Shakespeare and Co. Founder Dies at 98
DECEMBER 15, 2011 TAGS:
On the heels of Farhad Manjoo's brutal takedown of the usefulness of the brick-and-mortar independent bookstore comes another piece of nail hammering news for bibliophilic shelve perusers. George Whitman, the proprietor and founder of Paris' renown independent bookstore, Shakespeare and Co., died yesterday in his apartment above the Left Bank shop at the age of 98.
Whitman opened the store in 1951, modeling it after the original Shakespeare and Co. that was the stomping ground of lost generation literary luminaries like Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound and James Joyce. The new iteration of Shakespeare and Co. mirrored the first, becoming a meeting point for great writers and readers of literature from Henry Miller through the Beat generation and until today.
Over the decades, Whitman let droves of literary aspirants live on cots in the aisles of the store, quite literally demonstrating his signature quote, "I wanted a bookstore because the book business is the business of life.” Not only did he foster literary culture through a bookstore, but he offered sustenance to its most adherent practitioners. Shakespeare and Co. was as much an ashram as it was retail space.
Such sacred descriptions of the store might actually prove Manjoo's point in his essay titled, Don't Support Your Local Bookseller. His argument, that any sort of literary culture that an independent bookstore purports to create is less valuable to society than getting people to actually read books (which both e-books and cheaper titles at Amazon quantifiably do), doesn't get dented by thinking back to a pre-Internet literary world where men like Whitman held late night readings and tea-soaked discussions.
If anything, thinking back to the glory days of Shakespeare and Co. and Whitman's lovely contribution to literature, we can conclude that society no longer need aisles to camp out in or the input of more accomplished readers. Because we have recommendation algorithms and easily accessed literary discussion forums online. Doesn't sound as Romantic as Paris' Rive Gauche, but progress rarely does.
At the end of the day however, I think nostalgia wins out. Good bye to an literary icon! Who nary wrote a word himself.
Whitman opened the store in 1951, modeling it after the original Shakespeare and Co. that was the stomping ground of lost generation literary luminaries like Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound and James Joyce. The new iteration of Shakespeare and Co. mirrored the first, becoming a meeting point for great writers and readers of literature from Henry Miller through the Beat generation and until today.Over the decades, Whitman let droves of literary aspirants live on cots in the aisles of the store, quite literally demonstrating his signature quote, "I wanted a bookstore because the book business is the business of life.” Not only did he foster literary culture through a bookstore, but he offered sustenance to its most adherent practitioners. Shakespeare and Co. was as much an ashram as it was retail space.
Such sacred descriptions of the store might actually prove Manjoo's point in his essay titled, Don't Support Your Local Bookseller. His argument, that any sort of literary culture that an independent bookstore purports to create is less valuable to society than getting people to actually read books (which both e-books and cheaper titles at Amazon quantifiably do), doesn't get dented by thinking back to a pre-Internet literary world where men like Whitman held late night readings and tea-soaked discussions.
If anything, thinking back to the glory days of Shakespeare and Co. and Whitman's lovely contribution to literature, we can conclude that society no longer need aisles to camp out in or the input of more accomplished readers. Because we have recommendation algorithms and easily accessed literary discussion forums online. Doesn't sound as Romantic as Paris' Rive Gauche, but progress rarely does.
At the end of the day however, I think nostalgia wins out. Good bye to an literary icon! Who nary wrote a word himself.
RELATED CONTENT
Latest News Delivered to Your Inbox - Sign up with our site and you will get the latest news about people and subjects that interest you.
