The London bookstore that rescues forgotten writers
When the British writer and biographer Nicholas Beauman In 1998, she received a small inheritance from her father. She decided to create a publishing house that would settle accounts with her own experiences that she herself had faced in the literary world. Persephone Books , in the center of London, accumulates on its shelves gray books that inside are full of color. Every year it adds to its concise and careful catalog several titles of forgotten 20th century female authors , whose works had ceased to be published.
she started with William-an Englishman , signed in 1918 by the actress and suffragette Cicely Hamilton . So far there are 137 texts that are part of her collection and that can be purchased through her website. They find them in second hand bookstores , featured on the original back covers of old books or after the proposal of some of its most loyal and seasoned customers. Among those who have decided to publish there are some signed by men, “ because what it is about is to integrate these writers in the place that corresponds to them and not separate them from the rest of literature ”, explain those in charge of the premises, which dedicate most of its space to the offices of the publisher.
The bookstore that puts forgotten writers in their place
Three years after its creation, the company changed the basement from a pub in posh Clerkenwell neighborhood in which he lived his first days due to his current location, in Lamb's Conduit Street . Despite being just a few minutes from the bustle of Oxford Street, this street is absolute tranquility. The choice of this area close to Russell Square it was not accidental.
Bloomsbury is a neighborhood with a huge literary tradition . There lived his years before the success of the playwright George Bernard Shaw , was the meeting place of the intellectual group to which he belonged Virginia Woolf and the Charles Dickens Museum , another illustrious neighbor of the place, is located a few minutes away from the bookstore named after the goddess of Greek mythology. "When we arrived, almost 20 years ago, the street was not as coquettish as it is now," they say. Wineries, small vegetarian restaurants and clothing stores with the most British clothes possible, they have become their neighbors over time.
A man in his twenties walks into the bookstore, which he seems to know from before. He knows what he is looking for and, instead of browsing the shelves where small cards with the synopses of each title are hung, he requests the one he wants directly from the manager. He also takes the bag with the store's slogan and the free literary magazine they publish every six months . The text in question is Miss Ranskill Comes Home (catalogue number 46), of Barbara Euphan Todd . The 1946 satirical novel tells the story of a woman who starts a cruise ship and ends up being shipwrecked on a desert island for more than three years. When she returns to her well-to-do environment in England, the world is no longer the same for her.
those covers, all gray and inspired by the recognizable aesthetic of Penguin Books , democratize in their chromatic union the selection of Persephone Books and remember that books are not judged by their cover . The price is equally uniform: 13 pounds for each volume . Everything else is also studied in detail. The inside of their covers personalize each title and they carry a textile pattern created in the same year the book was published and a matching bookmark . the of Miss Ranskill Comes Home It's called Sutherland Rose and was created by designer Graham Sutherland for the Helios brand.
In the catalog there is also a book of the own Beauman, founder of the project . A Ver Great Profession (Issue 78) was released in 1983 and was the foundation of this bookstore , since it reviewed in its pages those British middle-class women of the interwar period who dedicated themselves to writing novels at home which are often forgotten.
One of the hidden gems they most enjoy claiming is The Blank Wall (number 42), from Elisabeth Sanxay Holding , published in 1947. “We like it because it belongs to a rare genre at the time, a psychological thriller written by a woman ”, they say. A woman trying to survive the war while her husband is abroad becomes involved in the murder of her daughter's boyfriend. The legend of the genre Raymond Chandler was among his main admirers and the plot inspired a classic Hollywood movie in 1949, The Reckless Moment , with Joan Bennett and James Mason and also a remake in 2001 with Tilda Swinton, deep end.
In addition to books with a feminine seal, the local dedicates a space to the sale of ceramic cups and plates and, needless to say, they are pieces that are selected with the same good taste.