Geniuses Together : American Writers in Paris in the 1920s (9780571309412)

by Carpenter, Humphrey

  Interlude: The oldest country in the world

  Principal sources: Cowley, Civilization, Anderson, Glassco. Quotations are also taken from Baker, BGT, Hem. Letters, Knoll, Loeb, MF, Nick Adams Stories (the latter is the source of Hemingway’s remark about Joyce inventing some new tricks). Details of Hemingway’s school curriculum are from Peter Griffin, Along With Youth (see Part 2, Chapter 2 above). Comments on Princeton attitudes are from F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise, book 1, chapters 1 and 2. Information on E. E. Cummings is from Richard Kennedy, Dreams in the Mirror: a biography of E. E. Cummings, Boni & Liveright, 1980. The hostile comment on the Dadaists is by Emmy Veronica Sanders and was published in Broom, November 1921. Gertrude Stein’s remark about America cornes from transition, fall 1928. Henry Miller’s comment on Paris life is from George Wickes, Americans in Paris, Doubleday, 1969. Cowley’s poem on the dying farm was published in Broom, May 1922.

  Part Three: Fiesta

  1 Iceberg principle

  Principal sources: Hem. Letters, MF, Hem. CH, Nick Adams Stories, Essential Hem., Bo wen, Poli, Dear Scott/Dear Max. Quotations are also taken from Loeb, Stein, Glassco, Ford, BGT, Baker, Svoboda, and the transatlantic review. Sisley Huddleston’s description of Ezra Pound doing the Charleston comes from his Bohemian, Literary & Social Life in Paris, George Harrap, 1928. The New York Times article from which Hemingway took the in our time chapter is in the issue dated 20 December 1922. Hemingway’s rude remarks on the expatriates, originally published in the Toronto Star, are reprinted in Hemingway, The Wild Years, edited by Gene Z. Hanrahan, and published by Dell (New York) in 1962. The parody of Gertrude Stein published in Der Querschnitt is reprinted in Nicholas Joost, Ernest Hemingway and the Little Magazines, Barre Publishers (Barre, Massachusetts), 1968. Fitzgerald’s mention to Gertrude Stein of the ‘slick drive’ comes from Arthur Mizener, The Far Side of Paradise, William Heinemann, 1969.

  2 La vie est belle

  The source for this chapter is Kay Boyle’s narrative in BGT.

  3 Some fiesta

  The principal source is Loeb. Quotations are also taken from Hem. Letters, SAR, BGT, Sarason, Svoboda, Callaghan, Baker, and Donald Ogden Stewart, By a Stroke of Luck!, Paddington Press, 1975.

  4 ‘Just a damn journalist’

  Principal sources are Svoboda (for the early drafts of the novel, and the history of composition) and Sarason (for the comments by the real people who appear in the novel). Quotations are also taken from the published text of SAR, and from Hem. Letters, Hem. CH, Callaghan, Loeb, Glassco, MF, Cowley, DLB, and Nick Adams Stories. Material about Harold Stearns comes from Stearns’s The Confessions of a Harvard Man (a reissue of his 1935 book The Street I Know), Paget Press (California), 1984. John Dos Passos’s comment on Stearns is from his autobiography, The Best Times, Andre Deutsch, 1968. Hemingway’s The Torrents of Spring was reprinted by Crosby Continental Editions (Paris) in 1932.

  5 These rocky days

  The principal source is Kay Boyle’s narrative in BGT. Quotations are also taken from Hem. Letters, Glassco, Meyers, and Beach. McAlmon’s comments on the Quarter, to Kay Boyle and Ethel Moorhead, are taken from his observations in BGT.

  6 Summer’s almost ended

  The source is Kay Boyle’s narrative in BGT.

  Epilogue: Homeward trek

  Sources: BGT, Williams, Putnam, Callaghan, Glassco, MF, Meyers, Stein, Kiki, Charters, DLB, Beach, Loeb, Sarason, Hem. Letters, Mellow, Stearns, Cowley. There are also quotations from Richard Ellman’s life of Joyce (see Part Three, Chapter 1 above), and from Deirdre Bair, Samuel Beckett: a biography, Jonathan Cape, 1978. ‘The Snows of Kilimanjaro’ is reprinted in Essential Hem. Alfred Kazin’s remarks come from his book On Native Grounds, 2nd ed, Harcourt, Brace, 1942. Leon Edel’s account comes from his introduction to Glassco.

  Appendix D:

  Acknowledgements

  Today, the crossroads at Metro Vavin is one of the noisiest spots in Paris. By day, traffic rushes past on its way to and from the périphérique motorway; by night, the lights of the cinema arcades and the Tour Montparnasse skyscraper bear more resemblance to Times Square than to the district that McAlmon and Hemingway knew so well. The Dôme, its terrace uninvitingly glassed in, is an expensive restaurant selling shellfish, usually closed for some reason; the Rotonde and Coupole are snazzy and unalluring, and only the Sélect has the faint look of a ‘local’ where one might meet a friend. However, many quarters of Paris remain hospitable and unspoilt, and my first thanks must be to Malcolm and Jane Van Biervliet for the extraordinarily generous loan of a flat in one such spot, a quiet little street on the lie St Louis, a few yards from where Bill Bird printed in our time and Ford Madox Ford presided magisterially over his Thursday tea parties. My family provided stimulating companionship during the time I spent there, and so did Ian Smith, whose criticisms of the first draft of this book, particularly the passages on Hemingway’s style, have done much to improve the finished product.

  Rayner Unwin – always my best source of ideas – first suggested that I write it, and generously provided the means for visits to Paris in the course of it; Mary Butler at Unwin Hyman gave much encouragement and help; and Hazel Orme worked miracles with her editorial pencil. The manuscript was read by several kind and wise persons who have saved me from many errors: Hugh Brogan, Edward Mendelson, George Wickes, and Kay Boyle, who scrutinised what I had written about her and corrected the grosser mistakes. Jean Preston and the staff of Princeton University Library provided photographic prints from the Sylvia Beach Collection, and George Wickes kindly lent pictures of Natalie Barney. The Estate of Man Ray gave permission for his photographs to be reproduced, Chatto & Windus and North Point Press permitted me to quote extensively from Being Geniuses Together by Robert McAlmon and Kay Boyle, Malcolm Cowley generously allowed me to use his Exile’s Return, and Jonathan Cape Ltd and Charles Scribner’s Sons gave permission for quotations from the writings of Ernest Hemingway. When it was not possible for me to be in Paris, the Bodleian Library, as always, proved a more than acceptable substitute.

  When I read the chapter ‘Summer’s just started’ at the 1986 Cheltenham Literary Festival, someone in the audience asked if I knew where a lifestyle like that of the Quarter could be found today. I wish I did; perhaps somebody could tell me.

  Index

  Abelard, Peter 1

  Adams, John 1, 2

  Adams, Kenneth 1, 2, 3

  Aiken, Conrad 1

  Aldington, Richard 1

  American literature 1, 2, 3, 4 rehabilitation of 1

  Anderson, Margaret 1, 2, 3, 4

  Anderson, Sherwood 1, 2, 3 friendship with Ernest Hemingway 1, 2, 3

  influence of Gertrude Stein 1

  parody by Hemingway 1, 2

  view of James Joyce 1

  view of Paris 1, 2

  Antheil, George 1, 2, 3

  Apollinaire, Guillaume 1

  Aragon, Louis 1, 2, 3

  Arnold, Matthew 1

  Auzias, Nina 1

  Bald, Wambly 1

  Barnes, Djuna Ladies Almanack 1

  Barney, Natalie Clifford 1 Friday salons 1, 2, 3

  lesbian relationships 1, 2

  relationship with Remy de Gourmont 1

  Barnum, P.T. 1

  Bartholdi, design of Statue of Liberty 1

  Beach, Sylvia early life 1

  relationship with Adrienne Monnier 1

  relationship with Gertrude Stein 1

  relationship with James Joyce 1, 2 publication of Ulysses 1, 2

  Shakespeare and Company bookshop 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  view of Robert McAlmon 1, 2

  wartime and post-war life 1

  Beardsley, Aubrey 1

  Beckett, Samuel 1

  Bellow, Saul 1

  Bennett, James Gordon 1

  Bird, Bill 1, 2, 3, 4 Three Mountains Press 1

  Bloch-Savitsky, Ludmilla 1

  bohemian lifestyle 1 early writings on 1

  see also New York;

&nb
sp; Paris

  Bowen, Stella 1

  Boyle, Kay 1, 2, 3 life in England 1

  life in France 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  marriages 1

  meetings with Robert McAlmon 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  relationship with Ernest Walsh 1, 2, 3

  Braque, Georges 1

  Breton, André 1, 2

  Bricktop 1, 2, 3, 4

  Britten, Clarence 1, 2

  Brooks, Romaine 1

  Brooks, Van Wyck 1

  Brown, William Slater 1

  Budgen, Frank 1

  Bunting, Basil 1

  Butler, Jim 1, 2

  Butts, Mary 1

  Cahlon, Jean 1

  Cannell, Kathleen 1, 2, 3 affair with Harold Loeb 1, 2, 3, 4

  Capote, Trueman 1, 2

  Chagall, Marc 1

  Chandler, Raymond 1

  Chaplin, Dunc 1

  Charter of Rights for France 1

  Charters, Jimmie 1, 2, 3

  Chaucer, Daniel see Ford, Ford Madox

  Chicago literary renaissance 1, 2, 3, 4

  Chicago Tribune European edition (Paris) 1, 2

  Stearns racing column 1

  Coates, Bob 1, 2

  Cocteau, Jean 1, 2

  Cody, Morrill 1

  Cooper, James Fenimore 1

  Coppard, A.E. 1

  Cowley, Malcolm 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 early life 1

  education 1, 2, 3

  influence of Dadaism 1, 2, 3

  life in France 1, 2, 3 cafe proprietor, assault incident 1

  return to America 1

  Craig, Archie 1, 2, 3

  Crane, Hart 1, 2

  Craven, Arthur 1

  Crosby, Harry 1, 2

  Crowder, Henry 1

  Crutcher, Leon 1

  cubism 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in prose 1

  Cummings, E.E. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 war experiences 1

  Cunard, Nancy 1, 2

  Dadaism 1, 2, 3, 4

  Darantière, M. printing of Contact Editions 1

  printing of Ulysses 1

  Dawson, Manierre 1

  Dean, Silas 1, 2

  Derain, André 1

  Dodge, Mabel 1, 2

  Doolittle, Hilda 1 relationship with Bryher McAlmon 1

  Dos Passos, John 1, 2

  Douglas, C.H. Social Credit theory 1

  Duchamp, Marcel 1, 2, 3

  du Maurier, G. Trilby 1

  Duncan, Raymond 1

  Dunning, Ralph Cheever 1

  Durrell, Lawrence 1

  Edel, Leon 1

  Eiffel, Statue of Liberty engineering 1

  Eliot, T.S. 1, 2, 3, 4 as protégé of Ezra Pound 1, 2

  view of Paris 1

  Ellerman, Annie Winifred 1 see also McAlmon, Bryher

  Emerson, Ralph Waldo 1, 2

  English literature 1 influence in American education 1, 2

  exchange rates influence on European travel 1

  Faulkner, William 1

  Finnerty, 1, 2

  Firbank, Ronald 1

  Fitzgerald, F. Scott 1, 2 view of Hemingway and his writing 1, 2, 3, 4

  writings The Great Gatsby 1, 2, 3

  Florianne 1

  Ford, Ford Madox 1, 2, 3 affairs 1

  editorship of English Review 1

  literary gatherings 1

  parody of Hemingway 1

  transatlantic review magazine 1, 2, 3, 4

  view of Hemingway 1

  Franco-American relations 1, 2, 3, 4

  Franklin, Benjamin 1 diplomatic posting to Paris 1

  French Revolution 1

  Frost, Robert 1

  Galantière, Lewis 1

  Gaudier-Brzeska, Henri 1

  Gelhorn, Martha 1

  Georges, Yvonne 1, 2

  Glassco, John 1, 2, 3, 4 life in Paris 1, 2, 3

  view of Paris 1

  view of Robert McAlmon 1, 2

  Gleyre, Charles 1

  Goldring, Douglas 1

  Goodman, Joe 1

  Gough, Sylvia 1

  Gourmont, Remy de 1

  Grahame, Kenneth 1

  Guggenheim, Peggy 1

  Guthrie, Pat friendship with Duff Twysden 1, 2

  visit to Spain with Hemingway group 1

  Hall, Radclyffe 1, 2

  Hamnett, Nina 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Hardy, Thomas 1, 2

  Hawthorne, Nathaniel 1, 2

  Hay wood, Bill 1

  Heap, Jane 1, 2

  Heller, Joseph 1

  Hemingway, Ernest Miller 1 children 1, 2, 3

  death 1

  dislike of Ford Madox Ford 1, 2

  dislike of Wyndham Lewis 1

  early life 1

  friendship with Gertrude Stein 1, 2, 3, 4

  influence of Ezra Pound 1, 2

  influence of Sherwood Anderson 1, 2, 3

  life in Paris 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 as basis for novel characterisations 1, 2

  manuscripts loss 1

  marriages 1, 2, 3, 4

  Nobel Prize 1

  relationship with Robert McAlmon 1, 2, 3

  sub-editorship of This Quarter 1

  sub-editorship of transatlantic review 1, 2, 3

  view of James Joyce 1

  view of Scott Fitzgerald 1, 2, 3

  visit to Canada 1

  visits to Spain 1, 2 as basis for novel 1, 2

  war service 1

  writing style 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 decline 1

  ‘iceberg’ principle 1

  influences on 1, 2

  writings 1, 2 A Farewell to Arms 1, 2

  A Moveable Feast 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Death in the Afternoon 1

  For Whom the Bell Tolls 1, 2

  in our time 1, 2

  journalism 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  short stories and poetry 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8;

  Indian Camp 1;

  In Our Time collection 1, 2, 3

  Snows of Kilimanjaro 1, 2

  The Old Man and the Sea 1

  The Sun Also Rises 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  The Torrents of Spring 1, 2

  Hemingway, Hadley 1, 2, 3 remarriage 1

  Hiler, Hilaire 1, 2, 3

  Holcomb, Wynn 1

  Huddleston, Sisley 1

  Hueffer, F.M. see Ford, F.M.

  Hunt, Violet 1

  Huxley, Aldous 1

  imagism 1

  Industrial Workers of the World 1

  Irving, Washington 1, 2

  Jacob, Polly 1

  James, Henry 1 early life 1

  The American 1

  James, William 1, 2

  Jarry, A. 1

  Jefferson, Thomas 1 diplomatic posting to Paris 1

  Jolas, Eugene 1, 2

  Josephson, Matthew 1

  journalism techniques in literature 1, 2

  Joyce, James 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 as early protégé of Ezra Pound 1

  death 1

  other writers views of 1

  relationship with Robert McAlmon 1

  relationship with Sylvia Beach 1, 2, 3

  writings 1 Finnegans Wake 1

  Ulysses 1, 2, 3;

  prosecution of serialised version 1

  Joyce, Nora 1, 2, 3, 4

  Kahane, Jac Obelisk Press 1

  Kazin, A. critique of Hemingway 1

  Kiki 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 relationship with Man Ray 1

  Kohner, Frederic 1

  Kreymborg, Alfred 1

  Laboulaye, Statue of Liberty project 1

  Lafayette, Marquis de 1

  Lardner, Ring 1

  Lawrence, D.H. 1, 2, 3, 4 review of Hemingway 1

  Leblanc, Georgette 1

  Leger, Fernand 1

  Lenin 1

  lesbianism 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Levy, Harriet 1, 2, 3

  Lewis, P.W. see Wyndham Lewis, P.

  Lewis, Sinclair 1