“Such Friends”: 100 Years Ago, mid-February, 1924, Plymouth Theatre, 236 West 45th Street, New York City, New York

The 20-city, month-long Midwest speaking tour of Pulitzer-prize winning poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, about to turn 32, to promote her latest collection, The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems, culminates in her final appearance here on Broadway.

Plymouth Theatre

It’s been a grueling few weeks, but Millay has learned to allow for enough rest to keep going. Audiences have been enthusiastic, but mostly they want to hear her recite,

My candle burns at both ends;

It will not last the night;

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—

It gives a lovely light!”

Her new husband—seven months this week!—Dutch businessman Eugene Boissevain, 43, has been encouraging her and whipping up an audience for this final show. But he has missed his new wife terribly. He wrote to her sister, Kay, 27,

Call me up and have dinner, tea, or a cocktail…I’m as lonely as hell…Tell as many people as you can [about the final show]…and make them buy tickets.”

Gene Boissevain and Edna St. Vincent Millay

Gene is thinking it may be worth it to sell off his import business and become Edna’s full-time manager. He’s sure he can get her at least $600 per reading.

Also in tonight’s audience are the dean of Manhattan columnists, FPA (Franklin Pierce Adams), 43, and his date for the evening, novelist Edna Ferber, 38. During the show Frank is thinking that he enjoyed the sausages Ferber made them for dinner more than he’s enjoying this poetry reading. And he would rather read Millay’s poetry on the page than hear her dramatically declaim it.

On their way home, Ferber and Adams stop by the apartment of their friends from frequent lunches at the Algonquin Hotel, playwright George S Kaufman, 34, and his wife, publicist Bea, 29. They spend the rest of the evening gossiping and playing cards with the Kaufmans and another lunch buddy, free-lance writer Dorothy Parker, 30, continuing their conversation that started at lunch.

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the paperback series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I through IV, covering 1920 through 1923 are available at Thoor Ballylee in Co. Galway, and as signed copies at Pan Yan Bookstore in Tiffin, OH, City Books on the North Side and Riverstone Books in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA. They are also on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in print and e-book formats. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

This summer I will be talking about the literary 1920s in Paris and New York at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University, and about early 20^th century supporters of the arts at Osher in the University of Pittsburgh.

Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk 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” Update!

We interrupt our chronicling of what was happening 100 years ago in the literary and artistic worlds to bring you an update on activities here in “Such Friends” central.

Thanks to such-a-friend Arlan Hess, owner of City Books Pittsburgh, Gertrude Stein finally had her day in the town where she was born. On Saturday, February 3^rd, City Books and the nearby Hugh Lane Wellness Foundation hosted a 150^th birthday party for Gertrude.

Your blog host at Gertrude Stein’s house

Proclamations from the County, the City and the office of Mayor Ed Gainey were issued and suitably proclaimed. (All these great photos of Gertrude Stein Day are by Lauryn Halahurich/Those in Motion.)

Proclaimers with proclamations

Three different groups of ardent fans joined me to walk around the corner to the Stein family home, at 842 Beech Avenue (there’s a plaque), and hear me pontificate about Stein’s six-month stay in Allegheny, PA, which is now part of Pittsburgh.

Your blog host pontificating to ardent fans

Back in the shop, we all enjoyed rose-covered petit fours and rose-colored macaroons.

Thank you, Arlan!

Masked shop owner Arlan Hess with your masked blog host

Of course, I was happy to sign copies of all four volumes of “Such Friends”: The Literary 1920s, covering 1920 through 1923. There are still some signed copies available at City Books. Stop by Galveston Avenue and say hi to Arlan!

*****

In addition, testimonials keep pouring in from friends and strangers alike about how much they enjoy all four volumes of the “Such Friends” series. (If they are not available in your local bookstore, tell them to contact me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com. We’ll make them available.)

A judge in the Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Competition, ranking Volume I “exemplary” in four categories, commented,

delightful, quick read…several great stories about Black artists like [Langston] Hughes and [Paul] Robeson…I enjoyed working my way through the year with these writers and other artists…The historical and cultural context (“Pinkolic Soap” advertisement) add a lot of color. The formatting of the text and layout of the pages are extremely effective…I enjoyed the many photographs and other historical documents.”

The extremely effective text and layout of “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s

Scott, an Ernest Hemingway fan says,

Love the whole concept of your project, capturing and chronicling the 1920s literary scene. Again, job well done!”

Maureen, a fan from a Bloomsbury Group Facebook page, says,

a fascinating insight into connections between figures in the literary world of the very early 1920s. I look forward to ordering more!…PS I love the way you state the age of all individuals, as knowing how old significant people were at various stages in their professional and private lives provides important context for me. Thank you!”

Marie, Semester-at-Sea fan, says,

excellent job!…I’ve been saving the book for a winter day, and we’ve had that, so took advantage of gray cool weather & warm pups. Didn’t gulp it down; savored it like…good popcorn. with maybe a cold beer.”

And Julian, former grad student fan, says

an amazing literary chronicle with a surprise historical treat around every corner.’

So get your copies of all four volumes of “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s from your local bookstore now, or break down and order from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

And my offer holds:  If you live on a Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus route, I will come sign your copies.

First four volumes of “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s

P. S.  “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s, Volume V—1924, is written and in production. We’re halfway through the decade!

Later this month I will be talking about early 20^th century supporters of the arts like the Stein family 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 Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk 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, February 22, 1924, New York City, New York

Fueling the controversy over the upcoming premiere of the latest play by Eugene O’Neill, 35, All God’s Chillun’ Got Wings, a national news syndicate has distributed a photo of a scene from rehearsal featuring the two leads, Paul Robeson, 25, and Mary Blair, 28, with the headline

WHITE ACTRESS KISSES NEGRO’S HAND.”

A scene from All God’s Chillun’ Got Wings

In today’s Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Blair is quoted as saying,

I deem it an honor to take the part of Ella. There is nothing in the part that should give offense to any woman desiring to portray life and portray it decently.”

Blair, with a five-month old daughter with her new husband—one year as of last week!—literary critic Edmund Wilson, also 28, has been suffering bouts of pleurisy and the opening of the play has been postponed a few times.

Robeson has been eager to appear at the Provincetown Playhouse in any work by their star playwright, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner O’Neill.

Mary Blair

When Paul and his wife Essie, also 28, read the full play in an advance copy of the new American Mercury magazine, they were, as Essie wrote in her diary, “profoundly impressed [with its] beauty.” The Robesons knew that the portrayal of interracial marriage would be controversial.

The American Mercury, February

Since Paul walked out on his job as an attorney at a corporate law firm last spring, he and Essie have enjoyed taking in the cultural life of New York. They’ve been inspired by concerts by tenor Roland Hayes, 36, and contralto Marian Anderson, about to turn 27, and kept up with their appearances as sorority and fraternity events.

With the announcement of Paul’s role in the O’Neill play, he has experienced increased interest in his acting and singing career. Robeson has been contacted by national record companies; he has been asked to sing at sports banquets, NAACP dinners, and the Brooklyn YWCA. The Robesons have decided that Paul can even afford to turn down the offer of a lead role from the Ethiopian Art Theatre, recently relocated from Chicago to Harlem, after they attended a production and thought the performances were terrible.

Paul Robeson

But the controversy over All God’s Chillun’ Got Wings is taking a nasty turn, led by the New York American, owned by Hearst Publications, and The Morning Telegraph. The newspapers have called for the city to ban the play, warning of race riots. However, the audiences at the Provincetown Playhouse in Greenwich Village are made up totally of subscribers, so the New York City government has no authority to shut it down.

At the height of the controversy the playwright in the middle of it all, O’Neill, issued a statement, saying that the criticisms

very obviously come from people who have not read a line of the play. [Well, they could have, actually, in American Mercury]. Prejudice born of an entire ignorance of the subject is the last word in injustice and absurdity…As for the much-discussed casting of Mr. Robeson in the leading part…I have only this to say, that I believe he can portray the character better than any other actor could. That’s all there is to it. A fine actor is a fine actor. The question of race prejudice cannot enter here…Right in this city two years ago…[Robeson in Taboo played a king opposite a white actress playing his queen]. A king and queen are, I believe, usually married. [He played the same role in England]…There were no race riots here or there. There was no newspaper rioting either.”

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the paperback series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I through IV, covering 1920 through 1923 are available at Thoor Ballylee in Co. Galway, and as signed copies at Pan Yan Bookstore in Tiffin, OH, City Books on the North Side and Riverstone Books in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA. They are also on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in print and e-book formats. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

Later this month I will be talking about early 20^th century supporters of the arts 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.com and Amazon.co.uk 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, mid-February, 1924, Broadhurst Theatre, 235 West 44th Street, New York City, New York

Playwrights Marc Connelly, 33, and George S Kaufman, 34, have another hit on their hands.

Their latest Broadway success, Beggar on Horseback, starring Broadway newcomers Spring Byington, 37, and Osgood Perkins, 31, with music by Deems Taylor, 38, just opened to good reviews.

Broadhurst Theatre

But each writer is feeling that it’s time to move on. Kaufman is tired of Connelly’s laid back approach to their work. It seems as though Marc’s girlfriend always has a dead cat to bury.

But Kaufman knows that he needs to collaborate with somebody. So he teamed up with one of their friends from lunches at the Algonquin Hotel, free-lance writer Dorothy Parker, 30, to write a curtain-raiser for Beggar, a little one-act called Business Is Business.

George S Kaufman

What a disaster. She’s obscene. Offensive. She uses language no lady should ever use. And she has sloppy work habits. That’s the end of that, decides Kaufman.

That’s the end of that, decides Parker. Okay, sometimes he can be a bit funny. But there’s not much talent there. Basically, he’s a mess.

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the paperback series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I through IV, covering 1920 through 1923 are available at Thoor Ballylee in Co. Galway, and as signed copies at Pan Yan Bookstore in Tiffin, OH, City Books on the North Side and Riverstone Books in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA. They are also on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in print and e-book formats. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

Later this month I will be talking about early 20^th century supporters of the arts 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.com and Amazon.co.uk 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, February, 1924, Roseneath Nursing Home, Winchmore Hill, London

Irish poet and playwright William Butler Yeats, 58, has a brother, painter Jack, 52; and two sisters, Susan, 57, named after their mother, but always called “Lily,” and Elizabeth, 55, always called “Lolly.”

Lily and Lolly Yeats

For the past 15 years the sisters have run a business together, the Cuala Press; have lived together in Dundrum, South Dublin; and have hosted Thursday evening salons together, attracting a wide variety of local and national personalities.

They have also gotten on each other’s nerves together. Neither has been in good health.

Cuala Press produces quality hand-printed books, some written by their brother, but many by other writers.

Willie’s wife Georgie, 31, helps Lily run the embroidery department of Cuala where they turn out beautiful linens and dresses for wealthy Irish women.

Last summer, while on holiday in London, Lily developed tuberculosis. Willie arranged for her to enter this London nursing home. At the end of the year, when he received the Nobel Prize for Literature, her brother used the cash prize to extend Lily’s stay there, and Georgie has been taking care of organizing and paying the bills for her treatment.

Lily is forever grateful for this break from her usual life. She writes down on paper how she feels about her sister:

“Life with her the past 20 years has been a torture…It is impossible ever to think of living with her again…And now there is hope. I want to thank Willie and Georgie for this ease of body and mind they have given me…Whether I recover or not while lying in bed I will get great happiness out of thinking that there can be a life for me of the freedom that I have all my life longed for.”

Lily decides not to send the letter.

N. B.:  Thanks to Phil Mason, author of Lady Gregory, A Galway Life, for her help with details in this posting.

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the paperback series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I through IV, covering 1920 through 1923 are available at Thoor Ballylee in Co. Galway, and as signed copies at Pan Yan Bookstore in Tiffin, OH, City Books on the North Side and Riverstone Books in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA. They are also on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in print and e-book formats. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

Later this month I will be talking about early 20^th century supporters of the arts at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University.

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

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

“Such Friends”: 100 Years Ago, February 14, 1924, Life magazine, New York City, New York

Life magazine’s weekly listings section includes capsule reviews of current plays, written by their theatre critic, Robert Benchley, 32:

Abie’s Irish Rose. Republic Theatre—In another two or three years, we’ll have this play driven out of town.”

Abie’s Irish Rose promotional material

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I through IV, covering 1920 through 1923 are available at Thoor Ballylee in Co. Galway, and as signed copies at Pan Yan Bookstore in Tiffin, OH, City Books on the North Side, and Riverstone Books in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA. They are also on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in print and e-book formats. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

Later this month I will be talking about early 20^th century supporters of the arts 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.com and Amazon.co.uk 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, February 12, 1924, Aeolian Hall, 29-33 West 42nd Street, New York City, New York

Paul Whiteman, 33, is realizing his dream of presenting a classical jazz concert. Back at the beginning of the year he had asked composer George Gershwin, 25, with whom he had collaborated on The Scandals of 1922, to write a piece that could be presented as part of an evening called “An Experiment in Modern Music.” Gershwin felt Whiteman’s deadline was unrealistic, so continually declined.

Aeolian Hall

But when Whiteman found out that a rival impresario was planning a similar concert, Gershwin agreed so they could be the first to give jazz a formal presentation. Even though George had less than six weeks to produce the finished piece.

On a train to Boston, from the sounds of the wheels on the rails, Gershwin got his rhythm. On such a tight schedule, everything about the piece was subject to change up until tonight’s premiere. George wanted to convey the energy of the country so called the concerto American Rhapsody. His brother Ira, 27, after seeing an exhibit of James McNeill Whistler’s Arrangement in Grey and Black, suggested adding color to the title. George changed it to Rhapsody in Blue.

George has performed the piece on an old piano at parties hosted by his friends who lunch regularly at the Algonquin Hotel, American Legion Weekly editor Harold Ross, 31, and his wife, New York Times reporter Jane Grant, also 31.

Poster for “An Experiment in Modern Music”

During rehearsals with Whiteman’s orchestra, his clarinetist Ross Gorman, 33, teased Gershwin by dragging out the opening glissando. George told him to stretch it and wail as much as he could.

Tonight’s “Experiment” has attracted stars of the theatrical as well as musical world:  writer and photographer Carl van Vechten, 43; composer Igor Stravinsky, 42; and conductors Victor Herbert, 65, Walter Damrosch, 62, Fritz Kreisler, 49, and Leopold Stokowski, 41. The stated purpose of the evening is educational, so there is an introductory lecture followed by 26 musical movements.

Paul Whiteman Orchestra

Approaching the last two pieces, members of the audience in the uncomfortable, poorly ventilated hall are deciding they’ve experimented enough. Some are heading for the doors when Gershwin quietly walks on stage and sits down at the piano. Gorman begins his slide. The departing audience members come back to their seats.

Gershwin improvises part of the piano solo. All he’d written at this point in the manuscript was, “Wait for nod,” keeping the 23 orchestra musicians waiting for his signal to jump back in.

The piece is finished, and the crowd applauds rapturously, glad that they stuck around.

Their applause is followed by a rousing rendition of Pomp and Circumstance, by Edward Elgar, 66, and then everyone leaves.

N. B. Now that you’ve got that tune in your head, you can listen  to Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic’s version here.

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the paperback series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I through IV, covering 1920 through 1923 are available at Thoor Ballylee in Co. Galway, and as signed copies at Pan Yan Bookstore in Tiffin, OH, City Books on the North Side and Riverstone Books in Squirrel Hill, in Pittsburgh, PA. They are also on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in print and e-book formats. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

Later this month I will be talking about early 20^th century supporters of the arts 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.com and Amazon.co.uk 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 February, 1924, 58 Central Park West, New York City, New York; and Victoria Palace Hotel, 6 rue Blaise-Desgoffe, Paris

Corporate lawyer John Quinn, 53, is in the process of selling off his massive collection of books and manuscripts. The star of the series of auctions is the original manuscript of the controversial novel Ulysses. He describes it in the catalogue as, “THE COMPLETE MANUSCRIPT of this remarkable work, one of the most extraordinary produced in modern times and hailed by critics as epoch-making in modern literature….on over 1,200 pages,” in four blue Morocco slip cases.

A portion of the Ulysses manuscript

A few weeks ago, Quinn wrote to the author of the novel, James Joyce, just turning 42, living in Paris, reminiscing about his early years as a teen-age book collector:

This collection of books goes back to 1887, when I bought $237 worth of books with money that my Mother gave me, among them Walter Pater’s first edition and a first edition of Hardy. She came into the room while I was on my hands and knees gloating over the treasures, and I can see her smile yet as she said, ‘Well, how long will they last you?’”

They’ve lasted him 36 years. And now Quinn is selling them all off. For disappointing prices. One manuscript by Victorian novelist and poet George Meredith didn’t even make the minimum Quinn had set. He has told Joyce that he will split the profit—a little more than $400—with him on the sale of the Ulysses manuscript. But the buyer, A. S. W. Rosenbach, 47, of Philadelphia, has asked to delay payment for six-months.

Quinn tells Joyce that, even though he made money on some sales but lost on others,

I am damned glad to get rid of the mountain of books that covered my apartment on the walls and shelves and in the halls and closets, till they were like an incubus.”

*****

In Paris, Joyce is livid.

Victoria Palace Hotel

When he writes to Quinn he emphasizes that his gripe is with the low dollar amount ascribed to his handwritten work. He asks Quinn to,

Please cancel the amount you kindly promised me out of the proceeds of the sale. You have had outlay enough already on account of me—cables, correspondence, defence of The Little Review [magazine], binding, etc.”

However, that same day Joyce writes to other friends about how angry he is with Quinn. Not only for letting the Ulysses manuscript go for just under $2,000, but for selling those worthless sheets by Meredith for almost the same amount. To one he writes,

I consider such a sale now and by a wealthy man (who had made me part owner of the MS before the sale) a grossly stupid act which is an alienation of valuable property. It is a pity that I was obliged to write such a letter [to Quinn] but what is one to do when a MS of 500,000 words is sold by an admirer who on the same day buys back a few pages of not very meritorious verse by a prose writer [Meredith] for almost the same sum?”

Originally, Joyce had planned to tell Quinn not to auction it at all. But, legally, the document is owned by Quinn, so that would go nowhere.

Joyce now feels that he must get his manuscript back from the buyer. He asks Quinn,

Can you find out, directly or indirectly, for what figure Mr. (or Dr.) Rosenbach will relinquish his grip on his (or my) MS?…[As Rosenbach had asked for six months] to fumble in other people’s trousers to find the money.”

Joyce wants his manuscript back. Even if he has to buy it himself.

Abraham Simon Wolf Rosenbach 

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the paperback series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I through IV, covering 1920 through 1923 are available at Thoor Ballylee in Co. Galway, and as signed copies at Pan Yan Bookstore in Tiffin, OH, City Books on the North Side, and at Riverstone Books in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA. They are also on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in print and e-book formats. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

Later this month I will be talking about early 20^th century supporters of the arts such as John Quinn 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.com and Amazon.co.uk 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, February 6, 1924, Bethlehem Chapel of the Washington Cathedral, Washington, D. C.; and Time magazine, New York City, New York

The 28^th president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, 67, is laid to rest today in two private, simple ceremonies, first at his home, then at the Washington Cathedral.

Entrance to the Wilson crypt, Bethlehem Chapel, Washington Cathedral

Officiating at both ceremonies are the pastor of the church Wilson attended while President, the bishop of Washington, and the Rev. Sylvester Beach, 71, who served as Wilson’s pastor when he was president of Princeton University.

Rev. Beach’s wife, Eleanor, 62, cannot attend as she is traveling in Europe, visiting their middle daughter, Sylvia, 36, who owns a bookshop in Paris.

*****

Two days ago, Time magazine reported on the thousands of people lined up to see the body of Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, who died last month at age 53. According to official sources,

’the greatest number of people who had ever looked upon the same corpse’ (exact number unspecified) passed before his body which lay in state. All of them had stood in line in the streets. of Moscow for 10, 20, 30 hours in inhuman cold…A blizzard raged. Sparrows fell frozen in the streets. Ice covered the horses of the guards. Three gigantic bonfires in Red Square melted the ice for the burial.”

Vladimir Lenin’s funeral

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the paperback series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I through IV, covering 1920 through 1923 are available at Thoor Ballylee in Co. Galway, and as signed copies at at Pan Yan Bookstore in Tiffin, OH, City Books on the North Side and Riverstone Books in Squirrel Hill, both in Pittsburgh, PA. They are also on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in print and e-book formats. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

Later this month I will be talking about early 20^th century supporters of the arts 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.com and Amazon.co.ukin 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, February 2, 1924, Shakespeare and Company, 12 rue de l’Odeon; and Three Mountains Press, 29 Quai d’Anjou, Ile Saint Louis, Paris

In what is becoming an annual tradition, this English-language bookstore is celebrating the anniversary of its publication of the controversial novel, Ulysses, on this date in 1922.

Shakespeare and Company

This morning, the author, Irish ex-patriate James Joyce, 42 today, sends flowers to the shop and its owner, American ex-pat Sylvia Beach, 36, who took on the role of publisher when no publishing company would touch his novel.

She has filled the shop windows with copies of the latest edition, and this evening there will be a party.

Truth be told, neither Sylvia nor any of Joyce’s benefactors are impressed with his latest work, so far just called “Work in Progress.” Joyce says he’s experimenting, and that he’s finished with the English language.

*****

About a 20-minute walk north of the shop. British ex-pat Ford Madox Ford, 50, is still settling in to the new offices he is sharing with the Three Mountains Press, a small publishing venture started by American journalist Bill Bird, 35.

Quai d’Anjou, Ile Saint Louis

Ford is bringing out the second issue of his new literary magazine, the transatlantic review, funded by a generous American patron of the arts, New York lawyer John Quinn, 53.

The first issue of the magazine included works by some of the most talked-about American writers on the Left Bank:  poems by Ezra Pound, 38, and E. E. Cummings, 29; and a short story by Robert McAlmon, 28, whom Pound had recommended.

Ford Madox Ford

A couple of weeks ago Quinn sent Ford an additional $500, but promised he would only contribute one more instalment if necessary, but then that would be it. Grateful for any help. Ford offered Quinn a life mask of Pound but Quinn cringed at the thought. The only thing worse, he told Ford, would be a death mask.

Ford has just “hired”—for no money—one of the other young Americans making a name for himself around the Left Bank, former Toronto Star foreign correspondent Ernest Hemingway, 24, just arrived back in Paris with his wife and new baby after a four-month stay in Toronto.

The Hemingways are getting ready to move into a second-floor walk-up apartment at 113 rue Notre Dame des Champs, close to where Pound lives, overlooking a sawmill and a lumber yard.

Ernie’s job at the transatlantic review is to scout out new material from the ex-pat authors on the Left Bank. He is trying to convince Ford that he should serialize a work by Gertrude Stein, turning 50 tomorrow, The Making of Americans. Hemingway is quite keen on it; Ford thinks it’s some kind of experimental short story.

Today, the second issue of the transatlantic review has been banned by the American Women’s Club of Paris. Ford is thinking he may need to hit on Quinn for more cash.

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the paperback series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I through IV, covering 1920 through 1923 are available at Thoor Ballylee in Co. Galway, and as signed copies at Pan Yan Bookstore in Tiffin, OH, and Riverstone Books in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA. They are also on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in print and e-book formats. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

Don’t forget! Tomorrow, Saturday, February 3, we will be celebrating the 150^th birthday of my fellow Pittsburgher Gertrude Stein, from noon to 4 pm at City Books on the North Side, a five-minute walk from where she was born. Details are here.

Later this month I will be talking about early 20^th century supporters of the arts like the Stein family 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.com and Amazon.co.uk 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.