Originally aired on Nine To Noon, Tuesday 10 February 2015
Sylvia Whitman inherited the bookstore Shakespeare & Company from her father George, a charming and loveable eccentric.It takes its name from the original bookstore started in Paris in 1919, by another American Sylvia Beach, which was frequented by writers such as Ernest Hemmingway, Gertrude Stein and the surrealist Man Ray.
Under George Whitman, Shakespeare & Company continued the same bohemian tradition of a having bookstore for writers and readers, which become a haunt for Beat Generation writers like Allen Ginsberg and William S Burrows.
It's now run by his daughter Sylvia Whitman who is keeping the legacy alive, but developing 21st century innovations to ensure that it remains an important literary magnet, as she explains to Kathryn Ryan.
Photo of Sylvia Whitman by Ola Rindal.
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