Enchanted by her time there, Diane returned with Lisa a few months later and discovered it was the occasion of Sylvia Whitman’s 7th birthday. George invited the two girls to stay on condition that they clean the bathroom first! “There was home made cake, and I think we wore birthday party hats for a while at least” recalls Diane “though I don’t really remember much else, except that the bathroom George made us clean was filthy and we really earned our cake!”
Diane returned to America with her memories of Vienne, Paris and Shakespeare & Company and of the celebrated George Whitman “who would ride his moped around the streets and up on the sidewalks, yelling to get out of the way. Quite a sight!”
Many years later, in 2003 Diane returned to Paris and to the book shop she loved.
“There was George. Much more white-haired but still the charming curmudgeon he used to be. I went to introduce myself, expecting a curt reply, but he looked at me and said slowly...'Eugene?' I was stunned. He remembered me! After all those years and all the people who stayed there, he remembered I was from Eugene! He was a remarkable man. I was sorry to hear of his passing at the age of 98. He had lived an incredibly full life that touched so many people. I am so glad that his daughter Sylvie still owns the shop and has brought it into the modern age. I hope it's there forever.”
George Whitman travelled the world as a self-proclaimed "tumbleweed" blowing from place to place, sheltered by the grace of strangers. Wishing to repay that generosity George founded the bookstore in 1951 with the motto "be not inhospitable to strangers lest they be angels in disguise" and threw open the doors to writers, artists, and intellectuals who sought refuge.
Tumbleweeds (as guests are called) are asked only to "read a book a day," help out in the shop for a couple of hours, and write a single-page autobiography for George's archives. The bookshop has housed an estimated 30,000 Tumbleweeds.
Where? 37 rue de la Bûcherie, 5th Arr., directly opposite Notre-Dame on the Left Bank. The bookshop is open daily from 10am to 11pm. The Antiquarian is open Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 7pm.
The book shop is now run by Slyvia Beach Whitman, named after Sylvia Beach, the American born publisher and book seller who founded the first Shakesspeare & Co book store in Paris. Located in rue de l'Odeon it closed in 1941 and was famous for offering hospitality to writers such as Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and other greats of the early 20th Century.
Plaque on the wall at 12 rue de l'Odeon