BOOKSTALL RIDDLE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 456, 18 May 1932, Page 5

BOOKSTALL RIDDLE.

Mystery of Lady Barlow of Paris. MARRIED FOR LOVE. (Special to the “ Star.”) PARIS, April 2. Who was “ Lady Barlow,” the mysterious Englishwoman who ran a pavement boolcktall for twenty-six years in Paris after, it is said, renouncing her title to marry a Frenchman? By her death last week-end Paris loses one of its most romantic figures, for Mme Dodeman, as she became by marriage, was known to thousands of travellers. Her boxes of books, perched on the parapet of the embankment of the River Seine near the Latin Quarter formed the only English bookstall in the hundreds of stalls that line the river bank. This delightful lady of sixty-two formerly ran a bookshop in Bouverie Street, London, and was interested in first editions. On a visit to Paris in 1906 she met a Frenchman, M. Edouard Dodeman, with whom she fell in love. They married, spent their honeymoon in London, and devoted much time there to gathering together a collection of books. Then they returned to Paris, where they set up their street bookstall. Day in, day out, rain or shine, Mme Dodeman was always at the stall. Her husband and his brother presided over other stalls further down the river bank. Mme Dodeman would delight in long discussions with her passing clients concerning literature and books in general. M. Dodeman, when interviewed said: ” All I know is that she was Lady Barlow, and she came of a wealthy English family. But they are all dead now. There is nobody left.” He turned away. For this little bent old French booklover, Lady Barlow did not exist. He remembers only his wife, Mme Dodeman who for twenty-six devoted years worked with him winter and summer among their beloved books.