American Library in Paris

The American Library in Paris, founded in 1920, and  became the largest English-language lending library on the European mainland and operated as an independent non-profit cultural association in France.

In the postwar era, the Library regained prominence as the American expatriate community expanded and a new generation of writers arrived in Paris. Figures such as Irwin Shaw, James Jones, Mary McCarthy, Art Buchwald, Richard Wright, and Samuel Beckett were active members during this period.

During his Paris years, Kelly borrowed books there regularly, favouring Russian authors such as Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Nabokov, as well as French writers such as Stendhal.