A CLOSE COMMUNITY

The Lost Generation writers and artists consisted of a close-knit community centering around the artistic atmosphere, ambiance, and Bohemian vibe of the neighborhoods of Montmartre, Montparnasse, Saint German de Pres, and the Latin Quarter.  Not to say these artists always got along or even liked each other very much--the best example of which was Hemingway’s shaky relationships with most of these artists--but just to say that they ran in the same circle.  In fact, these artists had less contact with Parisians than you would think, as they were more focused on establishing new communities of artistic prowess and innovation with the culture of Paris serving as their inspiration and backdrop.  

[July 2012]

[July 2012]

[July 2012]

This can be seen through publisher, bookstore owner, and expatriate Sylvia Beach.  While in Paris English language bookstores became a source of invaluable support to the Lost Generation writers.  Though her famous bookstore Shakespeare and Company has moved from its original location in 1919, at the time it served as a center of activity for the Lost Generation community.  Beach would lend and sell books to many expatriate writers, Hemingway included, as well as befriend and advise them.  However, Shakespeare and Company was not put on the map in a significant way until Beach’s encounter with Irish author James Joyce.  “Beach’s most famous association was with James Joyce and the publication of his novel Ulysses...and published the first edition under the imprint of Shakespeare and Company in 1922” (“Literary Expatriates in Paris”).  For many expatriate writers, publishers in Paris were more liberal and less stringent on controversial topics that were littered throughout their writings and thus more willing to publish their works as opposed to publishes back in their homelands, particularly America, where many works created by writers of this generation were banned for several years.  With freedom from the risk of censorship, expatriate writers sought publishers in Paris, American publishers such as Sylvia Beach in particular.  Other small-scale entrepreneurialism in the art of press and publication can be seen by the publisher outlets of Contact Editions and Black Sun Press to name a few, which were as well run by expatriates.  Thus, from the typewriter, to the publisher, to the distribution, the expatriates ran in a small circle and not only looked after their kind, but made a mark in literary, artistic, and Parisian history that they could have never foreseen at the time.