Sylvia Beach (1887-1962) founded the English language Bookstore ‘Shakespeare and Company’ in Paris back in 1919 and it became a meeting place of so many world-renowned artists and writers.

In the video down below we get to see and hear Sylvia Beach as she was interviewed in the 1950s about her relationship with James Joyce and publishing ‘Ulysses’. She also talks about her friendship with Ernest Hemingway. The cool thing, is that this world famous store is still open today and they even have a new WEBSITE!

if you would like to learn more about the history of this famous place, just CLICK HERE.

OK, this post is more for fun than anything but I guess it also holds some Historical value too so this could be fun. Here are some random vintage photos we have come across lately showing some Famous Authors… when they were teenagers!

The first Victim, I mean Author, is a picture of Neil Gaiman when he was very young. That’s the photo up above, but you should get that because, really, he still looks the same!

Now I bet that if I didn’t tell you who this next photo is you might have a hard time guessing, give it a try. OK, that’s long enough. This is Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name, Mark Twain. He’s shown here at the tender age of 15! Yes, he does sort of look like Huckleberry Finn, ha!

Next up is a favorite of many Classic Book Readers, this is an old yearbook photo of our favorite “Catcher in The Rye” Writer, J. D. Salinger. He’s only 17 years old in this picture but, to me anyways, looks a lot older.

The next photo here is another 17 year old. Later in life in wrote such books as “The Old Man and the Sea” and “The Sun Also Rises”. Of course, we’re talking about the great American Novelist, Ernest Hemingway.

Now Last, but not least, is another photo you might have a hard time guessing who this is. But shown here, as Robin (The Boy Wonder!) is Chip Kidd himself! This extremely serious Batman Fan grew-up to write two novels, “The Cheese Monkeys” and “The Learners”. OK, he seems a lot younger here “than a Teenager”, but I just wanted to share this fun photo, ha!

Here’s a quick post to share some interesting Literary History. Here are actual Vintage Magazine Ads for “New Books Coming Out”. The 1st one is for Cormac McCarthy’s Novel OUTER DARK ( Published by Random House in 1968 ). Then we have Ernest Hemingway’s THE SUN ALSO RISES ( 1926 ), Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five ( 1969 ), and A.A. Milne’s WINNIE THE POOH ( 1926 ).