One of Paris’ most iconic bookstores, Shakespeare and Company has fallen into hard times. The pandemic has led to the bookstore struggling to survive, and it has now reached out to the public for help. Shakespeare and Company is quite simply the most famous bookstore in the world, but during the pandemic its sale has dropped 80 percent since March.
The Paris bookstore sent an email to its patrons that read, “Like many independent businesses, we are struggling, trying to see a way forward during this time when we’ve been operating at a loss, especially grateful for new website orders from those of you with the means and interest to do so”
Hard Times…
We’ve just sent our latest newsletter in which we ask for your support if you have the means and interest.
Read it here: https://t.co/alKvFkPLHC pic.twitter.com/a7Q13U8KGu
— Shakespeare&Company (@Shakespeare_Co) October 28, 2020
The good news is that Shakespeare and Company further said that they are not closing the store yet. Interestingly, the current location of the shop is the second one, as the first one that opened in 1919 by Sylvia Beach. The store had closed in 1941 when Germany had occupied Paris, and unfortunately never reopened. But the second one opened up in 1951 by George Whitman. Initially it was known as Le Mistral, but later assumed the name of Shakespeare and Company.
The bookstore under Beach shot to fame due to the fact that writers such as James Joyce, Ford Madox Ford, Ernest Hemingway, Djuna Barnes, and Ezra Pound used to gather here when they were just aspiring writers. Later at Whitman’s store authors returned to gather, this time the list included F. Scott Fitzgerald, Man Ray, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, among others.
The bookstore that Henry Miller once called, “the wonderland of books,” has attracted people from across the world, and is one of Paris’ most important things to see.