The American Library in Paris: An Unlikely Library Marks 100 Years of Service

Abstract

1919: A Paris Library On a Sunday afternoon in the fall of 1919, almost one year from the signing of the armistice, a meeting had been called to determine the fate of the American Library, sometimes referred to by its staff and habitues simply as the Paris Library. As it stood then, in incongruously sumptuous surroundings on 10, rue de l’Elysee, its very existence — one-part book waystation, one-part lending library — was improbable, its future highly uncertain. Like the American soldiers fo...