Beach Reading: An American in Paris.

Although on this day in 1887, book seller and publisher Sylvia Beach was born in Baltimore, Maryland, she grew up in Paris and attended the Sorbonne.  As an adult, enraptured by Left Bank culture and by pioneering Paris book store owner Adrienne Monnier, Beach opened the now legendary Shakespeare and Company, which became a hub for Left Bank intelligentsia and lost generation writers.  When obscenity charges made James Joyce's Ulysses problematic in America, she stepped in to publish it.  She was forced to close during Nazi Occupation--she was interned for 6 months--and never again managed to collect the resources to reopen.  The Paris store carrying that name today is strictly what the French would call homage.

The photos here, of Beach; Beach and James Joyce; Beach and friends, including a banged up Hemingway; are all from "Le Blog:  A Blog about All Things French," which contains a fuller account of Beach's life and love for Monnier.  Here's a link:  http://leblog1815.blogspot.com/2011/03/sylvia-beach.html

Paris Was a Woman, book and documentary, are also good sources when you're ready to moon about the romantic life of the Left Bank back in the day.  I recommend it highly.