Video: Sylvia Beach Whitman, proprietor of Shakespeare and Company

After George Whitman’s death in 2011, his daughter Sylvia Beach Whitman inherited the store where she grew up. In this short video tribute, Whitman remembers her days as Shakespeare and Company’s official moppet, when its writers in residence — her “hundreds of brothers and sisters” — would tell her custom-made bedtime stories before flopping down on their own beds built atop the book piles. She’s since grown up and gone on to do big things with the store, including starting a biennial literary festival which has brought in the likes of Jung Chang, Paul Auster, David Hare, and Persepolis author Marjane Satrapi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71SE3-Cvb8A