Geniuses Together: American Writers in Paris in the 1920s

Dubbed the ""Lost Generation'' by Gertrude Stein, they were Americans who flocked to Paris in the post-WW I years, convinced that in the bohemian quarter of Montparnasse their creativity would flourish. Principal among them was Hemingway, who has the major share of this collective portrait by Carpenter, who also has written biographies of Auden and Tolkien. He follows the evolution of the Hemingway style``no fat, no adjectives, no adverbs''in anecdotes that reveal the personality of a not entirely likable man. Sherwood Anderson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kay Boyle, Djuna Barnes, Pound, Joyce and others who frequented the Shakespeare and Company bookstore or the art-filled rooms of Stein also contributed to the ``long, wild party'' whose glamour has not faded. In this social history, Carpenter illuminates as well the dark side of the heady period. Photos. (January 5)