In a famous conversation with Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein coined the phrase the lost generation when she referred to Hemingway and the others who, disillusioned with the United States after the Great War, moved to Europe. There, they hoped to find the literary culture they interpreted as missing in America. The lost generation of writers had lost their belief in human progress. There was a feeling of futility among the generation born before the war and coming of age after it.
Writers of the Lost Generation
There are many famous names on this list of legendary authors. Two of the most well known, Hemingway and Fitzgerald, were influenced by the famous Algonquin Round Table.
- Ernest Hemingway has been credited with changing American literature forever with his writing style. He moved American literature from the proper, often overblown prose of the Victorian Age to the unadorned frankness of his work. Hemingway used the term the lost generation as an epigraph for his first novel, The Sun Also Rises, which centered on a group of expatriates in Europe during the 1920s.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda were part of the Paris literary scene which exacerbated his alcoholism and her bouts with mental illness. While they didn’t live in Europe full time, the expatriates had an effect on them. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first novel, This Side of Paradise was an instant hit. A quote from the book reflected the mood of the expatriates in Paris, “all gods dead, all wars fought, all faith in man shaken.” Fitzgerald went on to finish what became his most well known novel, The Great Gatsby, while living in France.
- John Dos Passos, like the rest of the lost generation writers, questioned the meaning of modern life. His pessimism comes through clearly in his novel Manhattan Transfer, about life in New York City.
- Ezra Pound was already an expatriate when he moved from London to Paris in 1920. The lauded poet befriended Ernest Hemingway who attempted to teach Pound to box.
How the Lost Generation Changed American Literature.
The literature of the Victorian era reflected the tone of the day. It tended to be both overblown and moralistic, reflecting the idea that with hard work one could go far. Sexual references were frowned on. This was an era when propriety ruled. It was also the era into which the lost generation was born. After WWI, these ideas were not acceptable to many artists, poets and writers and their work reflected it.
Hemingway led the way with the sparseness of his novels. He was specific in his writings, eschewing generalities. Nothing was off limits. His work was considered crude, vulgar and coarse by his critics. His father, upon receiving copies of Hemingway’s book In Our Time, returned them to the publisher saying he would not have such filth in his house. But for every critic, there was a devoted reader.
