A Polish-born American citizen who spent his childhood in New Orleans, Edward William Titus had lived in Paris with his wife and children for a brief time before World War I. In 1918 he returned and rented a small apartment on the rue Delambre in Montparnasse, close to the Cafe du Dome. He was separated from his wife, Helena Rubinstein, whose profits from her cosmetics business allowed him to occupy himself as a litterateur and bibliophile. In 1924 he set up a bookshop at 4, rue Delambre, in the rooms below his apartment. Enigmatically naming the shop At the Sign of the Black Manikin, he stocked it with current works from American and English publishers, limited editions of the classics, and rare books. The shop was not profitable, and, as with all of Titus's literary efforts, it had to be subsidized by his wife. To him the shop was a hobby...