“Such Friends”: 100 Years Ago, March 23, 1923, corner of quai des Grands-Augustins and 1 rue Git-le-Coeur, Paris

Visiting novelist John Dos Passos, 27, is enjoying tagging along with his fellow American writer Donald Ogden Stewart, 28, walking around Paris, visiting some of the ex-pats Stewart knows.

Quai des Grands-Augustins

At this address Dos Passos is introduced to the Murphys—Gerald, about to turn 35, and Sara, 39. Stewart was a few years behind Gerald at Yale, and he has given the couple a big build-up, describing them as a prince and a princess. Dos Passos, a cynic from Harvard, figures he won’t succumb to their allure.

Dos Passos is impressed with Sara, one of the most charming women he’s ever met. Gerald seems a bit distracted. He’s getting ready for a big dinner party they’re throwing.

John Dos Passos

The Murphys are in the process of renovating this apartment, with its white walls, lacquered black floors, Mexican rugs, and floor to ceiling windows surrounded by red antique brocade drapes, a perfect frame for the fabulous view down the River Seine.

Gerald and Sara have become huge fans of the Kamerny Theatre from Moscow, and this party is to celebrate their successful run at the Theatre de Champs-Elysees. The Murphys have been to all 10 of the Kamerney’s performances..

Kamerny Theatre poster

The Murphys’ new Algerian chef is making couscous; dessert will be slightly obscene-shaped chocolate mousse with crème Chantilly; and there will, of course, be plenty of wine.

Because they are in the midst of the renovation, there are few pieces of furniture for guests to sit on. Gerald and Sara have improvised, placing mattresses and pillows all over and covering them with brocade fabric. Planks mounted on blocks will serve as tables. Plumbers’ lamps will do for lighting. And, supporters of the arts that they are, the Murphys have attached to the walls “found sculptures” made from bicycle wheels and other discarded junk by their new friend, Fernand Leger, 42.

Sara graciously invites their guests, Stewart and Dos Passos, to stay for the party. But Dos Passos declines. He never feels comfortable in situations like this and is embarrassed by his stammer.

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I through III, covering 1920 through 1922 are available 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 F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University.

Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with Fitzgerald, 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 23, 1923, corner of 23 quai des Grands-Augustins and 1 rue Git-le-Coeur, Paris

American ex-pat Gerald Murphy, 34, is looking out the window of his apartment in this dilapidated 16^th century building (he and his wife Sara, 39, will renovate as soon as the sale of their Manhattan house goes through), up the Seine, past the Ile St. Louis, over to the Tuileries Gardens on the Left Bank. He really enjoyed the party tonight.

Gerald has been having an awfully good month. He was thrilled to have four of his paintings accepted into the Salon des Independents, which opened at the beginning of February. It’s certainly not selective—Motto:  “Neither Jury nor Rewards”—but many good artists are included, such as his own painting teacher, Natalia Goncharova, 41. When the officials told Gerald that his oil Boatdeck was too large, he responded,

If you think mine is too large…I think the others are too small.”

Boatdeck by Gerald Murphy in the Salon des Independents

The Paris edition of the Herald said his work showed, “a very personal point of view in the study of machinery…[revealing] a feeling for mass and a sense of decorative effect.”

Soon after the show opened, Gerald was asked by some friends to design the American booth at a major charity event—the Bal des Artistes Russes, in aid of Russian immigrants in France.

Today was the opening of the four-day festival, and what a party!

Four orchestras! Murphy thought the jazz band was the best. The guests were dressed either as Russian peasants or cubist paintings. The rooms were filled with paintings by artists such as Russian Goncharova and Spaniard Juan Gris, 35.

For entertainment, Romanian-French writer Tristan Tzara, 26, read one of his poems, and the fabulous Fratellini Brothers performed their usual star turn.

The Fratellini Brothers

Goncharova sold her masks in the Russian booth; the Japanese booth had kabuki theatre with dancers.

One of the showstoppers is Gerald’s futuristic American exhibit, featuring a reconstruction of huge skyscrapers with blinking electric lights, recreating New York City’s Great White Way right here in Paris. It is sooo American…

“Such Friends”:  100 Years Ago… is the basis for the series, “Such Friends”:  The Literary 1920s. Volumes I through III, covering 1920 through 1922 are available at Thoor Ballylee in Co. Galway, and as signed copies 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.

This summer I will be talking about F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University.

Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with Fitzgerald, 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.