Shakespeare and Company Bookshop (1919-1941)
In 1919 Sylvia Beach opened Shakespeare and Company, a bookshop in the St.-Germain-des-Prés quarter of Paris. Operating a lending library from her shop, Beach specialized in books published in Great Britain and the United States. The large American expatriate community, combined with a growing interest in American literature among the French, soon made her shop the literary capital of the United States. In 1922 Beach courageously published James Joyce’s controversial Ulysses, segments of which had been judged obscene in England and the United States and which had been rejected by several established publishers.
Inspired by Left Bank Bookseller (2012)
Left Bank seeks to reveal the true story of the unsung women behind a literary giant and their role in early 20th Century feminist activism. Left Bank is based on 10 years of research by writer Lisa Reznik. Her short narrative film Left Bank Bookseller, about the courage of American bookseller Sylvia Beach to publish Ulysses in France, has been screened around the world. Reznik’s passion for the subject matter inspired the vision for a deeper, more profound telling of the story as a hybrid feature documentary.