,IPAIR-11 $II A\~ OIDY$1[\Y: AN EXttiBfT T-HE WARD M. CANADAV CENTER \\)ILLIAM S. CARLSO~ LIBRARY UNIVE~SITY OF TOLEDO 7 APRIL-30 JUNE. 1994 PAIRII4111AN OIDY$$t~Y: \\)RITINGs- FRoM ThE "LOST GENERATION,, Catafog b~ Jcrr~ Jos~ph BowQ-t"' Nanc~ 13urnaPd Rob~rt- A. Shadd~ To(~do : UnivQ-rsit-J of Tof¢do Librarias, 1991 Wanderers outside the gates, in hollow landscapes without memory, we carry each of us an urn of native soil . --Malcolm Cowley, The Urn (1929). *** Acknowledgments This exhibit, "Parisian Odyssey: Writings From the 'Lost Generation,'" was accomplished as a team effort and it is my pleasure to recognize and thank members of the team who played a role in realizing this project. Serving as exhibit curator was Jerry Joseph Bower, the Canaday Center's Rare Books Graduate Assistant for 1993- 1994. He was assisted by Rare Books Assistant Nancy Burnard and student assistant Kerri Hagan. Members of Carlson Library's Audio-Visual Services department who lent their expertise include Jana Bishop, Susan Benedict and Terry Fell. Special attention must be called to the contribution of Dr. Shari Benstock, Professor of English at the University of Miami, whose recent book, Women of the Left Bank: Paris, 1900-1940 (1986), was used to inform the intellectual development of the exhibit. Her lecture, "Modernism and Expatriate Writers in Paris," formally opened the exhibit. Dr. Ben stock's participation was made possible in part by the Ohio Humanities Council, a state-based agency of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which makes grants to nonprofit organizations in Ohio for public programs in the humanities. Also providing support was the Department of English (particularly, Dr. John Boening and Dr. Wallace Martin), University of Toledo and the Friends of the University of Toledo Libraries. To all those involved, I offer my appreciation along with my thanks. Robert A. Shaddy, Director The Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections *** THE WORLD: 1917-1929 The First World War (1914-1918), saw the advent of new ways of utilizing technology in the conduct of warfare. Awesome and terrible weapons such as machine guns, submarines, poisonous gases, tanks, airplanes, and zeppelins were used on a scale which resulted in mass casualties and destruction never before experienced by combatants. When the Peace of Paris was signed in 1918, the fighting ended but millions of dead and seriously wounded soldiers created, literally, a lost generation. The impact was significant in a number of ways. Globally, the war signaled the end of European imperialistic hegemony and the rise of nationalism as former colonies began long and painful bids for independence. The foundation was laid for the "American Century." On a personal level, the accumulated horrors of the war with its technological assault on individual psyches and sensibilities produced a desire for participants to attempt to forget the senseless war and what had happened. There is little wonder, then, that older mores and ways of thinking about and doing things changed. In the United States, the demise of Victorianism was symbolized by the rhythms of jazz and, because of a relatively widespread economic prosperity, a rampant consumerism characterized by Sinclair Lewis' George Babbitt was clearly evident. During this so-called "jazz age," many Americans winked at Prohibition, played the stock market, and indulged in the wonders of buying on the installment plan. The nation was seemingly brought closer together through advancements in aviation (Charles Lindbergh's pioneering transatlantic flight in the "Spirit of St. Louis" occurred during this time) and improvements in mass production realized a transportation revolution that allowed a great many Americans to afford the new cars being produced by Henry Ford and other entrepreneurs. During the post-war years, new styles in fashion, coming from Paris mainly, eliminated the corset and signaled the ascendancy of the sexually liberated, but "boyish," look of the "Flapper". Younger Americans debated the appropriateness of "petting" on the first date-- an event made possible by the automobile which blasted the Victorian parlor from the social scene. These were the "golden days" of radio and films and these relatively new mediums facilitated the rise of advertising and helped spread the emerging and standardized mass culture found in America during the "Roaring Twenties." However, beneath the facade there loomed troubles and turmoil which would erupt later, in the decade of the thirties. Internationally, the Great War left Europe (where most of the fighting was conducted) in a shambles of economic chaos. Devastation caused by the fighting and the crippling results of the Peace of Paris seriously affected a complete recovery. During the twenties, one finds the Fascists' march on Rome, the beginning of Hitler's National Socialist Party, and, following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the growth of an international communist movement. Within the United States, the prosperity of the decade was not enjoyed by all Americans, particularly those living in rural areas. Remnants of Victorianism and a lingering religious fundamentalism continued to influence events as the Ku Klux Klan was reborn to keep African-Americans, Jews, Roman Catholics, and other minorities "in their place." The Scopes trial in Dayton, Tennessee debated evolution, Darwinism and the future of the American educational system. Finally, the "death knell" for the period was sounded on "Black Thursday," _ October 4, 1929, when the stock market crashed from the weight of reckless speculators and speculation. Ultimately, banks closed and savings were lost, along with the jobs of, eventually, one out of four Americans. The buoyant optimism of the twenties (an admittedly short-sighted optimism because of real structural problems in the American economy) was replaced by the aptly-named "Great Depression" which lasted until the beginning of, ironically, another world war in 1939 that was even more destructive than the first. Allied and Associated Powers, Traite de Paix Entre les Puissances Allies et Associees et l'Allemagne Signe a Versailles, le 28 Juin 1919 [Treaty of Peace Between the Allied and Associated Powers and Germany Signed at Versailles, June 28, 1918.] Paris: s.n., 1919. Treaty of Versailles printed in French and English on opposite pages. The harsh terms of this treaty made the Second World War inevitable. The Parisian Experience The French capital during the twenties provided a multiplicity of cultural sensations and excitement to those who inhabited it. According to Malcolm Cowley, "Paris in those days had dozens of special milieux, including those of the modernist poets, the rebel artists, the fashion writers, the jazz musicians, the boxers, the barmen, the gigolos, the lesbians, the entertainers, the sportifs, and the aristocrats of the Faubourg Saint Germain." When the expatriate writers made their pilgrimage to Paris, they wrote about the city, kept notebooks concerning their experiences, and corresponded with each other. Their activities appeared in the little magazines of the time and in books published after their Paris sojourn was completed. France and Sherwood Anderson: Paris Notebook 1921. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1976. Includes Anderson's summer in France; "Paris notebook, 1921," "France" and "A Story-Teller's Story". We Moderns. Gotham Book Mart, 1920-1940. New York: Gotham Book Mart, 1939. To celebrate twenty years in business, the Gotham Book Mart created a sales catalog titled We Moderns. In it, the proprietors set forth their guidelines for including various 2 authors in the listing: "A writer must be of his time and at least trying to say something to his time." They sought writers who were "stimulating modems, challenging the past, daring the present, foreshadowing the future," who "represent art in transition from which will come new formats to be fixed for a while in the literary scene." A great number of the authors included were members of the Lost Generation and they were invited to comment on each other for the catalog. For example, Pound commented on T. S. Eliot; Gertrude Stein on Paris. Ezra Pound, "The Island of Paris: a Letter, September 1920," The Dial 69 (October 1920): 406-411. "[Letter From Pound to William Carlos Williams]," Decision 2 (September 1941): 23-24. Malcolm Cowley, Exile's Return: A Literary Odyssey of the 1920's. New York: Limited Editions Club, 1981. Limited edition, number 1855 of 2000 copies. Photographs by Berenice Abbott. Signed by both the author and the photographer. This edition contains a new introduction by Leon Edel and is illustrated with the contemporary photographs of Abbott. Gertrude Stein, Paris France. New York: Charles Scribner and Sons; London: Batsford, 1940. Stein 1 s book deals with the subjects of the national characteristics of Paris and France. John Dos Passos, The 42nd Parallel. New York and London: Harper and Brothers, 1930. Mary Ellen Jordan Haight, Walks in Gertrude Stein's Paris. Layton, Utah: G. M. Smith, 1988. This book discusses the homes and haunts of Paris, including the literary landmarks and bohemian life of the 1920s and 1930s. Periodicals and "Little Magazines" The many writers who contributed to the periodicals and little magazines of the 1920s were usually paid enough money to sustain themselves while in Paris. For example, F. Scott Fitzgerald was able to support his family while they were in Paris by writing many short stories. His novel writing, though, did get side-tracked by this sort of writing. Some of the stories produced by the expatriates were serialized in the magazines before appearing in book form (for example, Sherwood Anderson Is "Many 3 Marriages"). Other little magazines expressed the strong political views of their editorial staffs (for example, Ezra Pound's The Exile). The magazines provided publication opportunities for all the writers, whether African-American or white, male or female. Also, through these organs, correspondence between the writers was published.