Whether you are just visiting or a long term resident you have a friend in Paris. It is the the American Library in Paris nestled on a small side street in the seventh arrondissement.
Nearing the end of World War I, literally hundreds of libraries across the United States launched the Library War Service whose goal was to send books to U.S. troops fighting in the trenches. This is the original source for books that first lined the shelves of the American Library of Paris which was founded in 1920. One person who is largely credited in the establishment of the library is Charles Seeger. (He was the father of Alan Seeger, the celebrated poet killed in the war, and he also was the great-uncle of the American folk singer, Pete Seeger.)
Of particular interest is that in 1923 the Library launched a monthly review called Ex Libris. The name was taken from the Library’s founding motto of 1920, Atrum post bellum exlibris lux, which translates to “From the darkness of war, the light of books”. This newsletter’s first contributors included Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein. The newsletter is still being published today although it has evolved into an electronic biweekly, e-Libris.
When the second World War erupted in 1939, the Library began to circulate books to French and British soldiers. Although many french libraries closed across France with the Nazi occupation in 1940, this Library remained open. The Library director, Dorothy Reeder, and her staff provided heroic services by operating an underground book-lending service to Jewish members barred from libraries. Reeder was soon sent back to the US for her safety and the Countess de Chambrun took over.
