Paris by the Book(105)

I found these sources in a variety of archives and libraries, and I’m indebted to them for their assistance, including the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Cinémathèque fran?aise (this research was supported in part by funds provided by the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee), the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library of Yale University, the New York Public Library’s Rose Main Reading Room and the Milstein Microform Reading Room, the New-York Historical Society’s Patricia D. Klingenstein Library, the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University (with special thanks to David Haynes, Rebecca Graff, and Joan Gosnell), and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee’s Golda Meir Library, in particular librarian Molly Mathias, for finding information on a man even harder to track down than Robert.

For those wishing to track down the books Leah mentions, titles include: Swahili Grammar and Vocabulary (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1910) by Mrs. F. Burt; Suite Vénitienne (Bay Press, 1988) by Sophie Calle; Walks in Paris (George Routledge and Sons, 1888) by Augustus J. C. Hare; Helsing?r Station (Secker and Warburg, 1989) by Aidan Higgins; Fair Play (Sort of Books, 2007) by Tove Jansson; “We Two Grown-ups” from Men Giving Money, Women Yelling (William Morrow, 1997) by Alice Mattison; So Long, See You Tomorrow (Knopf, 1980) by William Maxwell; “Wants” from Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1985) by Grace Paley; Pale Horse, Pale Rider (Harcourt, 1939) by Katherine Anne Porter; Indiana (Oxford, 1994) by George Sand; Sculpture of the Eskimo (McClelland and Stewart, 1972) by George Swinton; The Book of Salt (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003) by Monique Truong; and Fools Crow (Viking Penguin, 1986) by James Welch. From the children’s floor: Dieu tu es là ? C’est moi Margaret ! (L’Ecole des Loisirs, 1986) by Judy Blume (translated by Michèle Poslaniec); Le Poids d’un Chagrin (Editions Auzou, 2008) by Sandrine Lhomme and Roxane Marie Galliez; and Mon Premier Cauchemar (Chocolat! Jeunesse, 2009) by Selma Mandine.



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Two notes on intentional errors, or, to use a novelist’s term, fiction.

At the time of this writing, France does not have a “magic” visa program for bookstore owners like the one Leah and her daughters enjoy. It’s not a bad idea, though. In the meantime, don’t overstay, and obey all laws, including those about standing on bridge railings above the Seine.

And any resemblance of The Late Edition to the Marais’s late, great Red Wheelbarrow Bookshop (on the rue Saint-Paul, not my fictional rue Sainte-Lucie-la-Vierge) is purely coincidental. My thanks, though, and apologies, to its proprietor Penelope (and Paris): we should have bought the store when you offered.



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My family thinks about that afternoon all the time. And I thought about them all through the long writing of this book. To Mary, Honor, and Jane, who walked miles without complaint (or umbrellas) on our first treks through Paris, thank you for never pushing your sisters, or me, onto the tracks.

And thank you to my wife, Susan, whose love and support would fill much more than fifty million books, and who, during the writing of this book, tolerated many long absences, sometimes even when I was present: I love you. I’m back.





ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Liam Callanan is a novelist, teacher, and journalist, whose first novel, The Cloud Atlas, was a finalist for an Edgar Award. Winner of the George W. Hunt, S.J., Prize for Excellence in Journalism, Arts & Letters, Liam has published in The Wall Street Journal, Slate, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The San Francisco Chronicle, and has recorded numerous essays for public radio. He’s taught for the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and lives in Wisconsin with his wife and daughters.