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Who stole the Walt Whitman manuscript from Shakespeare & Co. Book Store in Paris?
Posted by Lale on 16/7/2001, 14:33:53
Located across the magnifique Notre Dame, there is "the" book
store, the one and only Shakespeare and Company. Sylvia Beach's
bookstore that hosted the banned copies of Joyce's Ulysses and
Hemingway's first book in print Ten Poems and Three Stories...
This bookstore came into the possession of now 88-years-old
George Whitman (don't know the connection to Wlalt Whitman, if
there is one) in 1951. In front of the store there is a blackboard
with a chalk print that has survived since 1996. This is what it
PARIS WALL NEWSPAPER - AUTUMN 1996
As booksellers to the world for many years we have celebrated
certain anniversaries such as June 16, 1904 when the story of
Ulysses as written by James Joyce takes place in Dublin. We also
like to commemorate May 31 1855 - Wlalt Whitman's 45th
birthday - when Leaves of Grass came off the printing presses in
Brooklyn, New York. The poet, as well as being a journalist,
carpenter and bookseller was also a skilled printer and helped set
up the type for his book. A facsimile of this first edition was stolen
from our library by a well known expatriate American author who
has lived for many years in France. This year we are celebrating
our own anniversary. We are celebrating the slight modification in
the affairs of mankind that occurred on August 15 1951 when we
first opened our doors. How many know that in the sixteenth
century this house was a monastry called La Maison Du Moustier.
How many know that in medieval times each monastry had a frere
lampier whose function it was to light the lamps. How many know
that I am your frere lampier because when I opened this bookstore
I inherited the role of the monk who lights the lamps at nightfall.
Amitie Sincere - George Whitman
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