The Paris Magazine

In 1967, the famous Paris "Shakespeare and Company" bookshop that was founded by Sylvia Beach in 1919, published a literary magazine called The Paris Magazine. Two more issues of what was meant to be a quarterly magazine followed after long intervals. Now, in 2010, Shakespeare and Company picked up the magazine again.

The fourth edition of Paris Magazine is edited by former Granta managing editor Fatema Ahmed, and includes fiction, nonfiction, and illustrations. Shakespeare and Company says: "More than forty years later, and in keeping with that sentiment, this fourth edition is meant to be an intriguing and unfamiliar place for both its writers and readers—just like the bookshop itself."

The Magazine is available at the bookshop, or can be ordered online - for the contents and some excerpts, visit the Paris Magazine website. You'll find photos, and an interesting introduction by Sylvia Whitman, daughter of Geroge Whitman who founded the Paris Magazin. Here's a quote: "Having now drifted into bookselling myself, but in a very different era from my father, I often find myself being looked upon apologetically as a representative of the old world, someone who believes in the book as a living thing." 

The magazine page also includes the story of how the fourth edition came into being - told by editor Fatema Ahmed, who also gives an introduction to the edition: "This fourth issue takes as its starting point the theme for this year’s festival: Storytelling and Politics. It may seem surprising to see a short story by this year’s winner of the Prix Goncourt next to an essay on the literary merits of a manual for diagnosing psychiatric disorders; or Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s translation of one of Apollinaire’s most famous poems beside a neglected satirist from the Indian subcontinent. It may seem surprising but it shouldn’t be. All these writers, and the others, share an interest in what it is that only literature can do, and the unlikely forms it can sometimes take."

The Paris Magazine #4
edition 4
€6 at the shop
online order €9,50 (France), €12,60 (Europe), €13,40 (World)
related links: on writing & reading, mixed formats, about a place

PS: the Ed arrived at this magazine while doing research for a trip to Paris. for more Paris moments and links, visit this post: Paris, Shakespeare, Dehli, Louvre..