The Expatriates in Paris

The 1920s brought a significant influx of American artists and writers to the city of Paris, France (UNC Library). Unlike the many Americans who travel to Europe for a short vacation, these were there to stay. Some only lived in Paris for a few months, and some lived there for years (UNC Library). Although many other major cities in Europe were inhabited by these expatriates as well, Paris seemed to have the largest number of them. The appeal of Paris is obvious to anyone who has ever heard anything about its attractions, beauty, and apparent differences from American culture. These aspects, along with others, brought many of history’s most important authors to the City of Lights.
Some writers put themselves in a sort of self-exile from America because of prosecution, in one form or another (UNC Library). Some of the exiles were those “who chose to leave a homeland they considered artistically, intellectually, politically, racially, or sexually limiting or even oppressive” (UNC Library). As is still the case today, many saw Paris as a more liberated place, where the freedom to express oneself was welcomed rather than frowned upon like it was in America at that time.
One large movement of expatriates occurred from the end of World War I to the beginning of World War II (UNC Library). This was because of those who Gertrude Stein called “the Lost Generation”. These men and women were those who had been subject to the brutality and desolation of the war. It seems as though they were trying to find an escape from the world in which they had been living during World War I. They wanted to be free of the constant worries of attack and death, of themselves and loved ones. Some of these writers were Sherwood Anderson, Djuna Barnes, Samuel Beckett, Kay Boyle, John Dos Passos, Lawrence Durrell, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ford Madox Ford, H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Ezra Pound, and Gertrude Stein (UNC Library). However, their escape from a world of terror ended when the Germans began their occupation of Paris in 1939 (UNC Library).
Many of the expatriates came to know each other and influence one another’s works. For example, Sylvia Beach, creator of Shakespeare and Company, became friends with James Joyce and published his novel (UNC Library). Ernest Hemingway had many acquaintance and friends in Europe, which shows in his novel The Sun Also Rises. Some of these writers were Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald (Mills). Each of these writers had an effect on one another’s works.
Once again, men and women throughout the United States (and the world, for that matter) were subjected to the hardships of war, when World War II began. Those who had lived through the first war had to survive through yet another one, and a new generation of “lost” people was born in those who were living though their first war. This brought another group of writers to Paris during the 1950s and 60s, after the end of World War II. These individuals came to be known as the “Beat Generation” (UNC Library). Among them were authors such as Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and William Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, James Baldwin, and Chester Himes, and Richard Wright (UNC Library). These writers sought out the same freedoms that their predecessors did. They looked toward their elder writers as role models and followed the same escape route. Although it is doubtful that many of the authors who expatriated to France actually found freedom from the memories that haunted them, they did find a way to produce many of the most memorable and important works of literature.


"Genuises Together." UNC Library. UNC, Web. 25 Sep 2009. .

Mills, Ian. "Hemingway's Paris." Discover France. 1998-9. Discover France, Web. 25 Sep 2009. .