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A visitor to the Tschann bookstore in December 1934 would have been greeted by a unique display in the shop’s window: a green and black illustration depicting a woman being devoured by a giant crab which adorned the cover of Miller’s newly published Tropic of Cancer. The book was printed with a paper wrapper bearing the warning, “Ce livre ne doit pas être exposé en vitrine” (this book must not be displayed in windows), but when Miller approached Louis Tschann to interest him in placing the book in his store, Tschann brazenly tore off the offending wrappers and placed the books prominently in his front window. Elated, Miller reported to Anaïs Nin that it was “the only place in Paris so far they are visible!”
The Tschann bookstore, which is still a fascinating place to window shop, was originally located further down the boulevard du Montparnasse at number 84. The store was very popular with the Parisian literary set and counted such luminaries as Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Samuel Beckett among its regular customers. A brief article (in French) concerning Céline’s visits to the bookstore can be found here.
The Cover
Miller detested the lurid cover his publisher, Jack Kahane, provided for Tropic of Cancer and insisted that subsequent editions appear in simple wrappings, adorned only by text. Miller’s aesthetic for the clean design of European books is expressed in an article titled, “Literature as a Dead Duck”:
What a relief it was to be looking again at paper-backed books whose titles, authors’, and publishers’ names alone combine to make such attractive, seductive cover designs. Is there anything more dull, monotonous, and destructive to the appetite than the typical American hard-cover book whose paper jacket screams and shrieks to capture attention?”
The original cover for Tropic of Cancer was designed by Kahane’s 16 year old son, Maurice Girodias, who would later take charge of his father’s press and the publication of Miller’s books under a new name, The Olympia Press. A lengthy online tribute to the publishing efforts of Maurice Girodias can be found at efanzines.com. For more information on the original cover art for Tropic of Cancer see this post from the Cosmodemonic Telegraph Company blog.
Location
125 boulevard du Montparnasse – See it on Google Maps
Next Stop
Our next stop will is a bit further down the boulevard du Montparnasse at number 171. The corner café surrounded by tall shrubbery and with the bronze statue of Marshall Ney in front is the Closerie des Lilas … 
