Sylvia's family, friends, and even the American embassy recommended that she leave, but travel was too dangerous, and she would not abandon her bookshop. The city was more of a refugee camp than the paradise it had been in the twenties, when Sylvia's shop was crowded with writers and artists. "My business," Sylvia wrote, "is suffering excruciatingly from the exodus of Americans." For those who stayed in Paris, a mere 25,000 by 1940, finding food and fuel had become an all-consuming chore. With the economy in a shambles-the value of the franc plummeted and inflation skyrocketed-store sales slowed to a trickle.
Most American expats had returned home, and many French citizens were unemployed, leaving few in Paris with spare money for books from English and American publishers. Shakespeare and Company, Sylvia Beach's bookshop and lending library, had always been a "problematic little business," but in 1937, with the world turning its attention to war, staying open was becoming impossible. 1921, unknown photographer, Carlton Lake Collection, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin. Sylvia Beach, Shakespeare and Company's first location, No.
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