Background
She is the daughter of the shop"s founder, the late George Whitman.
She is the daughter of the shop"s founder, the late George Whitman.
University College London.
Whitman is the only child of George Whitman. Her parents divorced when she was seven, and she went to stay with her mother in England. After staying for 10 years in London and Edinburgh with her mother, Sylvia Whitman returned and took over the running of the shop in 2003 at age 22, and continues to run it in the same manner as her father, allowing young writers to live and work in the bookstore.
Whitman has also started a biennial literary festival, FestivalandCo, which has hosted such writers as Paul Auster, Siri Hustvedt, Jeanette Winterson, Jung Chang and Marjane Satrapi.
Whitman appeared on the Paris episodes of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, which aired the week of August 1, 2011. She featured in the 2014 British Broadcasting Corporation television documentary Bright Lights, Brilliant Minds: A Tale of Three Cities. episode 2.
Paris 1928 by Doctor James Fox.