Almanac of Story Tellers, Sylvia Beach

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of March 14th

 ___________________________________________________________________________

     It is the 73rd day of the year, leaving 292 days remaining in 2022.

Sylvia Beach and James Joyce in Paris

    On this date in 1887, the bookstore owner Sylvia Beach was born in Baltimore.

    Now, Beach was no ordinary owner, and her bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, located in the Left Bank area of Paris, was no ordinary bookstore.

    It more than celebrated story tellers and sold their books. Much more.

     Beach published books when no one else would -- starting with Ulysses, by her friend, James Joyce. French writers flocked to her store to read, write, and drink coffee. They were soon followed by writers from America and the United Kingdom -- the ex-pats who flooded Paris between the two world wars.

    She encouraged then to write. She goaded publishers to publish their work. She was a friend and a compatriot. Her bookstore became a lending library, a home, a workspace, and -- for some -- someone who would lend them money in a time of need.

    The books she sold were mainly fiction from France, America, Great Britain, and the new Free State of Ireland. Literature in English was gaining popularity, writers were flocking to Paris in part to avoid censorship, and Beach was there to help.

    In addition to publishing Ulysses, Beach encouraged Ernest Hemingway to finish his first book, Three Stories and Ten Poems. She published other works by Joyce and his fellow Irishman, Samuel Beckett.

    French writers André Gide, Paul Valéry, and Jules Romains frequented the bookstore. Members of the ex-pat community included writers and artists Aleister Crowley, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, and T.S Eliot. French author André Chamson said Beach "did more to link England, the United States, Ireland, and France than four great ambassadors combined.

    The bookstore remained a literary home until 1941, when the Nazis who were occupying Paris shut it down. She was jailed by the Nazis, but upon her release, remained in Paris. Her bookstore was closed and never reopened, although one by the same name opened in 1951. It is now run by a woman whose father named her Sylvia Beach, to honor the original Sylvia Beach.

    In 1959, Beach wrote her memoir, Shakespeare and Company.

    She died in Paris in 1962.