Buyers versus borrowers: a look at the finances of Shakespeare and Company

Abstract

Sylvia Beach is known for her ‘imperfect record keeping’ and often indecipherable business accounts (Fitch, N. R. (1985). Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties. New York: Norton, p. 161). That said, data from her lending library cards and logbooks provide key insight into Shakespeare and Company’s cash flow. While this financial information is not always presented in a systematic or exhaustive manner, it can still be used to develop a more nuanced understanding of the inner workings of Beach’s literary enterprise. To that end, in this article, I use the Shakespeare and Company Project data sets to examine the exchange of books in Beach’s bookshop. More specifically, my analysis centers on the details surrounding purchases and borrows of books from the events data set. By limiting the scope of my study to only those records that contain transactional data—whether in the form of membership fees or actual book purchases—I provide a case study of how to approach incomplete data that unearths a new array of networks that were central to the daily operations of Shakespeare and Company. As a result, in contrast with the common focus on solely the most notable lending library members (or members of the Lost Generation in general), this financial approach brings to light invisible networks and underexplored figures whose monetary contributions were essential to keeping Beach’s business afloat.