Haunt · 1928–1929
Galignani bookshop
Address · 224, rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris
Metro · Tuileries (1)
Today · Still open. Bookshop, still open.
The story
The Galignani family is of Italian origin: a Simone Galignani was already publishing a Latin grammar in Venice in 1520. Giovanni Antonio Galignani, from Brescia, taught languages in Paris, then opened an English bookshop in 1801. His sons John Anthony and William developed the business: a review of English literature, the daily Galignani's Messenger founded after 1814 for the English on the Continent, and cheap reprints of British authors until the 1852 copyright treaty. Their house on rue Vivienne, with a reading room and garden, served as a club for the English in Paris.
The bookshop moved under the arcades of rue de Rivoli in the mid-1850s (1855 or 1856 depending on the source) and claims the title of the first English bookshop established on the Continent. It is still run by descendants of the family; its wooden shelves date from the 1930s.
For Crowley, it was one of the places where he obtained his English reading matter. In September 1928 he moved to avenue de Suffren, and on 12 October, the day his new secretary Israel Regardie arrived from America, he bought at Galignani the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, two detective novels and a stamp. On 5 February 1929 he picked up recent mystery novels there, including Agatha Christie's Poirot Investigates and The Secret of Chimneys, as well as Raphael's astrological ephemeris for the year; on 2 March more detective novels, on 5 March Stevenson's The Dynamiter.
These purchases shortly preceded his forced departure: on 8 March 1929, his associates Maria de Miramar and Regardie were refused residence permits; Crowley, who was ill, obtained a delay, but Paris-Midi announced his expulsion on 16 April and he took the train to Brussels the following day.
The Librairie Galignani is still open at 224 rue de Rivoli, under the arcades. From the pavement one can recognise its shop window and sign, and one can go in: the English-language books are at the back of the shop.