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The Lost Generation in Paris—Hemingway & Fitzgerald

Conference Paper · August 2004

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 Haas 1

Eric Haas
Professor Lynn
History 296
17 August 2004

In the city of Paris, France, on the rue Delambre, among other “completely
worthless characters,” sat scarcely known Ernest Hemingway of Oak Park, Illinois on the
verge of his first encounter with a fellow American expatriate writer. F. Scott Fitzgerald,
of the recently published The Great Gatsby, walked into the Dingo bar on that May 1925
afternoon clad in Brooks Brothers clothes and equipped with “excited and friendly eyes”
as well as an “Irish mouth that, on a girl, would have been the mouth of a beauty.” As
Hemingway’s posthumous memoir, A Moveable Feast, quickly points out, the
experiences and upbringings that the two authors brought to this first meeting were quite
different.1 Despite being detached from their American lives, their previous affairs would
continue to play an important role in their interactions as friends and writers. However,
Europe and Paris offered a new beginning for both. For Fitzgerald, it was an escape from
“frantic partying.”2 For Hemingway, Paris was more practical, being the “town best
organized for a writer to write in that there is.”3 The lives and personalities of both
Americans and Europeans in locations like Paris would become the basis for many
characters and events in the authors’ work. Equally reflected in their writings was the
consumption of alcohol, an activity that would prove to be stimulating creatively, but
ultimately ruinous. The culmination of the life brought to Paris and the life lived in Paris
inspired the creation of works typifying Gertrude Stein’s The Lost Generation, and as the
two writers left their mark on American Literature, there was an underlying friendship
that was as destructive as it was productive. In Paris this relationship began its evolution,
essentially described as “one great writer humiliating himself in pursuit of a
companionship that another’s adamantine hardness of heart would not permit.”4
 Haas 2

In the suburban town of Oak Park, Ernest Hemingway was subject to the notion
that his “community of prosperous citizens” held higher moral standards, rooted in
Christianity, than the nearby “corrupt town of Chicago.”5 Hemingway’s parents appeared
to cultivate this sense of morality in their children, as they presented themselves as
“handsome embodiments of the American Dream” while attending Sunday services at the
First Congregational Church.6 However, these believers in the Protestant Work Ethic
were not without flaws or eccentricities. Dr. Clarence Hemingway, while fighting
frequent bouts of depression, was a “puritanical” father who regularly practiced corporal
punishment as a prelude for the atonement of sins.7 Though strict, Dr. Hemingway
combated idleness in his children by leading them into the great outdoors. Ernest
continued to follow the recommendations of his father into adulthood by taking
adventurous trips to Europe and Africa, complete with bullfighting and safaris. Serving
as the content for much of his work, these trips were not to be regarded with admiration
according to Hemingway, he merely “needed to demonstrate his manliness.”8 The
inherent need to defend his hard-working and masculine persona began early in Oak
Park. He was a man conscious of what needed to be done in order to succeed, to
“validate his existence.”9 Grace Hemingway tried to negate the masculine efforts of her
husband quite early in Ernest’s childhood through a “twinning experiment” with his sister
Marcelline. This experiment lasted, with Ernest wearing dresses until he entered
kindergarten.10 The domineering nature of Grace was resented by Ernest in his later years,
and even his own children were not allowed to visit their grandmother, as she
“emasculated his father.”11 As part of the emasculation process, Grace Hemingway had
taken up relations with a female student. As a piano instructor, Grace took in a young
girl named Ruth Arnold. Grace’s role as teacher and model soon transitioned into a more
intimate relationship, leading to a summer spent together at a family cottage and an even
further depressed Dr. Hemingway. Plagued by “poor health and financial worries,”
Clarence Hemingway took his own life with a revolver passed down from his father.12
 Haas 3

Earnest had cut family ties eight years before the climax of his father’s troubles, and he
“paid no duty calls” to his mother after his father’s death.13 Later, the bitter young man
consistently “denigrated her in correspondence with his siblings.”14 Hemingway came to
Paris bearing a biological predisposition to depression, a drive to maintain a masculine
image, and an awareness of unorthodox and unstable relationships. Like his fellow
scribe, Fitzgerald brought his own baggage, but in that “pretty face,” Hemingway saw no
kindred spirit.15
He was named Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, the “second cousin, thrice removed”
of the composer of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”16 At birth, the importance of notoriety
was instilled in Fitzgerald, who continued to follow his parents’ success-oriented wishes
by attending The Newman School, which “taught sixty boys from well-off Catholic
families throughout the country.”17 Scott remained insecure about social status throughout
his lifetime, an early example being his dreams of “himself as a foundling, descended
from royalty, and unaccountably left at the door of unworthy parents.”18 Living in St.
Paul, Minnesota, Edward Fitzgerald failed to settle into a lucrative occupation. He lacked
enough ambition to make it in the business world, and was often drinking more than his
share. Fitzgerald’s mother, on the other hand, brought some privilege to the family as the
daughter of a wealthy grocer. It was his mother’s influence that would have the most
lasting effect on the writer who, in his youth, “did not know anyone else was alive.”19
Scott’s mother, Mollie Fitzgerald, lost two daughters three months before his birth, and as
a result, Scott was handled with great care, always dressed up and forced to perform for
others at social gatherings. When Fitzgerald participated in Princeton extracurriculars, he
could be found writing plays and performing in them, often as the chorus girl.20 At 19,
Fitzgerald wrote a letter to his younger sister on “how to win the admiration of young
boys.”21 He went on to say, “I’m half feminine, at least my mind is.”22 While girls seemed
“opposite and complimentary to him,” another manifestation of his mother’s strong
influence was his propensity for social humiliation.23 Mollie Fitzgerald once gazed at a
 Haas 4

woman whose husband was on the brink of death and stated, “I’m trying to decide how
you’ll look in mourning.”24 Such social catastrophes would continue throughout the
Fitzgerald legacy, as Scott would become known for his drunken humiliations and classic
morning-after reconciliation. A man overly concerned about image, class, and literary
significance is exposed in A Moveable Feast, and as Hemingway would continue to
attest, first impressions are lasting ones.
Nelson Algren states in Writers at Work that “the farther you get away from the
literary traffic, the closer you are to sources.”25 With this in mind, why was the literary
relationship between Fitzgerald and Hemingway an advantage, and how did it persist
with so many differences stacked against them? Hemingway was writing in Paris as an
avant-garde artist, and Fitzgerald arrived as the golden boy of commercial success with
The Great Gatsby under his belt. However, what Fitzgerald saw in Hemingway was
everything he hoped to find in himself. Hemingway existed, robustly handsome, with an
ability to convey his past demonstrations of manhood as a high school football
linebacker, boxer, and decorated contributor to the Red Cross effort in Italy. Fitzgerald,
in his relative insecurity in forming male friendships compared to Hemingway’s ability to
befriend anyone, began to communicate more extensively with Hemingway, noticing his
“discipline and dedication to his craft.”26 So impressed with the writer, Fitzgerald wrote
to one of his many connections in New York, the “legendary editor Maxwell Perkins,” to
inform him that “a young man named Ernest Hemmingway, who lives in Paris (an
American) writes for the transatlantic Review & has a brilliant future.”27 Not yet aware of
the true spelling of Ernest’s last name, Fitzgerald was eager as ever to promote this new
writer for whom he had such a profound respect, if not obsession. Hemingway’s resource
in Scott Fitzgerald grew with the introduction of Gertrude Stein, who offered Hemingway
useful literary advice, as well as Sylvia Beach, whose bookstore presented Hemingway
with an opportunity to borrow books while abroad. A later account of Fitzgerald in A
Moveable Feast recalls a trip to Lyon to retrieve Scott’s car. Among his memories of the
 Haas 5

trip, Hemingway classifies Scott’s actions as what not to do as an author. According to

Scott Donaldson, in this account “Fitzgerald emerges as a childish hypochondriac, a
foolish spendthrift, an emasculated husband, and a morally flawed artist compromising
his talent by writing formula fiction for the slick magazines.”28 Disregarding the
destruction of his own literary life, Fitzgerald did directly contribute to the success of
Hemingway’s work, especially with advice to eliminate pieces of The Sun Also Rises.
Deciding that the first chapter of Hemingway’s novel was full of “condescending
casualness,” Fitzgerald convinced Hemingway to make a change that dramatically
improved the work.29 While offering such advice, Fitzgerald continued to offer monetary
support to the rising star, while at the same time denying any credit for improving the
author by admitting he didn’t want his efforts to be “established as part of the Ernest
legend.”30 Even as the writers traveled throughout Europe and back to the United States,
the friendship continued through correspondence, with one author on the rise and one
struggling to live up to Great expectations.
Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda moved to Paris less than one month after the
publication of The Great Gatsby. Upon being “bamboozled by the critics”, the now
famous author felt that his following works must be of the same caliber.31 These
unrealistic goals, in addition to his dysfunctional relationship with his wife would steer
Scott away from any productivity in his own work. In a letter to Fitzgerald, Hemingway
compared the two authors’ views of heaven. Fitzgerald’s heaven, he inferred, would be
“[a] beautiful vacuum filled with wealthy monogamists, all powerful and members of the
best families all drinking themselves to death.” Hemingway’s, on the other hand, “would
include two barrera seats in the bull ring, a trout stream, and two houses, one for his wife
and children and the other for his nine beautiful mistresses.”32 Hemingway, via his view
of Fitzgerald’s idealized heaven, recognized Scott’s relentless devotion to his wife. This
devotion, Hemingway believed, would destroy Fitzgerald as a writer. The chapter in A
Moveable Feast entitled “Hawks Do Not Share” describes the events of a lunch with the
 Haas 6

Fitzgeralds. Consistent with Hemingway’s opinion of Scott’s spouse, Zelda is presented

as a jealous competitor who takes joy in knowing that her husband will not be able to
resume working after drinking wine. On that same occasion Zelda asked, “Ernest, don’t
you think Al Jolson is greater than Jesus?” At this point, Hemingway knew that Zelda’s
problems extended beyond her intrinsic jealousy, and he closes out the chapter stating
that “Scott did not write any more that was good until after he knew that she was
insane.”33 Zelda had her mental breakdown after an obsession with her ballet teacher and
her accusations that Scott “was a homosexual, in love with Ernest Hemingway.”34 Max
Perkins went on to say, “Poor old Scott – He should have swapped Zelda when she was
at her craziest but still saleable back 5 or 6 years ago before she was diagnosed as nutty –
He is the great tragedy of talent in our bloody generation.”35 Yet even after Zelda was
hospitalized, her influence lingered on in Scott’s alcohol abuse, a problem that would
control both Hemingway and Fitzgerald, but in totally different ways.
James Thurber, one of many alcoholic writers, wrote that none of Fitzgerald’s
problems amounted to his “conviction that his creative vitality demanded stimulation
from liquor.”36 Scottie Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald’s daughter, presented a picture of her
drunken father that hit closer to home. “When drunk, he became a totally different
person…not just gay or tiddly, but mean,” Scottie recalled.37 On the way to a Princeton-
Yale football game, for instance, Hemingway recorded one of Scott’s many drunken
embarrassments. On the train, Fitzgerald spotted a medical student perusing one of his
textbooks. He approached the student and exclaimed, “Ernest, I have found a clap
doctor!” He repeated the comment, and then announced, “A clap doctor. Physician, heal
thyself.”38 Scott’s cutting remarks were not only reserved for those easy targets he would
never see again. At a dinner with both Hemingway and literary critic Edmund Wilson,
Scott questioned Wilson, “Where’s Mary Blair?” At the time, Wilson was mourning the
loss of his second wife and had not been married to Mary Blair for a number of years.39
These immature actions prompted yet another morning-after apology note, with
 Haas 7

Fitzgerald constantly concerned about the perceptions of others, but Hemingway began to
confront Scott’s problem. “Forget your personal tragedy,” Hemingway would advise.
He also reminded him that “of all people on Earth you needed discipline in your work.”40
Realizing he no longer needed the support of Fitzgerald, Hemingway repaid his debts and
became more intolerant of his literary companion. The years past, and lacking that vital
discipline, Scott abused alcohol until the day he was struck with a fatal heart attack at the
age of forty-four. As Fitzgerald’s diary would foreshadow, “Then I was drunk for many
years, and then I died.”41
While Hemingway began drinking later in life and abstained from embarrassing
himself in public, by no means did he drink any less. According to Lillian Ross, who
wrote an article on Hemingway for the New Yorker, “He drank heroic amounts of booze,
held forth on any number of subjects in a sub-literate patois, and-most tellingly-put on an
exhibition of grandiosity by comparing himself, favorably, with great writers of the
past.”42 Ernest’s oldest son Jack visited Hemingway in Cuba, and while shooting
buzzards after pitchers of martinis, Jack felt “the closest he’s ever felt to his father.”43
While Hemingway could be considered as one who could hold his alcohol, the
combination of his drinking binges and family history of depression presented an obstacle
that the author would never surmount. Disregarding doctors’ orders to stop drinking
alcohol, Hemingway continued to imbibe to provide temporary alleviation from what he
called the “black ass” until the final months of his life.44 It was during this dry period that
Hemingway brought “the double-barreled shotgun that he had used so often” to his head
and followed in his father’s footsteps.45
The relationship between the two expatriate writers could be considered shallow
and to Hemingway’s advantage. However, the correspondence and frequent meetings
between the two offered the little amount of camaraderie needed by most authors. Their
liaison inspired literary competition, which proved to motivate Hemingway and could
have been the only reason Fitzgerald continued to work. While Scott continually praised
 Haas 8

and flattered his rival, Hemingway reserved his admiration for times when he could
express his feelings more eloquently. Even before the description of their memorable
first meeting in Paris, Hemingway introduces his three chapters reserved for Fitzgerald in
A Moveable Feast:
His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on the butterfly’s
wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not
know when it was brushed or marred. Later he became conscious of his damaged
wings and of their construction and he learned to think and could not fly any more
because the love of flight was gone and he could only remember when it had been
effortless.46
By devoting time and space in his memoir to capture his time with Fitzgerald,
Hemingway offered respect for his past friend and supporter in the only way he knew
how– on the page. As Princeton dean Christian Gauss would explain to Fitzgerald,
Hemingway’s “rhythm is like the beating of an African tom-tom – primitive, simple, but
it gets you in the end.”47 While their close friendship failed to endure the test of time, it
was periodically mutualistic and rewarding. What seems most clear about the interplay
between them was that Scott loved the “idealized image” of Ernest’s “courageous, stoic,
and masterful” character, while Ernest saw Scott’s “vulnerability and charm” as
reaffirmation of his characteristic masculine self-image.48
 Haas 9

Notes
1
Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast (New York: 1964), p. 149.
2
Scott Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald (Woodstock: 1999), p. 53.
3
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 57.
4
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 322.
5
Leo Lania, Hemingway: A Pictorial Biography (New York: 1961), p. 17.
6
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 22.
7
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 22.
8
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 105.
9
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 217.
10
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 21.
11
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 27.
12
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 27.
13
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 29.
14
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 29.
15
Hemingway, A Moveable Feast, p.149.
16
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 16.
17
Jeffery Meyers, Scott Fitzgerald: A Biography (New York: 1994), p. 14.
18
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 18.
19
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 19.
20
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 20.
21
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 20.
22
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 21.
23
Meyers, Scott Fitzgerald: A Biography, p. 10.
24
Meyers, Scott Fitzgerald: A Biography, p. 5.
25
Edward F. Murphy, Webster’s Treasury of Relevant Quotations (New York: 1978),
p. 593.
 Haas 10

26
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 56.
27
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 54.
28
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 60.
29
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 79.
30
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 99.
31
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 53.
32
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 68.
33
Hemingway, A Moveable Feast, p. 168.
34
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 156.
35
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 166.
36
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 237.
37
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 136.
38
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 121.
39
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 168.
40
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 175.
41
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 240.
42
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 245.
43
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 246.
44
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 251.
45
James R. Mellow, Hemingway: A Life Without Consequences (New York: 1992), p.
604.
46
Hemingway, A Moveable Feast, p. 147.
47
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 151.
48
Donaldson, Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald, p. 322.
 Haas 11

Works Cited
Donaldson, Scott. Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald (Woodstock: 1999).
Hemingway, Ernest. A Moveable Feast (New York: 1964).
Lania, Leo. Hemingway: A Pictorial Biography (New York: 1961).
Mellow, James R. Hemingway: A Life Without Consequences (New York: 1992).
Meyers, Jeffrey. Scott Fitzgerald: A Biography (New York: 1994).
Murphy, Edward F. Webster’s Treasury of Relevant Quotations (New York: 1978).

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