Way back in 2005, the Sundance Channel aired Portrait of a Bookstore as an Old Man, a documentary that pays homage to George Whitman, the American founder of the most famous independent bookstore in Paris, Shakespeare and Company. Whitman died this week at age 98, in his apartment above the store.

The original Shakespeare and Company was opened just after World War I by Sylvia Beach, but was revived after World War II by George Whitman just in time to provide a home for the Beat writers. Booklovers and bibliophiles around the world have made their personal pilgrimages to the bookstore across the Seine from Notre Dame Cathedral. Some have been fortunate enough to actually live in the bookshop while working-off their rent stocking shelves.

These days, the bookshop is more likely to be crowded with tourists and poseurs than literary giants, but the ghosts remain. RIP George Whitman.

Related articles

• Jeanette Winterson remembers George Whitman (guardian.co.uk)
• George Whitman, owner of Paris bookseller Shakespeare & Company, dies at 98 – nytimes (nytimes.com)