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The post-WWI era in the United States -

The generation who reached adulthood during or immediately following World War I in the United States were referred to as the "Lost Generation."

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A post-war world -

In a post-war world, the conservative moral and political values of their parents seemed irrelevant. President Warren G. Harding’s "back to normalcy" policy called for a return to the way of life following the war and Spanish flu epidemic, but young people felt alienated by this.

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American expatriate writers in Paris -

In literature, the term "Lost Generation" refers to a group of American writers who found inspiration in their lives in Paris in the 1920s, where they immortalized the struggles of the time.

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American expatriate writers in Paris -

By expressing a mythologized version of their own lives, they captured an aimless lifestyle that followed in the wake of values being destructed, post-war.

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Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) -

An American novelist, playwright, and poet, Gertrude Stein moved to Paris in 1903. She hosted meetings where artists and writers would gather. She's credited with coining the term "Lost Generation," associated with these expatriates, as she is quoted as saying to Ernest Hemingway: "All of you young people who served in the war... You are all a lost generation."

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Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) -

Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, and Henri Matisse frequented her Paris salon. She wrote a quasi-memoir of her life in Paris, 'The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas' (1933), which became a literary bestseller.

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F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) -

Now regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century, F. Scott Fitzgerald experienced critical acclaim only after his death. He depicted the excesses and flamboyance of the Lost Generation in a number of novels.

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Zelda Fitzgerald (1900-1948) -

Zelda Fitzgerald (neé Sayre) was an American novelist, painter, and socialite. She became known in the American press as the first American flapper.

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F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald -

F. Scott Fitzgerald met Sayre when he was garrisoned in Montgomery, Alabama, during WWI. Sayre agreed to marry him following the commercial success of his first novel, 'This Side of Paradise' (1920).

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The Fitzgerald family -

The Fitzgeralds had a daughter, Scottie, and moved to Europe in 1924. F. Scott Fitzgerald became friends with members of the American expatriate community in Paris, including writer Gertrude Stein, bookseller Sylvia Beach, novelist James Joyce, poet Ezra Pound, and others.

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'The Great Gatsby' (1925) -

F. Scott Fitzgerald's magnum opus, he completed 'The Great Gatsby' (1925) while living in France. At the time of publishing, it was a commercial disappointment. It experienced a revival years after Fitzgerald's death, when it began to be considered a literary masterwork.

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Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) -

Ernest Hemingway was an American journalist and novelist. He moved to Paris to work as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star newspaper, where he fell in with the modernist Lost Generation set.

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Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) -

Hemingway published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works. He became famous for his spare, tight prose, and for exploring themes including love, war, loss, travel, and wilderness.

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'A Moveable Feast' (1964) -

Published posthumously, 'A Moveable Feast' (1964) chronicled Hemingway's years as a struggling journalist and author in Paris. The book refers to many of the main literary scene establishments and the people who frequented them, many of which are still standing in Paris today.

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E.E. Cummings (1894-1962) -

American author, essayist, poet, and playwright E.E. Cummings traveled back and forth to Paris over the course of the '20s, with his writings being influenced by the Lost Generation's modernist style and his exposure to Surrealism there.

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Ezra Pound (1885-1972) -

Ezra Pound was an influential figure in early modernist poetry. He moved to Paris in 1921 with his wife, where he edited a young Ernest Hemingway's short stories and T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land' (1922).

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Archibald MacLeish (1892-1982) -

MacLeish was an American poet and writer, who rejected a legal career to work as a writer. He moved to Paris with his wife in the 1920s, where he joined the community of literary expats, and his poetry found publication with Harry Crosby of the Black Sun Press.

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Kay Boyle (1902-1992) -

Boyle was a writer and poet, who moved to France in 1923. There she made friends with many of the artists and writers living around Montparnasse, including the owners of Black Sun Press who published her first work of fiction.

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Djuna Barnes (1892-1982) -

The artist, illustrator, writer, and journalist moved to Paris in 1921 thanks to a commission with McCall's. During her decade in the city, she published 'A Book' (1923), which was a collection of poetry, plays, and short stories.

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John Dos Passos (1896-1970) -

An American novelist, Dos Passos was known for his pioneering works of nonlinear fiction. While stationed in Paris with the US Army during WWI, he studied anthropology at the Sorbonne. When the war ended, he stayed on, becoming friends with the artists and writers around Montparnasse. He published his first novel 'One Man's Initiation: 1917' (1920), which was written in the trenches during World War I.

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Morley Callaghan (1903-1990) -

Callaghan was a Canadian novelist, short story writer, playwright, and TV and radio personality. He got to know Ernest Hemingway through his work with the Toronto Star. Regarded as one of the best short story writers of his day, in 1929 Callaghan spent time in Paris, among the Montparnasse writers including Hemingway, Pound, Stein, Fitzgerald, and Joyce.

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Janet Flanders (1892–1978) -

Janet Flanders chronicled life in Paris for The New Yorker magazine, over 50 years. She lived in the historic quarter of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and frequented the famous cafés Deux Magots and Flore, becoming part of the French cultural scene. Her friendships with Hemingway, Stein, and Fitzgerald would be lifelong.

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Sylvia Beach (1884-1962) -

Sylvia Beach was a bookseller and publisher, originally from Maryland, who studied French contemporary literature in Paris during the last years of the Great War.

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Shakespeare and Company -

Inspired by the literary Left Bank scene, Beach dreamed of opening a bookshop in New York. However, Parisian rents at the time were more affordable. She opened the English-language bookstore and lending-library Shakespeare and Company in 1919.

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'Ulysses' (1922) -

Upon meeting James Joyce at a party in 1920, who told her about his unsuccessful attempts to publish his manuscript 'Ulysses,' Beach agreed to do so. Shakespeare and Company achieved fame following its publication. However, afterwards Joyce signed with another publisher, leaving Beach in debt and suffering severe losses from bankrolling it.

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Favored hangouts of the Lost Generation - Café Les Deux Magots -

On a big left bank boulevard overlooking the Saint-Germain-des-Prés church, this iconic Parisian café was a favorite of the Lost Generation, in particular Hemingway, as well as contemporaries Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Pablo Picasso.

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Favored hangouts of the Lost Generation - La Rotonde -

Hemingway described La Rotonde as a "sink of corruption," and it featured in his novel 'The Sun Also Rises' (1926). The café was an institution that welcomed Lost Generation regulars, as well as Picasso, Modigliani, and Diego Rivera.

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Pop culture references: 'Midnight in Paris' (2011) -

More recently, Woody Allen's 'Midnight in Paris' (2011) featured a main character who time travels back to the 1920s to meet the main figures in the Lost Generation literary scene.

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A relic of the Lost Generation: Shakespeare and Company lives on -

Meanwhile, Shakespeare and Company lives on in the Left Bank as an independent, English-language bookstore. Following the closure of Sylvia Beach's original iteration in 1941, a new Shakespeare and Company opened in 1951 as a tribute, in a different location. Upstairs it houses artists and writers who are passing through the city, in exchange for work at the bookshop.

Sources: (Britannica) (Encyclopedia.com) (ThoughtCo) (Oxford Bibliographies) (TheCollector) (Smithsonian Magazine) (Owlcation)

See also: The most influential authors of the 20th century

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