Adrienne Monnier
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Adrienne Monnier (26 April 1892 – 19 June 1955) was a French
bookseller Bookselling is the commercial trading of books, which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, book people, bookmen, or bookwomen. History The foundi ...
, writer, and publisher, and an influential figure in the
modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
writing scene in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s.


Formative years

Monnier was born in Paris on 26 April 1892. Her father, Clovis Monnier (1859–1944), was a postal worker (''postier ambulant''), sorting mail in transit on night trains. Her mother, Philiberte (née Sollier, 1873–1944), was "open-minded" with an interest in literature and the arts. Adrienne's younger sister, Marie (1894–1976), would become known as a skillful embroiderer and illustrator. Their mother encouraged the sisters to read widely from an early age and frequently took them to the theatre, opera, and ballet. In 1909, aged 17, Monnier graduated from high school, with a teaching qualification (''brevet supérieur''). Within months, in September, she moved to London, officially to improve her English but in reality to be close to her classmate, Suzanne Bonnierre, with whom she was "very much in love". Monnier spent three months working as an
au pair An au pair (; : au pairs) is a person working for, and living as part of, a homestay, host family. Typically, au pairs take on a share of the family’s responsibility for child care as well as some homemaking, housework, and receive a monetary ...
, before finding a job for six months teaching French in
Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...
. She later wrote about her English experiences in ''Souvenirs de Londres'' ("Memories of London"). Back in France, Monnier taught briefly at a private school, before enrolling on a shorthand and typing course. Thus equipped, in 1912, she found work as a secretary at the Université des Annales, a
Right Bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrain alongsid ...
publishing house specialising in mainstream literary and cultural works. Although Monnier enjoyed the work, she had little in common with the writers and journalists with whom she came into contact, preferring the bohemian
Left Bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrain alongsid ...
and the avant-garde literary world that it represented. In November 1913, Monnier's father, Clovis, was seriously injured in a train crash while at work; he was left with a lifelong limp. When the compensation came through, he gave all of it – 10,000 Francs – to Monnier, to help her set up in bookselling.


''La Maison des Amis des Livres''

On 15 November 1915, Monnier opened her bookshop and lending library, "La Maison des Amis des Livres"Trans: "The House of the Friends of Books" at 7 rue de l'Odéon, Paris VI. She was among the first women in France to found her own bookstore. 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 Monnier, 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 opened her shop at a time when there was a genuine need for a new bookstore, since many booksellers had left their work to join the armed forces. As her reputation spread, Monnier's advice was sought out by other women who hoped to follow her example and become booksellers.


Odéonia

Monnier offered advice and encouragement to
Sylvia Beach Sylvia Beach (14 March 1887 – 5 October 1962), born Nancy Woodbridge Beach, was an American-born bookseller and publisher who lived most of her life in Paris, where she was one of the leading expatriate figures between World War I and World W ...
when Beach 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'Odéon in the heart of the
Latin Quarter The Latin Quarter of Paris (, ) is an urban university campus in the 5th and the 6th arrondissements of Paris. It is situated on the left bank of the Seine, around the Sorbonne. Known for its student life, lively atmosphere, and bistros, t ...
. 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.


''Le Navire d'Argent''

In June 1925, Monnier, with Beach's moral and literary support, launched a French language review, '' Le Navire d'Argent'' (''The Silver Ship''), with Jean Prévost as literary editor. Taking its name from the silver sailing ship, which appears in Paris's
coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...
, it cost 5 Fr per issue, or 50 Fr for a twelve-month subscription. Although financially unsuccessful, it was an important part of the literary scene of the Twenties and was "a great European light", helping launch several writers' careers. Typically, about a hundred pages per issue, it was "French in language, but international in spirit" and drew heavily on the circle of writers frequenting her shop. The first edition contained a French-language translation (prepared jointly by Monnier and Beach) of
T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...
's poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (May 1925). Other issues included an early draft of part of
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
's ''
Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish literature, Irish writer James Joyce. It was published in instalments starting in 1924, under the title "fragments from ''Work in Progress''". The final title was only revealed when the book was publishe ...
'' (Oct 1925); and an abridged version of
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, vicomte de Saint-Exupéry (29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), known simply as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (, , ), was a French writer, poet, journalist and aviator. Born in Lyon to an French nobility, aristocratic ...
's novella, '' The Aviator'', in the penultimate (April 1926) edition. One edition (March 1926) was devoted to American writers (including
Walt Whitman Walter Whitman Jr. (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and world literature. Whitman incor ...
,
William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. His '' Spring and All'' (1923) was written in the wake of T. S. Eliot's '' The Waste Land'' (1922). ...
and
E. E. Cummings Edward Estlin Cummings (October 14, 1894 – September 3, 1962), commonly known as e e cummings or E. E. Cummings, was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. During World War I, he worked as an ambulance driver and was ...
). It also first introduced
Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...
in translation to French audiences. Monnier herself contributed under the pseudonym J-M Sollier, based on her mother's maiden name. After twelve issues, Monnier abandoned the ''Navire d’Argent'', as the effort and the cost was more than she could manage. To cover her losses, Monnier auctioned her personal collection of 400 books, many inscribed to her by their authors. A decade later, Monnier launched a successor periodical, the ''Gazette des Amis des Livres'', which ran from January 1938 until May 1940.


Later years

Although Beach closed her store during the
German Occupation German-occupied Europe, or Nazi-occupied Europe, refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet states, by the (armed forces) and the government of Nazi Germany at ...
, Monnier's remained open and continued to provide books and solace to Parisian readers. For ten years after the war Monnier continued her work as an essayist, translator and bookseller. Plagued by ill health, Monnier was diagnosed in September 1954 with
Ménière's disease Ménière's disease (MD) is a disease of the inner ear that is characterized by potentially severe and incapacitating episodes of vertigo, tinnitus, hearing loss, and a feeling of fullness in the ear. Typically, only one ear is affected in ...
, a disorder of the inner ear which affects balance and hearing. She also suffered from delusions. On 19 June 1955, she died by suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills.


Works

* ''Les Gazettes'', Gallimard, Paris, 1960. * ''La Figure'', René Julliard, Paris, 1923. * ''Les Vertus'', René Julliard, Paris, 1926. * ''Fableaux'', René Julliard, Paris, 1932. * ''Souvenirs de Londres'', Mercure de France, Paris, 1957. * ''Rue de l'Odéon'', Albin Michel, Paris, 1960.


References


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* * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Monnier, Adrienne 1892 births 1955 deaths Writers from Paris Suicides by poison Modernist women writers French booksellers French women poets French LGBTQ poets 20th-century French poets 20th-century French women writers 1955 suicides 20th-century French LGBTQ people People with Ménière's disease