About the Book
"Some bookstores are filled with stories both inside and outside the bindings. These are places of sanctuary, even redemption---and Jeremy Mercer has found both amid the stacks of Shakespeare & Co."
---Paul Collins, author of Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books
In a small square on the left bank of the Seine, the door to a green-fronted bookshop beckoned. . . .
With gangsters on his tail and his meager savings in hand, crime reporter Jeremy Mercer fled Canada in 1999 and ended up in Paris. Broke and almost homeless, he found himself invited to a tea party amongst the riffraff of the timeless Left Bank fantasy known as Shakespeare & Co. In its present incarnation, Shakespeare & Co. has become a destination for writers and readers the world over, trying to reclaim the lost world of literary Paris in the 1920s. Having been inspired by Sylvia Beach's original store, the present owner, George Whitman, invites writers who are down and out in Paris to live and dream amid the bookshelves in return for work. Jeremy Mercer tumbled into this literary rabbit hole and found a life of camaraderie with the other eccentric residents, and became, for a time, George Whitman's confidante and right-hand man.
Time Was Soft There is one of the great stories of bohemian Paris and recalls the work of many writers who were bewitched by the City of Light in their youth. Jeremy's comrades include Simon, the eccentric British poet who refuses to give up his bed in the antiquarian book room, beautiful blonde Pia, who contributes the elegant spirit of Parisian couture to the store, the handsome American Kurt, who flirts with beautiful women looking for copies of Tropic of Cancer, and George himself, the man who holds the key to it all. As Time Was Soft There winds in and around the streets of Paris, the staff fall in and out of love, straighten bookshelves, host tea parties, drink in the more down-at-the-heels cafes, sell a few books, and help George find a way to keep his endangered bookstore open. Spend a few days with Jeremy Mercer at 37 Rue de la Bucherie, and discover the bohemian world of Paris that still bustles in the shadow of Notre Dame.
"Jeremy Mercer has captured Shakespeare & Co. and its complicated owner, George Whitman, with remarkable insight. Time Was Soft There is a charming memoir about living in Whitman's Shakespeare & Co. and the strange, broken, lost, and occasionally talented, eccentrics and residents of this Tumblewood Hotel."
---Noel Riley Fitch, author of Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties & Thirties
"There does seem to be something about the odd ducks that work at bookstores. Jeremy Mercer has captured the story of a wonderful, unique store that could only be born out of a love for books and the written word."
--- Liz Schlegel, the Book Revue bookshop, Huntington, New York
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About the Author :
Jeremy Mercer was formerly a journalist for the Ottowa Citizen. He is the author of two crime books and a founder of Kilometer Zero, a cult literary magazine currently being published out of Shakespeare & Co.
Review :
Jeremy Mercer's tale of George Whitman and his beloved bookstore is a book of revelations, for it tells the hard-to-discover true story of George's life and of the twenty-thousand-and-one nights of this enchanted place that continues to be, for its habitees as well as for its creator, a way of life. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, cofounder and owner, City Lights Bookstore
The memoir is much more than an entertaining romp through Parisian literary bohemia at the turn of the millennium. Time Was Soft There will likely be the last firsthand account of an aging legend. Newsweek
Mercer has fashioned a colorful de facto biography of Whitman . . . a tightly written, insightful memoir of Left Bank literary radicalism. A great read, both funny and quietly moving. San Francisco Chronicle
The milieu he evokes, while a long way from that of the Lost Generation, has its own charm. The Wall Street Journal
The memoir ably captures a romanticized version of the bum's life. The New Yorker
Mercer is a fine writer with a keen and jaundiced eye. Chicago Tribune
"
Jeremy Mercer's tale of George Whitman and his beloved bookstore is a book of revelations, for it tells the hard-to-discover true story of George's life and of the twenty-thousand-and-one nights of this enchanted place that continues to be, for its habitees as well as for its creator, a way of life. "Lawrence Ferlinghetti, cofounder and owner, City Lights Bookstore"
The memoir is much more than an entertaining romp through Parisian literary bohemia at the turn of the millennium. "Time Was Soft There" will likely be the last firsthand account of an aging legend. "Newsweek"
Mercer has fashioned a colorful de facto biography of Whitman . . . a tightly written, insightful memoir of Left Bank literary radicalism. A great read, both funny and quietly moving. "San Francisco Chronicle"
The milieu he evokes, while a long way from that of the Lost Generation, has its own charm. "The Wall Street Journal"
The memoir ably captures a romanticized version of the bum's life. "The New Yorker"
Mercer is a fine writer with a keen and jaundiced eye. "Chicago Tribune""
"Jeremy Mercer's tale of George Whitman and his beloved bookstore is a book of revelations, for it tells the hard-to-discover true story of George's life and of the twenty-thousand-and-one nights of this enchanted place that continues to be, for its habitees as well as for its creator, a way of life."--Lawrence Ferlinghetti, cofounder and owner, City Lights Bookstore
"The memoir is much more than an entertaining romp through Parisian literary bohemia at the turn of the millennium. "Time Was Soft There" will likely be the last firsthand account of an aging legend."--"Newsweek"""
" "
"Mercer has fashioned a colorful de facto biography of Whitman . . . a tightly written, insightful memoir of Left Bank literary radicalism. A great read, both funny and quietly moving."--"San Francisco Chronicle"
"The milieu he evokes, while a long way from that of the Lost Generation, has its own charm."--"The Wall Street Journal"
"The memoir ably captures a romanticized version of the bum's life."--"The New Yorker"
"Mercer is a fine writer with a keen and jaundiced eye."--"Chicago Tribune"
