#7 Americans in Paris
Tuesday – 10:00 a.m. Winter Term 2009 (14 weeks)
Coordinator: Janice Booker Co-coordinator: Carol Steinberg
Course Description
What is the lure of the City of Lights that has attracted American intellectuals for centuries? From revolutionary days to the present, Paris has drawn artists and writers, politicians and pundits, to flex their creative juices and diplomatic expertise. This S/DG will examine who they were, what they accomplished during their expatriate phase, and the legacy they left for the next exodus.
The Colonial emissaries went for diplomatic and business reasons, while the artists and writers of the twenties were characterized as “the lost generation” by the mother of them all, Gertrude Stein. They gathered at her salon for companionship and encouragement from their peers. They did their work in the cafes of the left bank. Some, like Scott Fitzgerald, were famous when they arrived in Paris. Many of the others achieved fame during their time there.
We’ll trace, via thumbnail sketches, the Americans from Benjamin Franklin to William Burroughs, who came to Paris to test their creative juices. We’ll look at their lives, their work, and their mutual cooperation or enmity.
Topics
- Our first session will look at the city of Paris and determine why it was, and remains, a beacon for American intellectuals. We’ll also get to know Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Tom Paine and their sojourn in that city.
- Some of the early arrivals included Henry James, Edith Wharton, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Mary Cassatt.
- Gertrude and Leo Stein made Paris their home in the early 20th century, Gertrude to stay for the rest of her life as she tutored and “mothered” the ex-patriots of the twenties, and promoted the yet unknown Parisian artists.
- Sylvia Beach, originator and proprietor of the famous book store “Shakespeare and Co.” provided a haven for American writers, was a conduit for their contacts, and created her own niche in Parisian life.
- Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot and James Joyce had a profound effect on the younger generation of American writers while honing their own craft.
- Hemingway and Fitzgerald, the vortex of American writers in Paris, had a unique relationship of enmity and devotion, of appreciation and put-down. Their effect on those around them was electric.
- Sara and Gerald Murphy, the wealthy, sophisticated New York couple who provided the hub of social life for the talented expatriates they cosseted and criticized while showering shelter, vacations and entertainment on them.
- The Little Presses. Many small presses emerged during the twenties, primarily to publish the work of the writers, who often became known to their future American publishers because of these presses.
- Some of the writers who emerged during their Paris experience: Wm. Carlos Williams, e.e. cummings, John Dos Passos, Archibald MacLeish.
- Some of the musicians and artists: Loie Fuller, Isadora Duncan, Josephine Baker, Aaron Copeland, Ira and George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Man Ray, Alexander Calder.
- The Women of the Left Bank, many of whom remained in Paris: Djuna Barnes, Janet Flanner, H.D., Natalie Barney, Romayne Brooks.
- These two are almost emblematic of this period of Americans in Paris: Robert McAlmon and Kay Boyle.
- When and why did most expatriates return to America at the end of the twenties and who took over along with Henry Miller and Anais Nin.
- Post WWll, the forties and fifties saw a new group of American writers, musicians and artists settling in Paris: Sidney Beckett, Thomas Wolfe, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Carson McCullers, James Jones, William Burroughs.
(Clearly we can only get a birds-eye view of many of the above participants, but we will get some sense of their contributions to life in Paris and their work.)
Bibliography
Core Books: Mellow, James. Charmed Circle. Avon Books, 1974.
Fitch, Noel Riley. Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties. W.W. Norton & Co. 1983.
(Additional resources will be supplied or suggested for each topic)
Pre-Meeting: Tuesday, December 9, 2008, 10:00 a.m. |