"I'm lying," he said, finally. "You don't actually use lime blossoms."

January 20, 2016 8:05 AM

What it's like to live inside the legendary Paris bookstore Shakespeare & Co.
posted by Chrysostom (20 comments total)

Oh, lovely, thank you for sharing. I've not yet gone to Paris, but from all I've read of it, Shakespeare & Co is one of the first ports of call.

If I'd've known about being a Tumbleweed in my very early 20s, I would tried to live there in a heartbeat.
posted by Kitteh at 8:18 AM on January 20, 2016

Eavesdropping on a reading to a group of enthralled children in the upstairs front room on a sunny spring afternoon made feel like I had reached the very heart of civilization.
posted by fairmettle at 8:22 AM on January 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

The nuts and bolts of what it's like to live there are in the comments, like this one from Bill in Kent "I stayed at Shakespeare and company on many occasions in the over 40 years ago. The only drawback being NO TOILET but the PETIT BAR was nearby and a "wee" out of the window when desperate during the night. George would "look after" our passports until we left. Happy days."
posted by GrapeApiary at 8:30 AM on January 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

I went to Paris in '92, intending to get a job+apartment at Shakespeare & Co. Apparently , they only took people who were writing their memoirs, and they got to keep the rights, and the waiting list was like 3 years.
posted by signal at 8:41 AM on January 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

This is lovely and really nicely written. I'm always a bit puzzled, though, when people write about Shakespeare & Co. and don't even mention Sylvia Beach and/or the shop's original incarnation in the 1920's and 30's (the Sylvia mentioned in the article is George Whitman's daughter, not Sylvia Beach).

I mean, having played host to Dave Eggers is nice and all, but it kind of pales in significance when compared to being the original publisher of Joyce's Ulysses.
posted by dersins at 8:42 AM on January 20, 2016 [7 favorites]

I got to visit there last year. It's amazingly cramped with tourists (like I was), but it's very much worth the visit--not just for the books and history or being right across the river from Notre Dame, but also because they have that most necessary of accessories for any bookstore worth the name: a cat.

(He got a little chompy when I petted him, but to be fair, he'd just been petted by about five other people, and was more than ready to get back to his very important sleeping.)
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 9:00 AM on January 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

I've been to Paris five+ times and have never felt moved to actually enter Shakespeare & Co. It's just so extremely expat. Even when I was in Paris for a three month stretch I never felt the need to go to such an Anglophone place. I'm probably just a snob. I'm definitely overlooking the rich expat culture and history of Paris, one that Parisians themselves embrace.

A friend of mine who is a librarian and book merchant stayed at Shakespeare for a week. He said it was marvelous and shabby and I'm jealous of the experience.
posted by Nelson at 9:02 AM on January 20, 2016

I'm always a bit puzzled, though, when people write about Shakespeare & Co. and don't even mention Sylvia Beach and/or the shop's original incarnation in the 1920's and 30's (the Sylvia mentioned in the article is George Whitman's daughter, not Sylvia Beach).

The modern Shakespeare & Co. is only named after Beach's Shakespeare & Co. -- Whitman took the name after her death, but she never had anything to do with his store, nor he with hers. They knew each other, of course, but the shops are unrelated.
posted by Etrigan at 9:04 AM on January 20, 2016 [5 favorites]

Yes, very surprised this wasn't written by a cat.
posted by benito.strauss at 9:05 AM on January 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

The modern Shakespeare & Co. is only named after Beach's Shakespeare & Co.

Right, yes, I get that, but I mean, c'mon. Dude named both his shop and his daughter after Beach. Seems weird to write anything that discusses the shops's history and not even mention the original.
posted by dersins at 9:20 AM on January 20, 2016 [3 favorites]

I figure that the reason for the three year waiting list is the Watchers using the bookstore as a base. No one ever told them that there can be only one.
posted by Ber at 9:58 AM on January 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

I stayed there a couple times in the early 2000's when George was getting pretty old but before he reconnected with his daughter. Fascinating place and interesting people. George in particular.

One thing about George, I think he lived so long because he kept his immune system in fighting trim. I'd see him scrape a layer of mold off an old mug of iced tea and drink away. The piece mentions the Sunday pancake breakfasts. Sometimes he'd reuse his batter from week to week (to week?) and those could be some terrible pancakes, but no one could really tell George, who was kindly but irascible at the time I was a guest. People smuggled them out through the stairs and out the windows.

I really wonder what he was like at different points in his life.

The way he put people to work at the store was hard to credit. Within a few minutes of meeting him he put me alone behind his register and went out for lunch. He found out I was a physics major, so he had me rewire a couple lights the next day. I knew very little about electricity, it's a wonder the place is still standing.

I'm not sure about this, but I think this was where I read my first Wodehouse book, maybe at George's suggestion? Good and weird memories.
posted by Across the pale parabola of joy at 10:23 AM on January 20, 2016 [11 favorites]

I'm not sure about this, but I think this was where I read my first Wodehouse book, maybe at George's suggestion?

Don't bother asking me how I know that you can fit no less than eleven Wodehouse books into a trenchcoat, if you get some assistance from a redheaded cashier.
posted by Etrigan at 10:49 AM on January 20, 2016

George was irascible, yes. I once went to buy a book priced at around €6 but only had a €10 bill. George was working the register and told me he didn't have change but that I should just take the book and stop back by some other day to pay for it. When I said that I would but was staying over an hour away by metro he replied "well that's not very helpful!" and glared at me accusingly. I put the book back in shame.
posted by hazyjane at 11:05 AM on January 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

My dad was a writer, and in his final days, when he often didn't make much sense, he gave us some rambling instructions about selling one of his books back to Shakespeare & Co in Paris. We never did work out which book or why it had to go there in particular.
posted by w0mbat at 11:38 AM on January 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

The cat, who sadly passed away a few months after I took that photo.

The story of the shop as told by Whitman, at the shop. The building has a neat history.
posted by fraula at 11:53 AM on January 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

As I mentioned in a prior thread, the highlight of my 2005 trip to Paris was the tea party I attended at Shakespeare & Co. That, and debating with a young woman who seemed to live at the shop why I thought George W. Bush was a terrible president. It became very clear that we had different definitions of the word "conservative". Now I wonder if she was a Tumbleweed.

I don't care that it is full of tourists. I don't care that it is not the original shop run by Sylvia Beach. I loved every blessed second of every visit I made. I felt like I was sitting in my home library.

but also because they have that most necessary of accessories for any bookstore worth the name: a cat.

He got a little chompy when I petted him, but to be fair, he'd just been petted by about five other people, and was more than ready to get back to his very important sleeping.)

I think chompy cats are a requirement in that bookstore. All the ones I have encountered have been cranky.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 4:56 PM on January 20, 2016

I stayed at Shakespeare & Co for a little while in the late 90s. I have very many intense memories of my time there, some of them quite happy. As I've gotten older, and especially since George died, I am less comfortable sharing the more colorful stories. George did make attempts to organize his documents, the biographies and everything else. He had me do some of it while I was there. I am sure it all got undone in a fit of anxiety.

George was kind to me, but he expected me to be the girl. He asked that I wear my hair down. I was given the bunk in the children's area to sleep. (There was a shrine to Sylvia there.)
posted by stowaway at 7:00 PM on January 20, 2016

I always feel like I must be missing something; I went to Paris a couple of years ago - as a tourist, in the interests of full disclosure - and I'm sorry, but Shakespeare and Co. was the least enjoyable part of my trip. I think it just couldn't possibly live to the the hype, though judging by the crowds it lived up to everyone else's.

You are all welcome to label me either a philistine or an über-hipster.
posted by Rissa at 9:16 AM on January 21, 2016 [2 favorites]

I spent a lot of time at Shakespeare & Co when I lived in Paris. It was a warm place to sit down, read a random book from their library, and drown out the world for a few hours (my other main hangout spot was the Louvre, but they had less comfortable seating.)

One of the fun parts was counting all the tourists taking pictures of the place, despite all of the signs asking for no photographs. And listening to people playing the piano in one of the upstairs rooms, and all of the writer's workshops and readings. I never once did see any cats, though.

Thanks, Shakespeare & Co, for hosting a homesick American on some of Paris's most gloomy winter days.
posted by mollywas at 4:19 PM on January 21, 2016