George Whitman

Bookstore proprietor

George Whitman (December 12, 1913 – December 14, 2011) was an American bookseller who lived most of his life in France.He was the founder and proprietor of Shakespeare and Company, the celebrated English-language bookstore on Paris's Left Bank.

He was a contemporary of writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Anaïs Nin, and Lawrence Durrell, as well as a lifelong friend of the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

In 2006 he was awarded the Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres medal by the French government for his contribution to the arts over the previous fifty years.