[Marion Shore]

A while back, Diana Dees posted a thread called: Sylvia Beach Hotel on GT, in which she said:

I just got back from the Oregon coast and thereabouts, and I stayed one night at the famous Sylvia Beach Hotel, a hotel for book-lovers. We were scheduled to stay two nights in the Emily Dickinson room, but they had messed up our reservation, so we wound up staying one night in the Tennessee Williams room (just where we belonged, I guess), since it was already paid for and they weren't about to give us back our money. They didn't have the customer service sense to offer us the only available (and pricey) suite at a reduced price the second night, so we moved out.


Despite my disappointment over the way our reservations were handled, I still absolutely loved this hotel. There are around 20 rooms (unforunately, many of them were closed from public view because of renovations), each named after an author, and decorated in that author's style. Attention to detail is superb. The Poe room was my favorite, but other good ones I saw were the Melville room and the room we stayed in. There are also beds on the cheap, in a large room, for Oregon writers who need peace and quiet to work on their writing. There are hundreds of photos of authors all over the place; an autographed photo of George Gershwin was on the wall outside our room.

There are no televisions and there is no Internet access in the Sylvia Beach Hotel. There is a marvelous old 3rd floor library, with an extension in the loft, which contains shelves of books. There is also a lovely gift shop, which is part of the lobby, and two cats (there used to be 3) wander around the premises. A multi-course meal (we didn't participate) is served each night in the dining room, and dinner guests play Two Truths and a Lie. The building is a huge Victorian that overlooks the Pacific, and many rooms have a view of the Yaquina Head lighthouse, yet--for some reason--there is no Virginia Woolf room.

On the thread, Mark Allison posted a few wonderful poems based on possible rooms in this hotel. He also suggested "Sylvia Beach" ditties might catch on, and it might be a good idea for the "Drills and Amusements" forum, where people could imagine what they might find in some of the famous rooms."

I followed up on his suggestion, however belatedly, and invite you to contribute your "Sylvia Beach" ditties.

P.S. Wouldn't it be wonderful to hold an Eratosphere convention at the Sylvia Beach Hotel?