“Such Friends”: 100 years ago, Fall, 1921, Belleville, outside of Paris

From his high perch atop the step ladder, American ex-pat Gerald Murphy, 33, can get a better view of the huge canvas he is working on, refurbishing the sets for the Ballets Russes.

Serge Diaghilev, 49, the founder and director of the ballet company, has asked Gerald, his wife Sara, just turned 38, and some other young students who are studying painting to travel out here daily to his atelier to work on restoring the sets designed for his Ballet by local artists. Such as George Braque, 39. Andre Derain, 41. Pablo Picasso, 40.

Serge Diaghilev

The Murphys jumped at the chance. Not only have they had the opportunity to meet some of the top cubist painters of the time, they get to hang out with the crowd around the Ballets Russes. Gerald is thrilled that they are not only allowed to watch rehearsals, they are expected to. And to discuss their opinions of the work.

These artists are not like the ones the Murphys have known before in America. Gerald sees Picasso as “a dark, powerful physical presence,” like a bull in a Goya painting. And the Spaniard seems particularly interested in Sara.

Their life in Paris is so much different—so much better—than what they left behind in America when they boarded the SS Cedric for Southampton, England, in June.

Gerald has taken a leave of absence from the landscape architecture course he was enrolled in at Harvard. They packed up the kids—Honoria, 3 ½; Baoth, 2; and Patrick, 8 months—and the nanny and spent some time in England visiting the stately homes that Sara had known when she lived there as a child.

Didn’t like it. Really hot summer and the gardens were all parched and brown.

So they decided to go to Paris for a bit and then head home.

But when the Murphy family arrived here in early September, their American friends convinced them to stay. Everyone’s coming to Paris.

After they had been in their furnished apartment at 2 rue Greuze for about a month, Gerald was stopped in his tracks by a display in the window of an art gallery:  Cubist paintings, like the ones he had seen in the Armory Show in New York eight years ago, by some of the same artists—Braque, Derain, Picasso.

Gerald told Sara,

That’s the kind of painting that I would like to do.”

He and Sara found a recently arrived Russian cubist/futurist, Natalia Goncharova, 40, who teaches painting in her studio on the rue de Seine in the Left Bank, and they have been taking lessons from her every day. Goncharova only allows abstract painting, nothing representational. Or, as Sara says,

No apple on a dish.”

Natalia Goncharova

Goncharova has created set designs for Diaghilev, so she told the Russian impresario about her eager American students and he immediately sensed an opportunity for free labor, getting his sets fixed up for the coming spring season.

The Murphys don’t mind volunteering their services. They have Sara’s family income of about $7,000 a year, and the franc is going for less than 20 cents on the dollar.

And in France, they can have cocktails with dinner. No Prohibition.

Set and costume designs by Picasso for the Ballets Russes

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I and II covering 1920 and 1921 are available as signed copies at Riverstone Books, Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA, and in print and e-book formats on Amazon. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

At the end of February I will be talking about the Publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University.

Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon in both print and e-book versions.

If you want to walk with me through Bloomsbury, you can download my audio walking tour, “Such Friends”:  Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group.

“Such Friends” Supports Small Business Saturday

We interrupt our ongoing chronicle of what was happening 100 years ago in the literary world, to give another push to local independent bookstores. Forget what day today is and remember tomorrow, Saturday, November 27^th, Small Business Saturday.

As an incentive, here is my recent blog about the fabulous holiday presents awaiting you at Riverstone Books in Squirrel Hill—signed copies of “Such Friends”—The Literary 1920s, Volumes I and II!

PS To my fellow yinzers, the City of Pittsburgh is offering free parking in their lots and metered spaces all weekend!

“Such Friends” Supports Local Independent Bookstores

It’s that time of year again—time to get out and spend your money at local small businesses!

And don’t forget your local independent bookstore. Where you just may find “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s, Volumes I and II, including all the blogs posted here about what was happening 100 years ago in 1920 and 1921. If they don’t have it—tell them to order now! Everybody’s reading it.

Everybody reading “Such Friends”!

For example, if you live anywhere near the Squirrel Hill neighborhood in Pittsburgh, PA—lucky you! There are signed copies of “Such Friends” available at Riverstone Books, near the intersection of Forbes and Murray Avenues.

Maybe you’ve finished your holiday shopping but would still like to find out more about what was happening in the literary world in the 1920s. On February 3^rd, 2022, I will be talking about Pittsburgh’s Gertrude Stein and the Literary 1920s at 7 pm at Riverstone Books. For Stein’s 148^th birthday we think she deserves a party—and a book signing! The event is free and open to the public, but you can register at the Riverstone website so we know you’re coming.

If you can’t come in person that night, sign up on the website to tune in on Zoom.

And if you’re not lucky enough to live in Pittsburgh, you will just have to order your copies, print or ebook, from Amazon. Or contact me to arrange for signed copies:  kaydee@gypsyteacher.com

Happy holidays to all of our “such friends”!

At the end of February I will be talking about the Publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University.

Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon in both print and e-book versions.

If you want to walk with me through Bloomsbury, you can download my audio walking tour, “Such Friends”:  Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group.

“Such Friends”: 100 years ago, November 24, 1921, Life magazine, New York City, New York

A poem by free-lance writer Dorothy Parker, 28, is published in the humor magazine Life, edited by her Algonquin Hotel lunch buddies, Robert Benchley, 32, and Robert Sherwood, 25. She praises the new hot Broadway star, Lynn Fontanne, 33, appearing as the ditzy title character in Dulcy, written by two of Parker’s other lunch buddies, Marc Connelly, 30, and George S. Kaufman, 32, based on a character by another one of their friends, columnist FPA [Franklin P. Adams], 40.

Lynn Fontanne as Dulcy

Lynn Fontanne

By Dorothy Parker

Dulcy, take our gratitude,

All your words are gold ones.

Mistress of the platitude,

Queen of all the old ones.

You, at last, are something new

‘Neath the theatre’s dome. I’d

Mention to the cosmos, you

Swing a wicked bromide.”

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I and II covering 1920 and 1921 are available as signed copies at Riverstone Books, Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA, and in print and e-book formats on Amazon. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

At the end of February I will be talking about the Publication of Joyce’s Ulysses at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University.

Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon in both print and e-book versions.

If you want to walk with me through Bloomsbury, you can download my audio walking tour, “Such Friends”:  Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group.

“Such Friends”: 100 years ago, November 21, 1921, Girl Scout Tea House at Peirce Mill, Rock Creek Park, Washington, D. C.

Opening day at the tea house operated by the Girl Scouts of Washington, D. C., is going well.

This is the first time the public has visited the former restaurant, now redecorated with new curtains, furniture, and a fresh lick of paint, all in cheery blue and yellow. There was a nice write-up in the Washington Post yesterday, which is bringing out the crowds.

Peirce Mill, Rock Creek Park

The official grand opening was held two days ago for invited guests only, with the First Lady and honorary president of the national organization, Florence Harding, 61, doing the honors.

The specialty of the house is Florence’s “Harding Waffles,” made popular last year during her husband’s presidential campaign. President Warren G. Harding, 56, loves waffles—smothered in chipped beef gravy [although the Girl Scouts serve them with butter and syrup]—and Florence’s recipe swept the nation. She is particularly careful to use ingredients which were rationed during the Great War, to underscore her husband’s campaign theme of “Return to Normalcy.”

Florence Harding’s Waffle Recipe

Serves four

INGREDIENTS:
2 eggs.
2 tbls. sugar.
2 tbls. butter.
1 teaspoon salt.
1 pt. milk.
Flour to make thin batter. (I use about 2 cups flour)
2 large teaspoons baking powder

INSTRUCTIONS:
Separate the eggs.
Beat yolks and add sugar and salt.
Melt butter then add milk and flour and stir to combine.
Beat egg whites until stiff (but not dry) peaks form.
Stir one spoonful of whites into the mixture to lighten and then fold remainder of egg whites and baking powder.
Bake in a hot waffle iron.”

From the 1921 Atlanta Women’s Club Cookbook

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I and II covering 1920 and 1921 are available as signed copies at Riverstone Books, Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA, and in print and e-book formats on Amazon. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

Early next year I will be talking about the Centenary of the Publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses.

Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon in both print and e-book versions.

If you want to walk with me through Bloomsbury, you can download my audio walking tour, “Such Friends”:  Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group.

“Such Friends”: 100 years ago, November 18, 1921, Park Theatre, Columbus Circle, New York City, New York

Let’s hope things go better this time.

Five days ago, social activist Margaret Sanger, 42, and her collaborator, former Liberal Member of the British Parliament Harold Cox, 62, showed up at Town Hall to give their scheduled talk, “Birth Control—Is it Moral?”

Margaret Sanger

They were met by police, and one told them,

There ain’t gonna be no meeting. That’s all I know.”

Sanger was arrested for disorderly conduct, but before the cops could take her away, she shouted,

We have a right to hold [this meeting] under the Constitution…let them club us if they want to.”

Of course, she was released immediately, and the publicity is a godsend. Now they have a couple of thousand people lined up to hear Margaret and Harold talk tonight about the taboo subject of—Shock! Horror!—birth control.

Ad for the Park Theatre talk

Sanger has been blocked out of many venues before. But this is the first time the interference has been so brutal. And, as far as she knows, the first time it has come on direct order from the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York, Patrick J. Hayes, 54.

Archbishop Patrick J. Hayes

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I and II covering 1920 and 1921 are available as signed copies at Riverstone Books, Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA, and in print and e-book formats on Amazon. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

Early next year I will be talking about the Centenary of the Publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses.

Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon in both print and e-book versions.

If you want to walk with me through Bloomsbury, you can download my audio walking tour, “Such Friends”:  Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group.

“Such Friends” Supports Local Independent Bookstores

It’s that time of year again—time to get out and spend your money at local small businesses!

And don’t forget your local independent bookstore. Where you just may find “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s, Volumes I and II, including all the blogs posted here about what was happening 100 years ago in 1920 and 1921. If they don’t have it—tell them to order now! Everybody’s reading it.

Everybody reading “Such Friends”!

For example, if you live anywhere near the Squirrel Hill neighborhood in Pittsburgh, PA—lucky you! There are signed copies of “Such Friends” available at Riverstone Books, near the intersection of Forbes and Murray Avenues.

Maybe you’ve finished your holiday shopping but would still like to find out more about what was happening in the literary world in the 1920s. On February 3^rd, 2022, I will be talking about Pittsburgh’s Gertrude Stein and the Literary 1920s at 7 pm at Riverstone Books. For Stein’s 148^th birthday we think she deserves a party—and a book signing! The event is free and open to the public, but you can register at the Riverstone website so we know you’re coming.

If you can’t come in person that night, sign up on the website to tune in on Zoom!

And if you’re not lucky enough to live in Pittsburgh, you will just have to order your copies, print or ebook, from Amazon. Or contact me to arrange for signed copies:  kaydee@gypsyteacher.com

Happy holidays to all of our “such friends”!

Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon in both print and e-book versions.

Early next year I will be talking about the Centenary of the Publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses.

If you want to walk with me through Bloomsbury, you can download my audio walking tour, “Such Friends”:  Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group.

“Such Friends”: 100 years ago, early November, 1921, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 153-157 Fifth Avenue, New York City, New York; and 626 Goodrich Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota

Throughout the fall, Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins, 37, has been corresponding with his star author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, 25, currently back in his hometown of St. Paul with his wife awaiting the arrival of their first child.

626 Goodrich Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota

Scott had dropped off the completed manuscript of his second novel, The Beautiful and Damned, at the end of April and then headed off to London and Paris with his pregnant wife, Zelda, 22.

Last month Fitzgerald, like most authors, had been complaining to Max about the minimal advertising for his first novel, last year’s hit This Side of Paradise. Perkins had encouraged him to express any of his dissatisfactions and to keep sending suggestions. He assured Scott that

the more you help us in connection with the make-up of these advertisements, the better. I think we did more advertising, very probably, than you were aware of, but it was not as effective or as plainly visible as it should have been. But we have now a man with excellent experience whom we believe will do the work with skill and vigor…I only want to ask you always to criticize freely….and to convince you that, in the case of The Beautiful and Damned, we will work the scheme out with you so that…you will feel satisfaction both with the copy and the campaign.”

Of course, say what you will about the advertising, Paradise was Scribner’s biggest success last year.

Then, while Scott was correcting page proofs, he asked Perkins for some help with details about student life at Harvard that he wanted to include. Having graduated from there in 1907 with a degree in economics, Perkins was happy to oblige.

Last month, the editor was also pleased to pass on to Fitzgerald that he had seen one of the stenographers

taking some proofs out to lunch with her…because she could not stop reading it. That is the way with all of them who are near enough to get their hands on the proofs—not only the stenographers.”

Two years ago, Perkins had to fight the Scribner’s editorial board to have them publish a novel as different as Paradise. Now the whole house is anticipating that they have another hit on their hands with Beautiful and Damned.

Today Max is writing Scott an even cheerier letter, congratulating him on the birth of his daughter, Frances Scott Fitzgerald, one week old. When “Scottie” was born, Scott telegraphed his parents,

LILLIAN GISH IS IN MOURNING

CONSTANCE TALMADGE IS A BACK NUMBER

A SECOND MARY PICKFORD HAS ARRIVED.”

Assuming that Zelda had wanted a girl, Perkins writes to the new father,

if you are like me,…you will need some slight consolation and having had great experience with daughters—four of them, I can forecast that you will be satisfied later on.”

*****

In St. Paul, Scott has rented an office in town so he can work away from his recuperating wife, the hired nurse, and the screaming baby. He’s working on a satiric play.

Scottie and Zelda Fitzgerald

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I and II covering 1920 and 1921 are available as signed copies at Riverstone Books, Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA, and in print and e-book formats on Amazon. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

Early next year I will be talking about the Centenary of the Publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses.

Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon in both print and e-book versions.

If you want to walk with me through Bloomsbury, you can download my audio walking tour, “Such Friends”:  Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group.

“Such Friends”: 100 years ago, November 11, 1921, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington Co., Virginia; and Westminster Abbey, London

Just across the Potomac River from Washington D. C., the first entombment of an American “unknown soldier” is taking place to commemorate the third Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the Great War.

Chosen randomly by a U. S. Army sergeant from four sets of remains taken from four cemeteries on the French battlefields, this soldier has literally had a stormy journey to get here.

On its way to France to collect the precious cargo, the USS Olympia was hit by a tropical storm in the Atlantic.

On the way back, the weather was even worse. The ship took on water and the Marine Guard assigned to the casket was almost washed overboard. Hit by the same tropical storm, the Olympia sustained 13-foot waves.

But the remains have arrived safely. Speaking at the ceremony, President Warren G. Harding, 56, remarked, “We know not whence he came, only that his death marks him with the everlasting glory of an American dying for his country.”

Armistice Day ceremony

*****

In London, this is the third year that the United Kingdom has commemorated Remembrance Day.

Last year the UK government, along with the government of their ally, France, buried remains of an “unknown warrior” and a “soldat inconnu.”

Lord Field Marshall Haig, 60, who commanded the British Expeditionary Force, has felt that the country’s reverence for the importance of the day is already waning. So he proposed asking his countrymen to remember those who are buried under the poppies in Flanders Field by buying and wearing commemorative poppies. And shaming those who don’t.

The first Poppy Day appears to be a success. They are on track for sales of eight million poppy pins.

Remembrance Day leaflet

Poppy Day continues to this day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I and II covering 1920 and 1921 are available as signed copies at Riverstone Books, Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA, and in print and e-book formats on Amazon. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

Early next year I will be talking about the Centenary of the Publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses.

Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon in both print and e-book versions.

If you want to walk with me through Bloomsbury, you can download my audio walking tour, “Such Friends”:  Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group.

“Such Friends”: 100 years ago, November 8, 1921, New York City, New York

Famous Players-Lasky Pictures has a hit on their hands.

The Sheik, starring Rudolph Valentino, 26, opened in Los Angeles a bit more than a week ago and audiences love it. Critics have their doubts. Some feel the film shouldn’t have left out the key rape scene that was in the original British novel.

Rudolph Valentino and Agnes Ayres in The Sheik

But Jesse Lasky, 41, founder of the studio, feels that the film does justice to the novel and sensitive scenes were handled well.

He’s pleased with Valentino, who is already popular from his earlier films, particularly The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse which was released this spring by Metro Pictures.

Metro didn’t treat Valentino well, and Lasky has lured him to Famous Players.

The Sheik opened here in New York City two days ago, and is breaking attendance records at two major theatres, the Rialto and the Rivoli among others.

Lasky feels that when the film is released nationwide in two weeks, there will be a similar response. He’s thinking of promotional ideas to push it even more. Like maybe, “Sheik Week.”

He prefers to spend his time coming up with promotional ideas like this, rather than thinking about the charges the U. S. Federal Trade Commission has brought against his company for intimidating theatre owners into block booking films.

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I and II covering 1920 and 1921 are available as signed copies at Riverstone Books, Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA, and in print and e-book formats on Amazon. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

Early next year I will be talking about the Centenary of the Publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses.

Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon in both print and e-book versions.

If you want to walk with me through Bloomsbury, you can download my audio walking tour, “Such Friends”:  Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group.

“Such Friends”: 100 years ago, early November, 1921, 9 rue de l’Universite, Paris

Fresh from the achievement of having finished his novel Ulysses at the end of last month, Irish ex-pat James Joyce, 39, is writing to one of his English benefactors, Harriet Shaw Weaver, 45, back in London:

A coincidence is that of birthdays in connection with my books. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man which first appeared serially in your paper [The Egoist magazine] on 2 February [his birthday] finished on 1 September [her birthday]. Ulysses began on 1 March (birthday. of a friend of mine, a Cornish painter) and was finished on Mr. [Ezra] Pound’s birthday [30 October], he tells me. I wonder on whose it will be published?”

Now Joyce is wondering. What about February?

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man published by the Egoist Press, 1914

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I and II covering 1920 and 1921 are available as signed copies at Riverstone Books on Forbes Avenue in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA; and in print and e-book formats on Amazon. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

Early next year I will be talking about The Centenary of the Publication of Ulysses.

Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon in both print and e-book versions.

If you want to walk with me through Bloomsbury, you can download my audio walking tour, “Such Friends”:  Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group.