Why a Booktrail?
1957 onwards: Sylvia’s Bookshop tells the story of the legendary Shakespeare and Company, its owner Sylvia Beach
1957 onwards: Sylvia’s Bookshop tells the story of the legendary Shakespeare and Company, its owner Sylvia Beach
Meet the trailblazer and book lover who started the Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris, France, in this beautifully illustrated picture book that celebrates stories, reading, and the importance of sharing ideas.
The shop opened in 1957 and is now located at 37 rue de la Bûcherie, in the 5th arrondissement
It’s not just a bookshop as it sells new and second-hand books, as an antiquarian bookseller and also acts as a free reading library open to the public
The shop also houses aspiring writers and artists in exchange for their helping out around the bookstore. They can stay in the shop overnight and live there for a while and it is thought that some 30,000 people have slept in the beds found tucked between bookshelves.
The shop’s motto, “Be Not Inhospitable to Strangers Lest They Be Angels in Disguise,” is written above the entrance to the reading library.
Destination: Paris Author/guide: Robert Burleigh Departure Time: 1957 onwards
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