巴黎的文學重鎮—莎士比亞書店,重新開幕65周年,以豐富的照片與未曾曝光的檔案,與愛書人一同回顧名作家們相聚在此的珍貴時光。
自美國獨自到法國旅行的Sylvia Beach,1919年在巴黎塞納河畔開設了莎士比亞書店,不只販售英文書與二手書,還有圖書館與讓人留宿的空間。海明威曾在此流連忘返,Sylvia甚至為喬伊斯出版當年沒有出版社敢發行的《尤里西斯》。雖然因為二戰德軍的佔領而關閉了書店,1951年George Whitman徵得Sylvia同意,於聖母院對岸一個十六世紀的老建築裡重開了莎士比亞書店。承襲Sylvia Beach創立的精神,65年來持續提供作家尋找靈感的棲息地(至今已留宿超過30,000人次),並匯聚了許多知名與尚未成名的作家於此。
本書收錄許多與書店有關的作家資料,「垮掉的一代」詩人艾倫.金斯堡(Allen Ginsberg)、詩人兼日記作家阿內絲.尼恩(Anaïs Nin)、曾在此拍攝《愛在巴黎日落時》的伊森.霍克(Ethan Hawke)、小說家羅伯特.史東(Robert Stone)、《柳橙不是唯一的水果》作家珍奈.溫特森(Jeanette Winterson)等人從未公開的文件資料,包含非裔作家詹姆斯.鮑德溫( James Baldwin)、同屬「垮掉的一代」威廉.布洛斯(William Burroughs)與哈林文藝復興運動推手藍斯頓.休斯(Langston Hughes)等人的珍貴相片。並由珍奈.溫特森撰寫前言,現任主人—George Whitman之女Silvia Whitman提筆後記。
跟著莎士比亞書店的歷史,回顧巴黎從1951年至今許多重要文化事件,如「垮掉的一代」作家旅居巴黎的足跡、68’學運、女權運動等。(文/博客來編譯)
A copiously illustrated account of the famed Paris bookstore on its 65th anniversary
This first-ever history of the legendary bohemian bookstore in Paris interweaves essays and poetry from dozens of writers associated with the shop--Allen Ginsberg, Ana s Nin, Ethan Hawke, Robert Stone and Jeanette Winterson, among others--with hundreds of never-before-seen archival pieces, including photographs of James Baldwin, William Burroughs and Langston Hughes, plus a foreword by the celebrated British novelist Jeanette Winterson and an epilogue by Sylvia Whitman, the daughter of the store''s founder, George Whitman. The book has been edited by Krista Halverson, director of the newly founded Shakespeare and Company publishing house.
George Whitman opened his bookstore in a tumbledown 16th-century building just across the Seine from Notre-Dame in 1951, a decade after the original Shakespeare and Company had closed. Run by Sylvia Beach, it had been the meeting place for the Lost Generation and the first publisher of James Joyce''s Ulysses. (This book includes an illustrated adaptation of Beach''s memoir.) Since Whitman picked up the mantle, Shakespeare and Company has served as a home-away-from-home for many celebrated writers, from Jorge Luis Borges to Ray Bradbury, A.M. Homes to Dave Eggers, as well as for young authors and poets. Visitors are invited not only to read the books in the library and to share a pot of tea, but sometimes also to live in the bookstore itself--all for free.
More than 30,000 people have stayed at Shakespeare and Company, fulfilling Whitman''s vision of a "socialist utopia masquerading as a bookstore." Through the prism of the shop''s history, the book traces the lives of literary expats in Paris from 1951 to the present, touching on the Beat Generation, civil rights, May ''68 and the feminist movement--all while pondering that perennial literary question, "What is it about writers and Paris?"