Sylvia Beach Quotes

“When I first saw [Sylvia], in the early spring of 1932, her hair was still the color of roasted chestnut shells, her light golden brown eyes with greenish glints in them were marvelously benign, acutely attentive, and they sparkled upon one rather than beamed, as gentle eyes are supposed to do. She was not pretty, never had been, never had tried to be: she was attractive, a center of interest, a delightful presence not accountable to any of the familiar attributes of charm. Her power was in the unconscious, natural radiation of her intense energy and concentration upon those beings and art she loved. She loved her hundreds of friends, and they loved her … each one sure of his special cell in the vast honeycomb of her heart … Her genius was for friendship; her besetting virtue, generosity ... and courage that assured even Hemingway.
– Katherine Anne Porter”
― Noël Riley Fitch, Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties