George Whitman, the American-born owner of Shakespeare & Company, a fabled English-language bookstore on the Left Bank in Paris died in Paris on 14 December 2011. His bookstore served as a magnet for writers , poets and tourists for close to 60 years.
For him the book business was the business of life. More than a distributor of books, Whitman saw himself as patron of a literary haven and the heir to Sylvia Beach, the founder of the original Shakespeare & Company.
Whitman founded his bookstore in 1951 and named it Le Mistral, then later named it after Sylvia Beach's earlier Paris bookstore Shakespeare and Company.
Overlooking the Seine and facing the Cathedral of Notre-Dame , the store that look beat-up behind a Dickensian facade and spread over three floors, has been an offbeat mix of open house and literary commune.
Whitman provided food and makeshift beds to young aspiring novelists or writing nomads, often letting them spend a night, a week, or even months. He welcomed visitors with large-print messages on the walls.
He was a contemporary of such Beat poets as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.
Born in East Orange, New Jersey, United States he was awarded the Officier des Arts et Lettres medal by the French government for his contribution to the arts over the previous fifty years.
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