ABA Expresses Solidarity With People of France

“The American Booksellers Association expresses its heartfelt condolences to the families of those who died in the horrific events in Paris this past weekend,” said CEO Oren Teicher. “We’ve been in touch with our bookselling colleagues in France and have pledged our solidarity with them — and all the people of France — in light of this tragedy.”

On Friday night, November 13, coordinated terrorist attacks at a concert venue, restaurants, and a soccer stadium killed 129 people and left more than 300 others wounded, many in critical condition. Among the dead were two editors from French publishing houses, who were killed at the Bataclan concert hall, according to The Bookseller. The Islamic State, also known as ISIL, has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Lola Salines, a 29-year-old children’s book editor in the Edi 8 department at Gründ (part of the Editis group), and 23-year-old Ariane Theiller, who worked at Rustica Hebdo (part of the Média Participations group), were among the victims at the Bataclan theatre, the French book trade journal Livres Hebdo reported.

About 20 people took shelter during the night of terror at the Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris’ fifth arrondissement, according to The WorldPost. The bookstore, founded in 1951 by George Whitman, is now run by Sylvia Beach Whitman, his daughter.

Following Friday night’s attacks, Sylvia Whitman told The Bookseller: “We decided to close the bookshop on Saturday and Sunday. We all felt we needed some time to deal with the shock and trying to gather our thoughts. Customers stayed with us overnight on Friday, although this didn’t feel exceptional as there were many places that closed with customers inside.”

Rose Alana Frith, a bookseller at Shakespeare and Company, told Buzzfeed that the bookshop, which has always been a safe place and warm retreat from reality for many of its customers, became a “refuge from atrocities” on Friday night.

“It is a continual home for those who, throughout its history, have slept between its shelves (as Tumbleweeds) and forever return, for those who sat and read a few lines one gray afternoon in 1965 and remain connected to those moments, this place,” Frith said. “It is an immense tapestry of things: proposals of marriage in the upstairs piano room and a particular kind of vulnerability which only comes with travel seem to pattern it. Last night we simply continued a tradition: ‘Be not inhospitable to strangers lest they be angels in disguise.’

“Those hours will be ones many will be unable to forget — colored by a series of devastating news reports, lack of sleep, and hours of blue siren-filled light.”