“I Cannot Get Along without the Books I Find Here”: The American Library in Paris during the War, Occupation, and Liberation, 1939–1945

Abstract

The American Library in Paris remained open to readers throughout World War II, and its history during the darkest period of the occupation is a tribute to the leadership and courage of an American-born countess, Clara Longworth de Chambrun, and her small but dedicated staff. This article presents the drama as it unfolded—-through the phony war, the fall of Paris, and the bleak years following the American declaration of war on Germany. The concluding section offers a brief analysis of the American Library’s unlikely survival and explores its complicated wartime history by using concepts borrowed from institutional sociology.