“Such Friends”: 100 Years Ago, May, 1924, Scribner’s, 153-157 Fifth Avenue, New York City, New York

Editing this book is probably the most fun Maxwell Perkins, 39, has ever had in his job, but it was also the biggest pain in the patoot.

Maxwell Perkins

Perkins was introduced to the author, well-known columnist Ring Lardner, also 39, by Scribner’s hit novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, 27. Last July Scott invited Max to have dinner with them out on Long Island where they both lived. A lovely drunken evening ended when Scott drove Max into Durand’s Pond. But that’s another story.

Lardner’s first book, You Know Me Al, a series of letters from an imaginary minor league baseball player, was a success seven years ago. Perkins really wanted to have Scribner’s bring out a collection of Ring’s newspaper columns and magazine articles.

You Know Me Al by Ring Lardner

The problem was that Ring never kept track of where his work had been published. Perkins had to do all the searching and calling around.

At one point he even asked his boss, Charles “Old CS” Scribner, 69, for some extra help, telling him,

I should be of more value if I were more free.”

Ring apologized for all the trouble, and told Max he could visit Great Neck again,

It’s safer now…as Durand’s Pond is frozen over.”

Max did get together with Ring out on Long Island a few times, and, although Lardner was talking about taking a trip to Europe soon, he didn’t look well. His chain smoking was making his cough worse, and, although they both had a lot of drinks, Ring didn’t eat much.

The resulting book, How to Write Short Stories (With Samples), published this month, has been worth the effort, according to Perkins. This should get Lardner some well-deserved recognition.

How to Write Short Stories (With Samples) by Ring Lardner

At the end of the month, Max’s wife is leaving on a Caribbean cruise with some friends, but the editor has too much work to do to be able to join her.

He has to drive to Richmond, Virginia, to meet with one of his authors. Perkins has considered taking a small detour to Middleburg to visit a lovely woman he has met a few times when she visited relatives up north, Elizabeth Lemmon, 31.

But Max is thinking it would be better not to make the detour.

Elizabeth Lemmon

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the paperback series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I through V, covering 1920 through 1924 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.

Mark your calendar! The Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books returns to the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in Highland Park this Saturday, May 11. Stop by the “Such Friends” booth in Writers’ Row to receive the special Festival discount on all five volumes.

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.

Manager as Muse, about Perkins’ relationships with, 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, May 3, 1924, 6 Gateway Drive, Great Neck, Long Island, New York

Surrounded by 17 pieces of luggage, several crates filled with volumes of the Encyclopedia Brittanica, and copies of his own novels and short story collections bound in pale blue leather with gold lettering, F. Scott Fitzgerald, 27, sits in his living room waiting for the taxi to take him, his wife Zelda, 23, and their two-year-old daughter Scottie, to board the SS Minnewaska to sail to Cherbourg, France.

SS Minnewaska

They have also thrown in a one-hundred-foot roll of copper screening. Might be bugs.

Scott and Zelda had been to France once before, a few years ago, right after the publication of his first novel, This Side of Paradise. Zelda was sick the whole time, pregnant with Scottie. They didn’t like it.

But now they both feel they need a big change. Scott has been working on his third novel, and he feels as though he is stuck. They have a small nest egg, and income from the magazine short stories he’ll keep writing. At the current exchange rates, the money will go a lot further in the south of France than in Great Neck.

This time, the Fitzgeralds decided to plan ahead a bit more. They hosted a dinner at Christmastime to get some tips from friends about where to go, whom to see.

Their Great Neck neighbor, Esther Murphy, 26, suggested that they make contact with her brother Gerald, 36, a painter, and his wife Sara, 40. They have children around Scottie’s age and moved permanently to France a few years ago.

Esther Murphy

They sound interesting. Scott will be sure to look them up when they get to Paris.

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the paperback series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I through V, covering 1920 through 1924 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.

Mark your calendar! The Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books returns to the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in Highland Park on Saturday, May 11. Stop by the “Such Friends” booth in Writers’ Row.

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.

Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with, 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, Spring, 1924, 3 rue Gounod, Saint-Cloud; and 23 Quai des Grand-Augustins, Paris

This beautiful home, overlooking the city of Paris from one of its posh suburbs, is owned by the heirs of the late French opera composer, Charles Gounod. As they are experiencing some financial difficulties, the heirs are delighted to rent the three-story, rosy brick, walled property to the American ex-patriates Gerald, 36, and Sara Murphy, 40.

3 rue Gounod, Saint-Cloud, Paris

The Murphys are just as delighted to move in. They fell in love as soon as they saw it.

On Easter Sunday, they are hosting a luncheon and competitive Easter egg hunt on the broad lawn, under the oak trees. Their three children are hunting with both their grandfathers, visiting from America:  Sara’s father, Frank Bestow Wiborg, about to turn 69, co-creator of the printers’ ink manufacturer Ault & Wiborg Company; and Gerald’s father Patrick Murphy, about 66, owner of the Mark Cross retail chain. Both children and adults are all dressed in their Sunday best.

Baoth, almost five, easily beats his brother, Patrick, three; their sister Honoria, six, is much more interested in the tin whistle from Grandfather than looking for eggs with her stupid brothers.

Gerald has been making quite a name for himself lately in Paris with his painting. In February, his 18-foot by 12-foot Boatdeck caused quite a stir in the Salon des Independents at the Grand Palais. There were so many complaints about its size, the organizing committee called a special meeting to toss it out, but a majority voted to keep it in. Two members of the committee resigned! (But were talked in to coming back the next day.)

Boatdeck by Gerald Murphy in the Salon des Independents

In one of the many newspaper interviews he has given, Gerald is quoted as saying that he is

truly sorry to have caused such a bother with my little picture.”

After all, he points out, Boatdeck is smaller than an actual boat deck. The pieces he’s working on now, Razor and Watch, are not quite so large.

Razor by Gerald Murphy

The Murphys have welcomed friends new and old to this house on the hill overlooking Montmartre, with a view of the Eiffel Tower. Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, 42, has brought some British artists. Painters Vanessa Bell, 44, and Duncan Grant, 39, along with Vanessa’s husband, art critic Clive Bell, 42, came and all dined outside. The Murphys played Chinese music on the gramophone, and Picasso began sketching pictures of Chinese dancers’ feet, as he imagined them.

One of the main attractions of this home is the easy access to Paris city center. The train trip on the line from Versailles-Rive-Droite is only 15 minutes, and there are more than 50 trains each day. This makes it easy for the Murphys to go back and forth from their pied a terre on quai des Augustins.

*****

In their city apartment—with its view up and down the Seine, and large black and white vases holding flowers as well as stalks of light green celery—the Murphys have been meeting some more new friends.

23 quai des Grands-Augustins

American writer Donald Ogden Stewart, 29, comes by for dinner almost every night and reads aloud pieces of the comic novel he’s working on, Mr. and Mrs. Haddock Abroad, which has Sara in stitches. Sometimes he brings along novelist John Dos Passos, 28, and former Dial managing editor Gilbert Seldes, 31, who know each other from Harvard.

Stewart has also introduced the Murphys to an American couple whom he met at Yale, poet Archibald MacLeish, turning 32, and his wife, concert singer Ada Hitchcock MacLeish, 31. Mutual friends had helped the MacLeishes find a fourth floor walk up with no heat or hot water on Boulevard St. Michel where they’ve been living since arriving last fall.

When in the city, all these ex-pats pay late night visits to Zelli’s Royal Box in Montmartre. The jazz and the pretty young women are better than what you’ll find at last year’s hotspot, Le Boeuf sur le Toit. And arriving with the Murphys gets you a special seat.

Montmartre jazz clubs

“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.

Mark your calendar! The Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books returns to the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in Highland Park on Saturday, May 11. Stop by the “Such Friends” booth in Writers’ Row.

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.

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, April, 1924, the transatlantic review and the Three Mountains Press offices, 29 Quai d’Anjou, Ile Saint-Louis, Paris

English author Ford Madox Ford, 50, is pleased with Volume I, Issue 4, of his magazine, the transatlantic review.

Ford was able to start publishing in January with funding he secured last fall when American lawyer John Quinn, 54, was visiting and they got together with American ex-patriate poet, Ezra Pound, 38.

James Joyce, Ezra Pound, John Quinn and Ford Madox Ford in October of last year

Quinn had sent $500 and promised he would chip in another $500 if necessary, as well as approach some of his wealthy New York friends for additional help.

Pound has also been instrumental in recommending up and coming writers for the literary magazine. The first issue had some of his own work, and a short story by another American ex-pat small publisher Robert McAlmon, 29.

The second issue was so good it was banned by the American Women’s Club of Paris!

Pound also secured a piece from the Irish ex-pat James Joyce, 42, whose novel Ulysses caused such a stir when it was published here two years ago. His “Work in Progress” was supposed to appear in the transatlantic review in January, but the proofs he received were in such bad shape he asked for more time to go over them.

the transatlantic review, April

Actually Joyce has confided to his drinking buddy, McAlmon, that he thinks the magazine is “very shabby.”

A few months ago, Pound introduced Ford to yet another American trying to make a living as a writer, former Toronto Star foreign correspondent Ernest Hemingway, 24, who moved back to Paris from Toronto with his wife and new baby at the beginning of the year.

Ford has hired Ernie to be the magazine’s commissioning editor. Well, “hired” is a bit much. He can’t actually pay him anything. Ford is thinking he may have to make a trip to New York City to beg for more money in person from Quinn, whom he’s heard is quite ill.

Ernie finally convinced Ford to include work in this issue by one of Hemingway’s recent American mentors, Gertrude Stein, 50. He told Stein to give him her epic novel, The Making of Americans, for Ford to serialize. The only copy she had was one that she and her partner, Alice B. Toklas, about to turn 47, had had bound and she didn’t want to let it out of her sight. So Ernie and Alice copied out the first 50 pages in time for the first instalment to appear in this issue. Gertrude and Alice are so excited that this huge work is finally appearing in print somewhere.

Ernest has advised Gertrude in her dealings with Ford: 

Be haughty but not too haughty. I made it clear it was a remarkable scoop [getting Making]…obtained only through my obtaining genius. [Ford] is under the impression that you get big prices when you consent to publish…Treat him high, wide and handsome…They are going to have Joyce in the same number.”

Hemingway has one of his own stories in this issue too, “Indian Camp.”

*****

That story is also included in in our time, one of the first volumes published by Three Mountains Press, founded by American journalist Bill Bird, 36, who owns this office space. Ford leases his small share for the magazine from Bird.

Six vignettes and 12 stories by Hemingway appear in in our time—Bird wants to signal how modern it is by not capitalizing the title. Last year Hemingway’s Three Stories & Ten Poems, was published by McAlmon’s Contact Press, and Pound had managed to get six of the stories published in The Little Review’s special “Exiles” issue in the U. S. last October.

in our time by Ernest Hemingway

Bird designed the dust jacket for in our time himself, to make the whole volume seem newsworthy. He also printed it on a handpress with high quality handmade paper. 18 vignettes (six are about bullfighting, Ernie’s latest interest) spread over 31 pages left lots of white space in the layout to make the simple declarative sentences stand out even more.

Ernest Hemingway

The woodcut of the author bled through the paper, so, instead of the 300 copies they printed, they’ve ended up with about 170 good ones to sell. Ernie’s parents back in Oak Park, Illinois, have bought 10.

Ford has been kind enough to give Hemingway’s book an early review in the Paris Herald, praising his “minute but hugely suggestive pictures.”

Hemingway’s work is getting to be known among the literary crowd; he knows he won’t get any payment for any of these publications. He and his wife Hadley, 32, have been living off her trust fund. Although, because it has not been invested well, the fund is starting to decrease, and Ernie has taken some work doing gardening for Parisians.

But Ernie’s not worried. Eventually, there will be money.

“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.

Mark your calendar! The Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books returns to the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in Highland Park on Saturday, May 11. Stop by the “Such Friends” booth in Writers’ Row.

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.

Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald 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, late March, 1924, Hotel Unic, 59 Boulevard du Montparnasse, Paris

Robert McAlmon, 29, owner of the small publishing company the Contact Press, has just returned to Paris after a holiday in the south of France with some fellow Americans.

This is not his usual hotel. For the past few years that he’s lived in Paris, he has mostly stayed at the Hotel Foyot, about a 15-minute walk northeast around the Luxembourg Gardens.

Hotel Foyot

However, Sylvia Beach, just turned 37, proprietor of the Shakespeare and Company bookshop, the social center of the Left Bank on the rue de l’Odeon, has booked two of their mutual friends into the Foyot, close to her shop:  McAlmon’s British wife, novelist Bryher (Winifred Ellerman, 29); and her American lover poet HD (Hilda Doolittle, 37).

Hilda Doolittle and Bryher

McAlmon figures he’s better off here, out of their way.

He has already reserved a room at the Unic for his recent traveling companions, poet William Carlos Williams, 40, and his wife Flossie, 33. Williams and McAlmon founded Contact magazine when they were friends back in Greenwich Village. The Williamses are traveling around Europe and plan to come back to Paris in a couple of months.

Dr. William Carlos Williams

Williams went to the University of Pennsylvania with American ex-pat poet Ezra Pound, 38, who is planning to visit from his home in Italy.

While Pound and Williams were at Penn, they were both entranced by a tall redhead who met them while she was commuting to Bryn Mawr—Hilda Doolittle.

McAlmon is anticipating a lot of tension, but figures that, when Bryher and HD leave at the beginning of the summer, things will calm down a bit and he can spend time showing the Williams around Paris.

“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.

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, March, 1924, Paul R. Reynolds Literary Agency, 599 Fifth Avenue, New York City, New York

Harold Ober, 43, agent at the renowned Paul R. Reynolds Literary Agency, wishes he could have done better for his client, short story writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, 27.

Fitzgerald has had a really good track record selling stories to the country’s best magazines—Saturday Evening Post, Smart Set, Cosmopolitan. But because his second novel, The Beautiful and Damned, didn’t do as well as his first, the 1920 best seller This Side of Paradise, Ober is having a harder time getting a good price for Fitzgerald’s work.

The Beautiful and Damned

Ober did finally get this three-part travel story, “The Cruise of the Rolling Junk,” into the Hearst Corporation’s Motor magazine, for the February, March and April issues, but they only paid $300.

When they were living Westport, Connecticut, almost four years ago, Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda, 24, took off in their used Marmon which they called the “Rolling Junk,” to drive over one thousand miles to see her parents in Montgomery, Alabama. The road trip makes for a good story, but none of the major magazines were interested.

The Fitzgeralds have since moved to Long Island, but they returned to Westport for one day to take some photos with a similar car to illustrate the article.

F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald posing in a car like the “Rolling Junk”

Just last month, Ober had better luck with one of Zelda’s short stories, “Our Own Movie Quarterly.” When it had been rejected by Cosmopolitan Scott made some changes, but told Harold that he felt that it was “a complete flop.” However, Ober was able to sell that one to the Chicago Sunday Tribune for $1,000. They’re going to run it next year, with Scott’s byline, of course.

The Fitzgeralds are getting ready to move to Paris. Ober’s not sure why they think Scott will get more work done over there. Scott says he’s working on a third novel; he’d better come up with something good or his wife will be writing his stories for him.

Motor magazine, February, March and April

“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 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”: 150 years ago, February 3, 1874, 842 Beech Avenue, Allegheny, Pennsylvania

The Stein family welcomes their fifth child, Gertrude, to their comfortable middle-class home here in Allegheny, adjacent to the industrial powerhouse of the Steel City, Pittsburgh.

The author in front of the Stein house with plaque

In honor of Gertrude’s 150^th birthday—proclaimed Gertrude Stein Day by the City of Pittsburgh—we’re having a party!

Join us at City Books, 908 Galveston Avenue, just a few short blocks away from Gertrude’s house, on Saturday, February 3, from noon to 4 pm. There will be “little cakes”—like the ones Gertrude’s partner, Alice B. Toklas, served at their salons in Paris—and your humble blog host may be persuaded to make a few remarks and answer questions.

City Books

If weather permits, we can walk over to Beech Avenue and toast one of Pittsburgh’s most famous daughters.

Conveniently, copies of all four volumes of my series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s, covering 1920 through 1923. will be for sale, and I’m happy to sign them.

“Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s, Volumes I through IV

When Gertrude was born, her father, Daniel, about 30, owned a shop with his brother, called, of course, Stein Brothers, in downtown Pittsburgh at Fourth Avenue and Wood Street.

The brothers’ families lived side by side in identical houses on Beech Avenue. Unfortunately, Gertrude’s Mom, Amelia, 31, didn’t get along so well with her sister-in-law next door.

So when their newborn was only six months old, Daniel, Amelia and their five kids left Pittsburgh and took off for a tour around Europe, never to return to Pennsylvania.

The Stein family in later years

Gertrude was only with us for six months, but we ‘burghers are extremely proud. Come by City Books on February 3^rd between 1 and 4 p.m. and help us celebrate her 150^th!

For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

Later next 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 available directly from me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.

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-January, 1924, Restaurant des Trianon, 5 Place de Rennes, corner of Boulevard du Montparnasse, Paris

Once again, everyone’s coming to Paris.

As they have since the beginning of the decade, Americans are still arriving in waves, motivated by three major changes:

• The Great War has made them much more global. Men who were stationed in Europe in 1917 and 1918 want to bring their new wives and girlfriends to the places where they served.

U. S. soldiers arriving in Paris

• The exchange rate is fantastic. Europe has been devastated so the dollar buys much more in Rome, Vienna and Paris. Including alcohol—not currently available back home thanks to Prohibition.
• The cruise companies have come up with a new fare, “Tourist Third,” which makes the trip affordable for almost everyone.

The American Way to Europe brochure

For Dr. William Carlos Williams, 40, and his wife Flossie, 32, all three of these apply. In addition to continual nagging by his old college buddy from the University of Pennsylvania, fellow poet Ezra Pound, 38. Pound helped Williams get his first book of poetry, The Tempers, published in London, and he has been entreating Williams to come to Paris ever since.

So the good doctor has taken a year off from his New Jersey medical practice, spent half of it working on The Great American Novel—no, really, that’s the title—and he and Flossie are going to spend the next three months traveling around Europe.

First stop—Paris.

In addition to Pound, Williams is reuniting with another old friend, Robert McAlmon, 28. They had produced a magazine together, Contact, back in Greenwich Village a few years ago. McAlmon lives here now and has started Contact Publishing, using money from his British-heiress wife, Bryher, 29, to publish the new writers and artists appearing on the Left Bank.

Since the Williams’ arrival a few days ago, McAlmon has booked them into the expensive hotel where he is currently staying, the Lutetia on Boulevard Raspail, and introduced them to some of the leading characters in the Paris literary scene. Williams was pleased to finally meet Sylvia Beach, 35, owner of the Shakespeare and Company English-language bookstore, with whom he has corresponded. A couple of years back, McAlmon had convinced Beach to carry Williams’ books of poetry, and Williams had bought a copy of Ulysses from her—the controversial novel by Irish ex-pat writer James Joyce, 41, which Sylvia published two years ago.

Tonight, McAlmon is hosting a party for Bill and Flossie here at Joyce’s favorite restaurant, the Trianon, so they can meet other Left Bank literati. The crowd nearly fills up half the restaurant. Beach is here with her partner, Adrienne Monnier, 31, who operates the French-language bookstore across the street from Shakespeare and Company. Another American ex-pat, artist Man Ray, 33, whom Williams had known a bit back in Greenwich Village, is here with his chess buddy, French painter Marcel Duchamp, 36.

Rue de Rennes

Joyce has had too much to drink and is starting to loudly sing Irish ditties. His frequent drinking partner McAlmon responds by belting out Negro spirituals and cowboy songs; someone else is singing the blues.

Williams is starting to feel uncomfortable with this crowd. McAlmon asks the guest of honor to make a speech, and Williams feels as if he makes a fool of himself.

Williams thinks both the food and the conversation are disappointing. And that maybe being a pediatrician in Passaic would not be such a bad life after all.

“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, 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 next month I will be talking about early 20^th century supporters of the arts like McAlmon and Pound 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, January 12, 1924, Apt. 19, 1599 Bathurst Street, Toronto

Good ol’ Jimmy.

James Alexander Cowan, 22, is one of the only real friends fellow reporter Ernest Hemingway, 24, has made at the Toronto Star during the past horrible four months he has spent working in their offices.

Article by James Cowan in the Toronto Star

Ernie turned in his resignation effective January 1^st. Today, he and his wife Hadley, 32, are hosting Jimmy’s wedding to the daughter of the dean of Canadian journalists and Star columnist, Fred Williams, who turns 61 tomorrow, as sort of a combined wedding celebration/going away party.

Ernie and Hadley had moved back here from Paris for the birth of their first child, John Hadley Nicanor Hemingway, in October. Hemingway did fine as the Star’s foreign correspondent during the past two years they’ve been living in Paris. What finally got to him was working in the office, surrounded by the politics.

Hadley agreed they should leave now and not fulfill their planned one-year commitment to Toronto.

In addition to serving as best man, as a wedding present Ernest has given Jimmy a copy of his first published book, Three Stories & Ten Poems, one of 300 copies printed by the small Contact Press back in Paris. He has inscribed it thus,

This book is the property of James Cowan—he is not responsible for it—nor did he buy it. It was presented to him by the author.”

James Cowan’s copy of Three Stories & Ten Poems by Ernest Hemingway

Tomorrow, the Hemingway family will leave from Union Station for New York City, where they will board the Cunard ship Antonia, bound for Cherbourg.

Their biggest fear is that, when the ship stops in Halifax, the police will arrest them for skipping out on hundreds of dollars of unpaid rent on this apartment.

N.B.:  The Cowans’ wedding present has been valued at $125,000. If you live on any Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus route, I am happy to come sign your copy of “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Who knows?!

“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, 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.

Join us on Saturday, February 3, to celebrate the 150^th birthday of my fellow Pittsburgher Gertrude Stein, at City Books on the North Side, a five-minute walk from where she was born. Details are here.

Next 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 Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in print and e-book formats.

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