Season 4 Episode 1: In Conversation with Sylvia Whitman of Shakespeare and Company Bookshop
My first guest of Season 4 is Sylvia Whitman, owner of Shakespeare and Company Bookshop. In 2004, Sylvia took over the running of the bookshop from her father George Whitman, at 23 years old. She now runs it with her partner David, and together they have started a literary festival, a writing competition and opened a café next door to the bookshop.
James Baldwin called Shakespeare and Company the old curiosity shop while Anaïs Nin described it as a house of gentle warmth with walls of books and tea ceremonies. I certainly picked up on both of these qualities when I sat down with Sylvia in the bookshop a few months back. We have so missed having our bookshop sessions in there, but many happy memories came back to me as I sat there.
Our conversation includes what Sylvia Beach and Adrienne Monnier did for France and publishing, the many writers who’ve been associated with the shop, Sylvia's father George Whitman, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Sylvia the Tumbleweed, navigating the bookshop through a global pandemic, and lockdown reading trends. And of course, lots of book recommendations!
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Some of the books mentioned by Sylvia:
Daughter Of Earth (Agnes Smedley)
Humankind A Hopeful History (Rutger Bregman)
A Life’s Work: On Becoming A Mother (Rachel Cusk)