OT: Ave Atque Vale: George Whitman, founder of legendary Paris bookshop

(Title courtesy of Maestro Harp, an internal joke of sorts). Born in 1913 in East Orange, N.J, George Whitman, founder of legendary Paris bookshop Shakespeare & Co, dies at 98 in Paris.

[...] Though eventually an economic success, attracting book lovers from all over the world and writers such as Anais Nin, Lawrence Durrell, Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the running joke was that the place rarely actually did what a bookstore is supposed to do: Sell books.

And that was exactly how Whitman wanted it. He used to call Shakespeare & Co. "a socialist utopia masquerading as a bookshop," and in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, he said: "I never had any money, and never needed it. I've been a bum all my life." [...]

Also see American's bookstore in Paris becomes family affair.