Shakespeare and Company: The Story of an American Bookshop in Paris

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1959. First Edition. Near Fine/Near Fine. First edition. Presentation copy signed by Sylvia Beach on the half title, inscribed to the husband of her childhood friend Carlotta Welles Briggs, "For my old friend (see illustration [effaced word "page"] no 10) Jimmy Briggs with much love from Sylvia October 4th 1959." 230 pp. Original tan cloth with blue and black stamping to spine. Near Fine with front board corner a little stained, very slight bowed as well, in a Near Fine unclipped dust jacket.

Also laid in is a 46-line, 1pp. TLS from Sylvia on her stationary to Carlotta dated May 15th, 1962, folded in fours with creasing. Beach complains about her dentist, whom she calls her torturer, and says she would like to get away to see her friend "this next weekend but Miss Leet is having a party and the Ambassador wouldn't like it if he didn't see me at it. He is counting on my presence." She writes of subtle resentment from various unnamed parties in Dublin: "They asked me to open the ceremonies, but someone else is going to open the Dublin Whiskey bottles. I am invited to stay with good friends there before [...] But I haven't heard from them since that article appeared in the Guardian and maybe they didn't like my little jokes about Joyce." Amongst other things she mentions Italian and French translations of Shakespeare and Company being issued, as well as German: "The German is called 'Treffenpunkt' which alludes I suppose to its being a punk book." She reports being hesitant to being interviewed again by French TV as she is missing teeth. The letter is dedicated "With much love and I hope a bientot and love to Jim [the book's inscribee] from [signed] Sylvia."

Laid in 2 pp. note from Jimmy Briggs' mother to him with a clipped newspaper article about Beach, plus a short typed obituary of Beach from later in 1962.

A rare signed copy of the story of the famous bookshop on Paris' Left Bank that was a magnet for some of the best and the brightest literary minds of the early 20th century. Owner Sylvia Beach became the most famous bookseller of the 20th century, publishing Joyce's Ulysses and helping Ernest Hemingway to publish his first work.