Sylvia Whitman

Sylvia Whitman Hon. FRSL (1 April 1981)[1] is the proprietor of the Shakespeare and Company in Paris, France, the celebrated bohemian bookstore known for welcoming readers and writers from around the world.

Sylvia Whitman

Hon. FRSL
Whitman outside Shakespeare and Company (2008)
Born1 April 1981 (1981-04) (age 42)
Paris, France
Alma materUniversity College London
OccupationBookseller
ParentGeorge Whitman

She is the daughter of the shop's founder, George Whitman (1913–2011).

Early life and education

Whitman, born in 1981 in Paris,[2] is the only child of George Whitman (1913–2011), who in 1951 founded the Shakespeare and Company bookstore located at 37 rue de la Bûcherie in Paris. Her mother was Felicity Leng, a young British woman who had a brief marriage with George.[3][4] According to author Jeremy Mercer, she was named after St. Sylvia, but George soon started maintaining she was named after Sylvia Beach,[4] who had opened the original Shakespeare and Company (1919–1941),[5][6][7] and he stated in one bookstore publication that her name was Sylvia Beach Whitman.[4]

When she was 7, her parents divorced and she moved with her mother to England and became estranged from her father for many years.[8] She attended boarding school[2] at the Mary Erskine School in Edinburgh, graduating in 1999.[9]

She attended University College London, graduating in 2002 with a B.A. in Eastern European History.[10] Her original ambition was to be an actress.[8]

Career

She began co-managing Shakespeare and Company with her father in 2003 at the age of 22.[11] She continues to run it today with her partner, David Delannet, in the same manner her father had, allowing young writers to live in the bookstore in exchange for helping out around the shop, agreeing to read a book a day, and writing a one-page autobiography for the shop's archives. An estimated 30,000 people have stayed at the shop.[12]

Shakespeare and Company, Paris, 2011

In 2003, Whitman founded a biennial literary festival, FestivalandCo, which has hosted such writers as Paul Auster, Siri Hustvedt, Jeanette Winterson, Jung Chang, and Marjane Satrapi.[13]

In 2010, Shakespeare and Company launched The Paris Literary Prize for unpublished novellas, with a 10,000 euro prize donated by the de Groot Foundation. The winner of the first competition was Rosa Rankin-Gee, whose entry was subsequently published by Virago.[14]

Partnering with Bob's Bake Shop, Whitman and David Delannet opened a café in 2015, located next door to the shop in what had been an abandoned garage since 1981. The Shakespeare and Company Café serves primarily vegetarian food, with vegan and gluten-free options.[15]

In 2016, the bookstore published its own history in a book titled Shakespeare and Company, Paris: A History of the Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart (edited by Krista Halverson), which features an epilogue by Whitman, as well as a foreword by Jeanette Winterson.[16]

In 2023, Whitman was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.[17]

Media appearances

Whitman appears, alongside her father, in the 2003 documentary Portrait of a Bookstore as an Old Man.[18]

She appeared on the three Paris episodes of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, which aired the first week of August 2011.[19]

She is the subject of a 2012 episode of Sundance Beginnings, documentary shorts directed by Chiara Clemente.[20][21][22]

She appears in an episode of the BBC television series Imagine, first broadcast in 2012: "Jeanette Winterson: My Monster and Me".[23]

She is featured in the three-part 2014 BBC television documentary series Bright Lights, Brilliant Minds: A Tale of Three Cities by art historian James Fox in episode 2: "Paris 1928".[24]

References
  1. Copetas, A. Craig (7 June 2009). "Hemingway's Hangout Spruces Up to Defy Amazon". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on 26 January 2011.
  2. Damas, Jeanne; Bastide, Lauren (6 September 2018). "In Sylvia Whitman's Paris, Everything Revolves Around Poetry". Literary Hub. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
  3. "Frustrated novelist gave haven to pantheon of literary greats". Sydney Morning Herald. 6 January 2012.
  4. Mercer, Jeremy (2006). "Chapter 21". Time Was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co. Picador. ISBN 978-0312347406. They named her Sylvia Whitman after St. Sylvia, but George soon started telling people it was in honor of the founder of the first Shakespeare and Company and even referred to the little girl as Sylvia Beach Whitman in a bookstore publication.
  5. Lennan, Jo. "Paris: 10 Things to Do — 4. Shakespeare and Company Bookshop". TIME. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
  6. Simons, Marlise (14 December 2011). "George Whitman, Paris Bookseller and Cultural Beacon, Is Dead at 98". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  7. Hyslop, Leah (9 November 2012). "Turning the page at Shakespeare and Company". The Telegraph. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
  8. Lauter, Devorah (21 April 2011). "American's bookstore in Paris becomes family affair". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
  9. "Interview with Sylvia Whitman, MES 1999, Owner, Shakespeare & Company". ESMS Community. 7 December 2022. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  10. Kirch, Claire (28 July 2008). "Sylvia Whitman". Publishers Weekly. 255 (30). Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  11. Leeds, Adrian (11 August 2004). "The 'Found Generation' -- The New Literary Paris Legends". ParlerParis.com. Archived from the original on 18 December 2004.
  12. Halverson, Krista (2016). Shakespeare and Company, Paris: A History of the Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart. Paris, France: Shakespeare and Company. p. 18. ISBN 979-1-09-610100-9.
  13. Mulholland, Tara (21 June 2010). "Literary Luminaries Hold Forth at Storied Paris Bookshop". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  14. Halverson, Krista (2016). Shakespeare and Company, Paris: A History of the Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart. Paris, France: Shakespeare and Company Paris. p. 364. ISBN 979-1-09-610100-9.
  15. Tramuta, Lindsey (31 August 2015). "A Dream Parisian Cafe, Brought to Life". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  16. Halverson, Krista (2016). Shakespeare and Company, Paris: A History of the Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart. Paris, France: Shakespeare and Company Paris. ISBN 979-1-09-610100-9.
  17. Creamer, Ella (12 July 2023). "Royal Society of Literature aims to broaden representation as it announces 62 new fellows". The Guardian.
  18. "Portrait of a Bookstore as an Old Man". FilmAffinity. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  19. Tucker, Ken (1 August 2011). "Craig Ferguson's first show from Paris: A whimsical triumph, a potential classic". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  20. "Sundance Beginnings: Sylvia Whitman". Vimeo. Sundance. 2012.
  21. Marshall, Colin (16 March 2012). "Beginnings Profiles Shakespeare and Company's Sylvia Beach Whitman". Open Culture. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  22. "Rewind: 'Beginnings' Presents Early Lives of Creative Icons". Harper's Bazaar. 14 March 2012. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  23. Birchenough, Tom (5 December 2012). "Imagine - Jeanette Winterson: My Monster and Me, BBC One". The Arts Desk. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  24. "Shakespeare and Company: The world's most loved bookshop?". BBC Culture. BBC. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
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