Rachel Wade
When it comes to the achievements of women in history, they’re often brushed over. We hear about individuals in passing only, without the thought to delve deeper into their story. Diana Souhami’s book: ‘No Modernism Without Lesbians’ has done justice to the women who have attributed to our contemporary literature; the story of Sylvia Beach is truly remarkable, and I couldn’t have felt more disappointed in myself for not learning about her sooner.
I’ve always associated the notable bookstore ‘Shakespeare & Company’ with the quaint tote bag seen on almost every sleek, classy passer-by in libraries or universities - always à la mode, always enviable. We have both most likely had limited knowledge of the actual bookstore itself, except for the fact that it’s quintessentially vraiment parisienne, selling the books of all the most notable authors in contemporary literature. In fact, its spot in history is predominantly surrounding Slyvia Beach taking the challenge in facing a war of censorship against James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’, eventually publishing it in 1922 after meeting him in 1920 at one of her friends’ dinner parties - which was in fact French poet André Spire.
‘Shakespeare and Company’ had been Syliva’s own triumph, despite having no experience in neither marketing nor finance. History has indeed let us down in lacking prominence towards the fact that she was a lesbian, and her ‘friend’ Adrienne Monnier, who helped run the bookstore, was in fact her partner. Whilst it is briefly mentioned on her Wikipedia page, Souhami’s book satisfyingly divulges into this element of Beach’s identity. The lesbian identity is unique, for it is one which has encouraged individuals like Beach to challenge censorship and the limitations of female self-expression without the need to consort to male validation. Finding her own voice in Paris amongst a group of accepting revisionists has been a great contribution to our modern bookstores, who unashamedly display books about/written by those of a minority status - whether it be those LGBTQ+ identifying, books by/about Black authors/culture, or those from religious backgrounds who have not been able to find their voice elsewhere but through literature.
Inclusive does not begin to describe Sylvia Beach - she tempted death to ensure the safety of others. With Paris succumbing to the Nazi Occupation in 1941, Sylvia chose to remain in Paris in her bookstore. She refused to sell a copy of Finnegan’s Wake - another controversial work by James Joyce - to a Nazi officer, who in turn threatened to shut the store down. Within a month, after threats to Shakespeare and Company being shut down by the Nazis, Beach did it herself. She, with Adrienne, then moved to an unoccupied top floor apartment not far from the bookstore. In 1943 it came to no shock that she was interned by the Nazis for several months: Souhami bluntly states ‘she was an American, she was a lesbian, she befriended Jews, published Ulysses, traded in ‘Noxious and Unwanted Literature’ and opposed and derided this army of men’.
For all her hardships, it seems she is not credited enough for her contributions to the arts. She welcomed writers such as Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound and Scott Fitzgerald, who frequently came to the half-bookstore, half-library. In 1951, Sylvia lost Adrienne to an overdose on sleeping pills, and Shakepeare and Company had not reopened since its forced shut down in 1942. Despite all this, she kept going and spent the last year writing and publishing her memoir ‘Shakespeare and Company’ in 1959, and agreed to do all the interviews she was asked to do. In 1962, she had the honour of opening Ireland’s James Joyce Tower & Museum. In watching her interview here, it is remarkable to see her reminisce on such an extraordinary life she had, certainly in her calm and reserved manner. Without giving you too much away before you read this book, Souhami concludes on Beach’s life that her project of Shakespeare and Company was ‘for twenty-two years the hub for the dissemination of new ways of seeing and saying’. She created a space for conversation, solidarity and inspiration. It is fascinating to know that today we see bookstores used for selling such books in which she dared to place in the shop window.
It feels almost unfair to say that she is so overlooked because she was a part of the ‘Paris lesbians’ who transformed conversations around literature and art in a period of severe censorship and oppression, yet there is seemingly no other explanation. Souhami’s book does her more than justice, and Sylvia Beach is not the only woman discussed in this book. Alongside her, Souhami tells the story of Bryher, Natalie Barney and Gertrude Stein, who have all immensely contributed to modernism (as the book title obviously states). Sylvia’s story was just the first out of the four incredible biographies of feminism, sexuality, activism and self-identity.
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