even sleep. I used to go there a lot when living in Paris - and, yes, I do miss it... This volume is basically a biography of this paradise for book lovers, but a biography as delightfully original as the place itself. There is a chronological narration, but the book is mostly a cornucopia of old and recent photographs, poems, letters, private diaries and literary magazine excerpts, drawings, quotes, reminiscences. All together, they bring back the bookstore’s colorful past back to life, and they illuminate its present. A History of the Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart (what a great title!) follows the destiny of the bookstore from its creation till today, and focuses mainly on its fate and adventures through the decades when George Whitman, its legendary owner, took care of it, before passing the baton to his daughter. It’s a beautiful book, in every way: the layout is imaginative, the use of different fonts amusing, the juxtaposition of texts and illustrations exciting. Opening the pages of this book is like opening a box full of little treasures and memories. A myriad of celebrated writers and unknown figures populate these pages. And the stories are fascinating, starting with Whitman’s life. It is the kind of books you can read from the first to the last sentence, or just open randomly for the pleasure to dive into an anecdote, a poem, or a comic about the life of Sylvia Beach. Hard, after having savored this literary concoction, not to immediately go buy a plane ticket for Paris and to walk directly to the rue de la bûcherie…
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This is a funny potpourri of a book, with words and images about one of the most famous bookstores in the world, Shakespeare and Company on the left bank of the Seine in Paris. It briefly recounts the first version of it, started by Sylvia Beach, then is mostly about its second incarnation when George Whitman opened Mistral Books in a similar location in 1951, and then inherited the Shakespeare and Company name.
Both versions focused on countercultural literature, hosting prominent authors of the day, many of whom slept in the bookstore. Whitman was welcoming to the 'Tumbleweeds' who had nowhere to sleep and bunked up in the bookstore in return for light duties.
There's a narrative through-line that is chronological, but the book is broken up by reproductions of the biographies of some of the Tumbleweeds (who were required to write a page or two about themselves), and photos of Whitman and the store over time.
Whitman was the epitome of the eccentric bookman, and the book is somewhat eccentric as well, but in a fun, clever way. He described it as a “socialist utopia masquerading as a bookstore”, and that's an apt phrase. Whitman owned it for 60 years (!), gradually turning over the management of it to his daughter Sylvia who runs it today.
This book is for bookstore lovers, fans of countercultural literature, and especially for anyone who has dropped by Shakespeare and Company while in Paris.
