The Ladies of the Lost Generation Paris 1920s

The 1920s was a time when women were liberated. World War One left 33 million men dead or wounded, and women had to fill the jobs left vacant. They demanded and won the right to vote…they tossed out their corsets, shortened their skirts and entered the workforce. Financially independent, they could now afford to buy fashionable clothes, perfume, and make up. The flapper was born, and she flooded the speakeasies and nightclubs of Paris and NY. Americans flocked to Paris, drawn by the open lifestyle and cheap living conditions. They formed the Lost Generation – Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Joyce, etc. Women were also drawn to Paris and they hosted the literary salons that drew the intellectuals of the 1920s. Gertrude Stein was the most famous woman of the Lost Generation, but she was not the only one. This tour will introduce you to a few of the other women who made history in Paris in the 1920s & 30s. Along the way we will read from their work, see their art, discuss their lives and challenges as women.

We start the tour in St Germain, the literary district, covering some of the most famous ladies of 1920s Paris : • Sylvia Beach & her bookshop Shakespeare and Company; • writer and salon hostess Nathalie Barney and the artist Romaine Brooks; • poet and publisher Caresse Crosby; • Irish architect Eileen Gray; • New Yorker journalist Janet Flanner, and Solita Solano; • Djuna Barnes, author of the cult classic Nightwood, and the artist Thelma Woods; • photographer Berenice Abbott We then proceed to Montparnasse, where we "meet" (virtually of course) Gertrude Stein, and discuss the groundbreaking work of this extraordinary woman. We "discover" more of the intrepid ladies in Montparnasse : the author Kay Boyle, the artist Mina Loy and the poet Edna St Vincent Millay, We end the tour in the famed Closerie de Lilas with Lee Miller as well as the glamorous artist Tamara de Lempicka and her fabulous Art Deco portraits.