Thursday, August 31, 2006
A Person of Influence
Just as I had mentioned how the formative years of an individual can influence his actions later in life, there are certain people who seem to have a broad influence among a large group. These people are usually known more for the company they keep and how they influenced them than for their own individual works. Most of them are usually teachers, instructors and other mentoring types.
John Witherspoon, President of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) and signer of the Declaration of Independence was one such person. As college president, he was a professor who taught subjects such as Rhetoric and Philosophy. Witherspoon would have had fame enough as a signer of the Declaration. However, his ultimate claim to fame was as the teacher of a future President of the United States (James Madison), a future Vice President (Aaron Burr) as well as future Governors, Senators and Congressmen. His views on political theory were utilized by his students in their later careers in government.
Another example in a completely different field is one Nadia Boulanger, the Russian-French music instructor who used her salon to teach music composition to such famed composers as Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Leonard Bernstein and Philip Glass. There were many others too numerous to tell, but just these names alone will give one an idea as to how broad an influence Mademoiselle Boulanger had on the music of the 20th Century. Even though I’ve given the example of teachers as being the main influencers of the influential (naturally!), not all such types are instructors.
This has been a literary summer for me where I became acquainted and reacquainted with some of the great writers of the last century. In fact, there was one person whose name often crops up whenever 20th Century Literature is mentioned. Her name is Sylvia Beach and her main occupation was the owner of an English language bookstore in Paris called Shakespeare and Company. Like John Witherspoon, she hailed from Princeton, New Jersey, and like Nadia Boulanger, she lived most of her life in Paris, France.
The fact that Sylvia Beach owned a bookstore may be of little consequence for most, but the time that the store was opened and the clientele who frequented it was of great significance. Shakespeare & Co. was located on the Left Bank of Paris where most of the artsy types lived. It opened in 1919 right after the First World War and the French were enamored with all things American, including its President! (It was a different time!) So, it would have been hoped that an English language bookstore would get a large number of French customers. However, this wasn’t its claim to fame.
Among the first customers to join the Company were established British and American writers like Ford Maddox Ford and Ezra Pound. The most famous of them all was the Irish author James Joyce. Joyce had already published a number of short stories and an autobiographical novel Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Most importantly, he was finishing up a new novel called Ulysses – a modern rendering of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey set during one day in Dublin. (The date was June 16, 1904 – forever to be known as Bloomsday, after the book’s main character, Leopold Bloom.)
The problem Joyce was having was finding a publisher. A fragment of the novel was published in New York and was then seized and banned. The publishers were subsequently placed on trial and convicted of obscenity charges. This put a pall on any further publishing efforts on either side of the Atlantic. Upon hearing of this plight from James Joyce, his friend Sylvia Beach then suggested to publish the book herself under the imprimatur of Shakespeare & Co. Joyce – and the world – was forever grateful.
So, Beach became book publisher as well as bookstore owner, publishing Ulysses in 1922. It became a best seller in France. It would have been a best seller in Britain and the U.S., but it was banned (and burned) in both countries once it hit their shores. The only way the book entered these countries was by smuggling them. In fact, another soon-to-be-famous writer, and Beach’s friend, by the name of Ernest Hemingway, helped in the smuggling efforts!
The reason for the controversy was that Ulysses has a number of earthy passages that were considered profane and obscene. However, they only made up about 10% of the book. Yet, it was this 10% that made many people think of the book as “dirty”. Having read it myself, I can only say that it takes a dirty mind to consider Ulysses a dirty book!
There are many other passages and chapters that are literarily brilliant. One has to read them to appreciate this brilliance. One chapter in particular starts in an Old English/Anglo-Saxon style (a la Beowulf), then subsequently goes through the entire spectrum of English literature from Chaucer to Shakespeare to Dickens to Dublin Irish patois circa 1904. Joyce was a genius of language. He used puns and other literary devices throughout the novel. To have such a book banned is itself an obscene gesture.
With this act of publication, Sylvia Beach and her store became famous. Many writers and would-be writers came to visit. Among them was the aforementioned Ernest Hemingway, a newspaper reporter for the Toronto Star. Hemingway didn’t have much money at the time, so he borrowed a number of books from Beach’s store, among these were Russian authors like Turgenev and Dostoevsky. In fact, it was Sylvia Beach who recommended them to him. These authors would have a profound influence on Hemingway’s writing style as could be seen in his short stories of that time.
A subsequent visit to Pamplona, Spain to see the running of the bulls would also factor in his first novel The Sun Also Rises (1926). This novel told of a group of British and Americans who dissipated their lives at the cafés of Paris and thought they would find themselves at the bullfights in Spain. Instead, they discovered that they were lost in more ways than one. For this, Hemingway and his contemporary American writers who also dissipated their lives in Parisian cafés were called the Lost Generation, and Sylvia Beach was their High Priestess.
With the newfound fame of writers like Hemingway, Shakespeare & Co. would gain even further fame. This time, it wasn’t just writers but tourists who wanted to see actual writers at the store. Whenever a tourist asked if James Joyce or Ernest Hemingway was in the store, Sylvia Beach would say no even when the said author was just a few feet away. She protected the privacy of her clients which they greatly appreciated.
Other writers who visited the store were F. Scott Fitzgerald (who wrote his own Paris-based novel, Tender is the Night), T.S. Eliot (who read from his poem The Wasteland at a public reading in the store), Gertrude Stein (one of the first customers, but jealous of James Joyce, would later avoid the place), a tubercular D.H. Lawrence (who asked Sylvia Beach to publish his novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover which she declined – later regretting it) and Henry Miller (who also wanted Beach to publish his novel Tropic of Cancer, which she gratefully declined). It’s hard to determine how influential Beach was in the works of such great and varied writers. Yet, her influence was quite subtle in the way she suggested certain books to certain writers. As mentioned before, it was Beach who recommended that Hemingway read 19th Century Russian writers.
Another significant area where Sylvia Beach was influential was in the introduction of American Literature to the world. Prior to this, many scholars referred to American writing as American Letters, not Literature. Mark Twain was merely an entertaining writer of juvenile novels (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), Walt Whitman was, at the least, a jingoistic hack poet, and nothing more (Leaves of Grass), and Herman Melville was an unknown and long-forgotten novelist of sea-faring books (Moby Dick). Sylvia Beach helped changed all that in her little store in Paris since these were the very books which she started selling in 1919.
By the time she was forced to close her store during the Nazi occupation in 1941, the books that lined her shelves included (since the opening of the store) newer volumes such as the works of James Joyce (Ulysses, of course, and his recent novel Finnegans Wake), Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and so many others too numerous to name here. It can be simply stated that Literature wasn’t just found at the store by the Lost Generation, but was renewed by them.
As a postscript, Sylvia Beach lived through the Nazi occupation above her now-closed store to be rescued in 1944 by her good friend Ernest Hemingway (true story!). She would live her days with her memorabilia and her memories which became her greatest claim to fame for posterity. Beach died alone in 1962, but, as the poet Archibald McLeish (another old client-friend) said, she wasn’t alone, she had that Company with her!
Today, there’s another Shakespeare & Co. store on the Left Bank. It isn’t exactly the same as the original, but it does keep the same literary spirit. (The owner even named his daughter Sylvia Beach!) Yet, that store is still looking for a Joyce or a Hemingway to cross its threshold. As for me, the next time I visit Paris, I’m making a point to walk to the rue de l’Odeon and listen for the ghosts!
John Witherspoon, President of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) and signer of the Declaration of Independence was one such person. As college president, he was a professor who taught subjects such as Rhetoric and Philosophy. Witherspoon would have had fame enough as a signer of the Declaration. However, his ultimate claim to fame was as the teacher of a future President of the United States (James Madison), a future Vice President (Aaron Burr) as well as future Governors, Senators and Congressmen. His views on political theory were utilized by his students in their later careers in government.
Another example in a completely different field is one Nadia Boulanger, the Russian-French music instructor who used her salon to teach music composition to such famed composers as Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Leonard Bernstein and Philip Glass. There were many others too numerous to tell, but just these names alone will give one an idea as to how broad an influence Mademoiselle Boulanger had on the music of the 20th Century. Even though I’ve given the example of teachers as being the main influencers of the influential (naturally!), not all such types are instructors.
This has been a literary summer for me where I became acquainted and reacquainted with some of the great writers of the last century. In fact, there was one person whose name often crops up whenever 20th Century Literature is mentioned. Her name is Sylvia Beach and her main occupation was the owner of an English language bookstore in Paris called Shakespeare and Company. Like John Witherspoon, she hailed from Princeton, New Jersey, and like Nadia Boulanger, she lived most of her life in Paris, France.
The fact that Sylvia Beach owned a bookstore may be of little consequence for most, but the time that the store was opened and the clientele who frequented it was of great significance. Shakespeare & Co. was located on the Left Bank of Paris where most of the artsy types lived. It opened in 1919 right after the First World War and the French were enamored with all things American, including its President! (It was a different time!) So, it would have been hoped that an English language bookstore would get a large number of French customers. However, this wasn’t its claim to fame.
Among the first customers to join the Company were established British and American writers like Ford Maddox Ford and Ezra Pound. The most famous of them all was the Irish author James Joyce. Joyce had already published a number of short stories and an autobiographical novel Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Most importantly, he was finishing up a new novel called Ulysses – a modern rendering of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey set during one day in Dublin. (The date was June 16, 1904 – forever to be known as Bloomsday, after the book’s main character, Leopold Bloom.)
The problem Joyce was having was finding a publisher. A fragment of the novel was published in New York and was then seized and banned. The publishers were subsequently placed on trial and convicted of obscenity charges. This put a pall on any further publishing efforts on either side of the Atlantic. Upon hearing of this plight from James Joyce, his friend Sylvia Beach then suggested to publish the book herself under the imprimatur of Shakespeare & Co. Joyce – and the world – was forever grateful.
So, Beach became book publisher as well as bookstore owner, publishing Ulysses in 1922. It became a best seller in France. It would have been a best seller in Britain and the U.S., but it was banned (and burned) in both countries once it hit their shores. The only way the book entered these countries was by smuggling them. In fact, another soon-to-be-famous writer, and Beach’s friend, by the name of Ernest Hemingway, helped in the smuggling efforts!
The reason for the controversy was that Ulysses has a number of earthy passages that were considered profane and obscene. However, they only made up about 10% of the book. Yet, it was this 10% that made many people think of the book as “dirty”. Having read it myself, I can only say that it takes a dirty mind to consider Ulysses a dirty book!
There are many other passages and chapters that are literarily brilliant. One has to read them to appreciate this brilliance. One chapter in particular starts in an Old English/Anglo-Saxon style (a la Beowulf), then subsequently goes through the entire spectrum of English literature from Chaucer to Shakespeare to Dickens to Dublin Irish patois circa 1904. Joyce was a genius of language. He used puns and other literary devices throughout the novel. To have such a book banned is itself an obscene gesture.
With this act of publication, Sylvia Beach and her store became famous. Many writers and would-be writers came to visit. Among them was the aforementioned Ernest Hemingway, a newspaper reporter for the Toronto Star. Hemingway didn’t have much money at the time, so he borrowed a number of books from Beach’s store, among these were Russian authors like Turgenev and Dostoevsky. In fact, it was Sylvia Beach who recommended them to him. These authors would have a profound influence on Hemingway’s writing style as could be seen in his short stories of that time.
A subsequent visit to Pamplona, Spain to see the running of the bulls would also factor in his first novel The Sun Also Rises (1926). This novel told of a group of British and Americans who dissipated their lives at the cafés of Paris and thought they would find themselves at the bullfights in Spain. Instead, they discovered that they were lost in more ways than one. For this, Hemingway and his contemporary American writers who also dissipated their lives in Parisian cafés were called the Lost Generation, and Sylvia Beach was their High Priestess.
With the newfound fame of writers like Hemingway, Shakespeare & Co. would gain even further fame. This time, it wasn’t just writers but tourists who wanted to see actual writers at the store. Whenever a tourist asked if James Joyce or Ernest Hemingway was in the store, Sylvia Beach would say no even when the said author was just a few feet away. She protected the privacy of her clients which they greatly appreciated.
Other writers who visited the store were F. Scott Fitzgerald (who wrote his own Paris-based novel, Tender is the Night), T.S. Eliot (who read from his poem The Wasteland at a public reading in the store), Gertrude Stein (one of the first customers, but jealous of James Joyce, would later avoid the place), a tubercular D.H. Lawrence (who asked Sylvia Beach to publish his novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover which she declined – later regretting it) and Henry Miller (who also wanted Beach to publish his novel Tropic of Cancer, which she gratefully declined). It’s hard to determine how influential Beach was in the works of such great and varied writers. Yet, her influence was quite subtle in the way she suggested certain books to certain writers. As mentioned before, it was Beach who recommended that Hemingway read 19th Century Russian writers.
Another significant area where Sylvia Beach was influential was in the introduction of American Literature to the world. Prior to this, many scholars referred to American writing as American Letters, not Literature. Mark Twain was merely an entertaining writer of juvenile novels (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), Walt Whitman was, at the least, a jingoistic hack poet, and nothing more (Leaves of Grass), and Herman Melville was an unknown and long-forgotten novelist of sea-faring books (Moby Dick). Sylvia Beach helped changed all that in her little store in Paris since these were the very books which she started selling in 1919.
By the time she was forced to close her store during the Nazi occupation in 1941, the books that lined her shelves included (since the opening of the store) newer volumes such as the works of James Joyce (Ulysses, of course, and his recent novel Finnegans Wake), Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and so many others too numerous to name here. It can be simply stated that Literature wasn’t just found at the store by the Lost Generation, but was renewed by them.
As a postscript, Sylvia Beach lived through the Nazi occupation above her now-closed store to be rescued in 1944 by her good friend Ernest Hemingway (true story!). She would live her days with her memorabilia and her memories which became her greatest claim to fame for posterity. Beach died alone in 1962, but, as the poet Archibald McLeish (another old client-friend) said, she wasn’t alone, she had that Company with her!
Today, there’s another Shakespeare & Co. store on the Left Bank. It isn’t exactly the same as the original, but it does keep the same literary spirit. (The owner even named his daughter Sylvia Beach!) Yet, that store is still looking for a Joyce or a Hemingway to cross its threshold. As for me, the next time I visit Paris, I’m making a point to walk to the rue de l’Odeon and listen for the ghosts!
