Sylvia Beach and the Bard sharing a goblet of wine

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In her memoir Shakespeare & Company (1960), Sylvia Beach writes: “I have a treasure too, the bookplate Gordon Craig made for me. Like the least thing he made, his little Shakespeare with bookseller kneeling at his feet is fascinating.”

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Gordon Craig, noting shortages due to the war, writes ‘Just a few of your bookplates on gummed paper – a rarety! If you wish for more do find some paper. S[‘il]. V[ous]. P[lait]. 17.4.45 EGC.’
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‘At last a nice print of the little nothing —’ (in Gordon Craig’s handwriting).
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Sylvia Beach’s handwritten notes on her envelope for the bookplates.

❧ Her bookplate appears in a number of her books held by Princeton in the separately arranged book collection called the ‘Beach Collection.’ For details as to how this collection came to the Library as well as information about her books not held here, see a related blog post “The Dispersal of Sylvia Beach’s Books.”

Further details about this bookplate are in John Blatchly, The Bookplates of Edward Gordon Craig (London, 1997) p. 22 ff.

Originals above are located in the Sylvia Beach Papers (C0108), box 16, folder 28, held by the Manuscripts Division,
Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

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About Stephen Ferguson

Stephen Ferguson is Librarian Emeritus, Princeton University Library. He came to Princeton in 1975 to be Curator of Rare Books, after several years of professional work at the John Carter Brown Library (Brown University) and the National Heritage Museum (Lexington, Mass.). Between 2014 and 2026, he held various posts as an Associate University Librarian at Princeton. He has degrees from Bowdoin (A.B.) and Rutgers (M.L.S.). His scholarly interests include book history, provenance research, and the history of collecting. He has taught at Drew University on the latter topic.