Adrienne Monnier

Adrienne Monnier (April 26, 1892 - June 19, 1955) was a French poet, bookseller and publisher and an important figure in the modernist writing scene in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s.

"La Maison des Amis des Livres"

In 1915 when she opened her bookshop called "La Maison des Amis des Livres", Adrienne Monnier was among the first women in France to found her own book store. While women sometimes assisted in a family bookstore, and widows occasionally took over their husband’s bookselling or publishing business, it was unusual for a French woman to independently set herself up as a bookseller. Nonetheless Adrienne, who had worked as a teacher and as a literary secretary, loved the world of literature and was determined to make bookselling her career. With limited capital she and her friend Suzanne Bonnierre opened their shop at a time when there was a genuine need for a new book store, since many book sellers had left their work to join the armed forces. As the renown of her shop spread, Adrienne’s advice was sought out by other women who hoped to follow her example and become booksellers.

Monnier offered advice and encouragement to Sylvia Beach when she founded an English language bookstore called Shakespeare and Company in 1919. During the 1920s the shops owned by Beach and Monnier were located across from each other on the rue de l'Odeon in the heart of the Latin Quarter. Both bookstores became gathering places for French, British and American writers. By sponsoring readings and encouraging informal conversations among authors and readers, the two women brought to bookselling a domesticity and hospitality that encouraged friendship as well as cultural exchange.

In addition Adrienne Monnier launched a French language review, "le Navire d’Argent", in June 1925. Along with the works of French writers who frequented her bookshop, Adrienne published a translation which she and Sylvia had done of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" — T. S. Eliot’s first major poem to appear in French. Adrienne’s review was international in its scope and published lists of American works in translation as well as devoting an issue to American writers including Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams, Ernest Hemingway and e.e. Cummings. After twelve issues Adrienne had to abandon the "Navire d’Argent", since the effort and the cost was more than she could manage. Through their two shops and their publishing and translating ventures both Adrienne Monnier and Sylvia did a great deal to make new American writing known in France.

Although Beach closed her store during the German Occupation, Monnier remained open and continued to provide books and solace to Parisian readers. For ten years after the war Adrienne Monnier continued her work as an essayist, translator and bookseller. Plagued by ill health, Monnier was diagnosed in September 1954 with aural disturbances of the inner ear and she also suffered from delusions. On 22 May 1955 she committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills.

References

* [http://andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/biom3/monn1.html Short biographical note]

External links

*worldcat id|lccn-n84-6979