The Library's motto reflects the spirit of its founding: Atrum post bellum, ex libris lux / After the darkness of war, the light of books.

The library’s founding was supported in part with an initial gift of 50,000 francs derived from the royalties of Alan Seeger’s books Poems and Letters and Diary in 1916 and 1917.

As noted in an operational report from 1923, within just three years of existence, the library's reference room was visited by 35,000 users: 35% Americans, 33% French, 16% English, and 16% other nationalities.

The outbreak of World War II, and the subsequent German Occupation of France, made it difficult for the Library to continue to provide its services to the population of Paris, especially to French Jews.

When Nazi aggression grew, the Library staff quickly prepared the building from potential attack, pasting the doors and windows with paper to fortify the glass in case of bombing and stocking up on gas masks.

In a decision that harkened back to the Library's origins in the First World War, Dorothy M. Reeder launched the Soldiers' Service, providing books to British and French troops.

Dorothy M. Reeder and her staff, as well as the Comtesse de Chambrun, hand-delivered books to Jewish members who were barred from entering the Library.

As a result of her son's marriage to the daughter of the Vichy prime minister, Pierre Laval, the library was ensured a friend in high places.

That, along with the pre-war esteem of Dr. Hermann Fuchs for Dorothy M. Reeder and the Library, granted the institution a near-exclusive right to keep its doors open and its collections largely uncensored throughout the war.

Irwin Shaw, James Jones, Mary McCarthy, Art Buchwald, Richard Wright, and Samuel Beckett were active members during a period of growth and expansion.

It was during this early Cold War period that funds from the United States government permitted the establishment of a dozen provincial branch libraries and the move to larger premises on the Champs-Elysées in 1952.

It was there that Director Ian Forbes Fraser barred the door to a high-profile visit from Roy Cohn and David Schine, two aides to Joseph McCarthy, who were touring Europe in search of "red" books in American libraries.

The premises were renovated in the late 1990s and again in 2011 and 2013, creating an enclosed conference space, an expanded reading room, a refurbished Children's Library, a Teen Mezzanine and new restrooms.

In 2016, the Library was transformed by a major renovation that included creating a new façade, new study spaces on the mezzanine and lower levels, a soundproofed reading room, and a members’ lounge.

Past speakers include: Laurent de Brunhoff, David Sedaris, Amy Tan, Douglas Kennedy, Reza Aslan, Pamela Druckerman, Richard Ford, Diane Johnson, Kwame Alexander, David Lebovitz, Patricia Wells, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Colson Whitehead, Jacqueline Woodson, Rachel Kushner, Ottessa Moshfegh, Richard Russo, and Kristen Roupenian.

The Young Authors Fiction Festival (established 2001) is held annually in the spring, and is "open to all students ages 5-18 in the greater Paris area who write in English.

Past speakers include: Maureen Dowd (2024); Andrew Sean Greer (2023); Ann Patchett (2022); Zadie Smith (2021); Susan Orlean (2020); Martin Amis (2019); Salman Rushdie (2018); Stacy Schiff (2017); John Irving (2016); Michael Chabon (2015); Antony Beevor (2014); Joyce Carol Oates (2013); Sebastian Faulks (2012); Scott Turow (2011); Christopher Buckley (2010); Laurent de Brunhoff and Alison Lurie (2009); Adam Gopnik (2008); Antonia Fraser (2006); Gonzaque Saint Bris and Eric Frechon (2005); Paul Auster (2004); Louis Auchincloss (2003); Alberto Manguel (2001); 80th anniversary at the Musée Jacquemart-André (2000); Gore Vidal (1999); Gregory Peck (1998); Philippe de Montebello (1997); William Styron (1996); 75th anniversary at the Château de Versailles (1995); Kay Rader (1994); Lee Huebner (1993); Flora Lewis (1992); Philippe Labro (1991); Helmut Newton (1990); Edward Behr (1989).