U.S. and France
Americans in France
DOS PASSOS, John (1896-1970)
Writer, born in Chicago, IL
During WWI, Dos Passos served with a volunteer ambulance unit in France. Demobilized in 1919, he remained in Paris to finish two novels, taking over the apartment of a friend at 45, quai de la Tournelle in the 5 th. The next years were his most nomadic. He was constantly on the move between Europe and New York City, working as a newspaper correspondent and traveling extensively. In the spring of 1921, he hiked through the Pyrenees. In 1924, he met with Ernest Hemingway in Paris, forming an association that would last ten years. In 1945, he came back as a newspaper correspondent for Harper's and Life magazines, getting a room at Hôtel Scribe (9th). Jean-Paul Sartre once called him "the best novelist of our time."
DUNCAN, Isadora (1878-1927)
Dancer, born in San Francisco, CA
Isadora Duncan, arrived in France in 1900, at the age of 22. She records that she used to dance in the gardens of the Luxembourg Garden (6th) in the summer when it opened at 5 a.m. She took a large studio with her brother Raymond on rue de Villiers (17th). There she gave concerts, dancing barefoot in her Greek tunic. In 1909, she took two large apartments at 5 Rue Danton (6th). She lived on the ground floor and used the first floor for her dance school. On January 27 1909, acompanied by her students, she danced Iphigénie by Gluck at the Théâtre de la Gaieté (14th). The ballet was an outstanding success. When the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées was built, in 1913, her face was carved in the bas-relief by Antoine Bourdelle and painted in the murals by Maurice Denis. In 1919, she bought a house on rue de la Pompe (16th) and rebuilt her school of dance. In 1926, she moved to Rue Delambre (14th). She danced for the last time in Paris at the Théâtre Mogador (9th) in 1927. She was 49. She returned to Nice where she was killed when her scarf got caught in the wheel of her open car. She is buried in the Père-Lachaise cemetery (20th) with her two children.
FITZGERALD, Francis Scott (1896-1940)
Writer, born in St. Paul, MN
In 1920, publication of his first novel had made twenty-four-year-old Fitzgerald famous almost overnight. In 1921, he and wife Zelda visited Paris for the first time. Seeking tranquility for his work, they moved to France in the spring of 1924. They divided their time between Paris and the French Riviera, becoming conspicuous members of the “Lost Generation” of American expatriates. Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby during the summer and fall of 1924 in Valescure near St. Raphael. In Paris in the spring of 1925, he met Ernest Hemingway with whom he forged a friendship. The Fitzgeralds remained in France until the end of 1926. They came back briefly in the summer of 1928, and again from November 1929 until the following July. His fourth novel, Tender Is the Night, published in 1934, is set in France during the 1920s.