–Sylvia Beach and James Joyce in front of Shakespeare and Company, 12 rue de l’Odeon, Paris
–Sylvia Beach in her shop, Shakespeare and Company (Gisèle Freund)
Today is Bloomsday and there are tributes to James Joyce on many book and literature blogs. However, I want to pay special homage to Sylvia Beach this day. With her fortitude and determination, Ulysses was published in 1922.
Besides being the subject of her own book entitled Shakespeare and Company, Beach and her determination to get Ulysses published was the subject of the above shown book by Noel Riley Fitch. I recommend both.
The current incarnation of Ms. Beach’s shop is now run by a lady named after her: Sylvia Beach Whitman. The website to this store on 37 rue de la Bûcherie, across the Seine from Notre Dame, can be found here. Ms. Whitman’s father ran the shop in the new location before she did (with the blessing of the original Sylvia Beach).