Americans in Paris: The lost generation — Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway

Americans have loved Paris since our country, the USA, was founded, almost 250 years ago. Many famous Americans have called Paris home from Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson in the 18^th century, to Josephine Baker, Molly Ringwald, and Lenny Kravitz in the 20^th century.

I love Paris.

That and my love for reading and creative writing excited me about American writers who called Paris home during the 1920s. Collectively known as “The Lost Generation”, the group produced some of the most famous works of American literature, some of which resulted from their time in the City of Light.

This article focuses on Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway as representatives of  The Lost Generation. Enjoy.

Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein with visitors  (far right)

Gertrude Stein founded Saturday night “salons” in her Parisian home. These weekly gatherings included a mix of writers, artists, and freethinkers of the time. While she is known for her writing, she is also known for her art collection. Throughout her life, she owned works by famous artists, and many pieces from lesser-known ones.

The Early Years

Born in 1874, Gertrude was the youngest of four children in an upper-middle-class Jewish family in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. When she was three, the family moved to Vienna, then to Paris where they lived for a year until moving back to the United States and settling in Oakland, California.

By the time she was seventeen, Gertrude had lost both of her parents, prompting her oldest brother, Michael to send Gertrude and their sister, Bertha, to live with their mother’s family in Baltimore. While in Baltimore, Gertrude attended Radcliffe College as a psychology major and enrolled in Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where she studied until dropping out in 1897. During this time, she met two women who would be the inspiration for her Saturday night salons in Paris

Paris

Gertrude Stein statue Bryant Park New York

Gertrude was in Paris well before anyone else in her circle. In 1903, Gertrude did what many of us dream of doing; she moved to Paris. She and her brother, Leo, lived in a two-story apartment at 27 rue de Fleurus in the 6^th arrondissement, where Gertrude would live until 1938.

While they lived together, Gertrude and Leo bought art from Cézanne, Matisse, Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir, and Picasso. In 1914, Leo moved to Italy and their collection was divided. Upon their deaths, most of their respective collections went to the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Many people are not aware that it was Stein’s art collection that started the Saturday evening salons.

Gertrude owned several paintings by her friends, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. To generate buzz about their work, Matisse and Picasso would bring prospective clients to Gertrude’s home every day, at all times. By this time, Gertrude had started her writing career and the constant disruptions kept her from finishing anything. Thus, the Saturday evening salon was born. She hosted this specific day and time for people to view her art. What started as a way to help her friends, became a social gathering for some of the greatest artistic minds of the 20^th century.

Plaque Home of Gertrude Stein: Historical Society 75006 Paris

Gertrude’s time in Paris is honored by a plaque on her former home at 27 rue de Fleurus. In 2014, composers Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek wrote an opera, ‘ Twenty-Seven’, based on Stein’s time at the address and her weekly salons.

Paris-Inspired Work

Gertrude’s book, Three Lives, was inspired by a portrait Cézanne had given her of his wife, Hortense Fiquet. Although Paris wasn’t the inspiration for Stein’s most-known book, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, it is where Stein and her partner, Alice, spent their relationship. In addition, Stein wrote several essays on people she met in Paris, including Matisse and Picasso.

Gertrude Stein with Ernest Hemingway’s son, Jack in Paris, 1924.

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway was a member of Gertrude Stein’s Parisian ‘Lost Generation’ group. However, he wasn’t a constant “fixture” in the group, due to his turbulent friendship with Stein and frequent travel around Europe. While many consider Hemingway one of the greatest American writers, I do not care for his work, personally. I find it mundane, and it doesn’t ‘grab’ me as work from other writers does.

Ernest Hemingway

– The Early Years

Born in 1899, Hemingway was the second of six children to a family in Oak Park, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. You may have heard of it. Oak Park is where the famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright started his career. Many of the homes he designed are still standing today. I am originally from the Chicago suburbs and took many school field trips to see Frank Lloyd Wright homes and Hemingway’s childhood home. Today, you can still tour both.

Hemingway was eighteen years old when World War I broke out. Unfortunately, bad eyesight kept him out of the U.S. Army, so he joined the American Red Cross as an ambulance driver on the Italian war front. During one of his runs, he was hit by mortar fire and seriously injured. Despite his injuries, Hemingway stayed to assist other wounded soldiers, earning him the Italian War Merit Cross (Croce al Merito di Guerra). He is one of twelve notable Americans to receive this honor. Ernest’s time in the war changed him and he had trouble readjusting to civilian life when he returned home. This restlessness would be a constant theme for the remainder of Hemingway’s life.

In 1921, he married Hadley Richardson, the first of four wives, and moved to Paris for a job as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star paper.

Hadley Hemingway reading in their first Paris apartment at 74 rue du Cardinal Lemoine. Summer, 1922. Photo possibly by Ernest Hemingway. Ernest Hemingway Photographs Collection 004 020 09543.

– Paris

The newlyweds wanted to go to Italy after their wedding, but Sherwood Anderson, Ernest’s friend, convinced them to go to Paris instead, as he knew people who could help Hemingway further his writing career.

Armed with a letter of introduction written by Anderson, the first person Hemingway met in Paris was American poet, Ezra Pound, who, incidentally, became Hemingway’s ‘drinking buddy’. The two could often be found in bars around the city. Pound then introduced Ernest to Irish writer, James Joyce, and art collector, Gertrude Stein. (Stein was yet to be known for her writing.)

Thus was Hemingway’s entrance into the Lost Generation club. He became close friends with Stein – she’s even his son’s godmother – until they had a falling out, and the friendship ended.

When they arrived in Paris, Ernest and Hadley stayed in room 14 at the Hotel d’Angleterre in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Today, guests can still request to stay in room 14, Hotel d’Angleterre.

The Hemingways lived in Paris twice. The first time was from 1921 until 1923 when they moved back to Toronto to prepare for the birth of their son, then again from 1924 to 1927, when they divorced.

During their first Paris stint, the couple lived in an apartment at 74 rue de Cardinal Lemoine in the 5^th arrondissement, but Ernest also rented an apartment at 39 rue Descartes, where he worked on his writing. Today, 39 rue Descartes is home to La Maison de Verlaine restaurant.

Hemingway with his second wife Pauline – Hemingway married Pauline in May 1927

If Hemingway wasn’t writing at his studio, he was writing at the many cafes around his neighborhood. His favorites included Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore.

On their return to Paris, the Hemingway family lived at 113 rue Notre-Dame des Champs until they left Paris for good in 1927.

Paris-Inspired Work

“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” – Ernest Hemingway

Two of Hemingway’s most notable books, A Moveable Feast and The Sun Also Rises are based on his time in Paris. “A Moveable Feast” is a memoir of that time. Today, Hemingway fans can take A Moveable Feast self-guided walking tour to visit many places he did, and learn more about his time in Paris. If you prefer a less tiring activity, you can learn about the author through a collection of stories and interviews as part of The Hemingway Project.

My Take

Many people consider Stein and Hemingway to be some of the greatest American writers.

Regardless of whether or not you are a fan of their work, their mark on American literature is undeniable. Both writers were on my high school English class reading lists in the 1980s. Do you think they are on high school English class reading lists today?

Who are your favourite writers of this time?

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