BEACH, SYLVIA (1887-1962), U.S. Expatriate Literary Figure

Beach moved to Paris permanently from the United States in 1919 and opened her renowned bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, that same year on the Left Bank. The store, which featured English and American literature, became an important meeting place for such expatriate writers as Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce, and for French writers pursuing a new-found passion for American
books. In 1922, Beach ventured briefly into publishing: she published the first edition of James Joyce's Ulysses after it had been rejected by other publishers because of its sexual content. For over thirty years, from the start of her permanent residency in Paris, Beach was in a relationship with French writer Adrienne Monnier, who also owned a bookstore, just across the street from Beach's, on the Rue de l'Oeon.