Gertrude Stein

World War I devastated everything – nothing could ever be the same again, there was no way back to what it was like before. Everybody had bought into the values of class-consciousness, the formalism of societal norms and the constraints of culture but in the end these axioms had failed humanity. Everybody had played ball and everybody had been horrifically maimed, no more would everybody be so obsequious, trusting and indeed so care-free.

In America, artists began congregating in enclaves in the major cities seeking to develop new values, new methods of living, new approaches to the way society should co-exist. Others went even further, maybe to seek more or perhaps to abandon the whole shebang- many of these seekers shored up in Paris. The Lost Generation was the moniker that they became known as, it was originally applied to them by the apparently ubiquitous Gertrude Stein. From their disillusionment, followed their aimless wanderings, followed their self-imposed exile, resulting in an original and innovative style of literature. They were marked out by their realism – romanticism, flowery idealism and dishonest clichés were abandoned.

Likewise, language was pared down and frank – no more formal, strait-laced, Victorian cloak and daggers palaver. Paris and Montparnasse in particular was the ideal location and – full of flamboyant characters immersing themselves in bohemian lifestyles disputing and debating philosophical points, historical facts and thoughts on modern living. Paris was the breeding ground of such exciting and challenging movements as Dadaism, Futurism, Expressionism and Surrealism. Picasso was there, Joyce was there, Duchamp was there, Stravinski was there, Cocteau was there, Breton was there, Apollinaire was there – Paris was the place to be.

The young American radicals – Hemingway, Pound, Fitzgerald, Miller, Anais Nin and Don Passos – flung themselves into this innovative cauldron. They played hard – plunging into the hedonistic lifestyle – but they worked even harder – producing startlingly literature of astonishing range and depth. Paris possessed other advantages – it was damn cheap and there was a plethora of small, independent publishing houses that were willing to publish unknown and innovative writers. In addition, there were many literary reviews operating out of small rooms on the Left Bank that gave exposure to these writers. Also beneficial was the fact that alcohol was legal, unlike Prohibition era America.