Literary Paris hotspots - Part 1

By Christiann Anderson France’s love of art and literature makes it logical for Paris to be a living monument to generations of writers whose works continue to inspire. The city is rife with museums and monuments dedicated to the memory of its writers, poets, and artists and still excites contemporary writers, whose continual pilgrimage is testimony to the influence that this city has on the creative spirit. Literary luminaries such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, James Baldwin, Ernest Hemingway, and Henry Miller—as well as contemporary writers from Barbara Chase-Riboud to David Sedaris—have all called Paris home at one time. The City of Light has given many expatriate writers a sense of personal and artistic freedom and a chance to live la vie parisiènne.

For the avid literature devotée, Paris has many cafés and bars that double as literary forums where authors, poets, scribblers, and would-be Balzacs can gather to share ideas along with good food and wine. Moreover, walking around the city can become a daily celebration in honour of your favourite writer. Arm yourself with an arrondissement plan book to help you navigate your way around Paris’s 20 districts where you can visit all the old haunts of your esteemed littérateur.

A warning: if you plan to attend any of the ‘’discussion’’ groups in the cafés, remember that establishments in Paris may be closed from July to September. During this time, it is best to telephone for program information.

LITERATI FOOTMARKS

Why not spend an entire day walking around Paris and spending time in the neighborhoods where some of America’s best writers lived, worked, and dreamed?
(N.B.: The following selections are not comprehensive.)

Suggested itinerary:
* Monday—Lawrence Ferlinghetti
* Tuesday—James Baldwin
* Wednesday—Margaret Fuller
* Thursday—Henry Miller
* Friday—Langston Hughes


MONDAY: Lawrence Ferlinghetti (6th and 7th arrondissements)

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, famous poet, painter, publisher, and owner of one of America’s most well known bookstores, earned his doctoral degree in poetry at the Sorbonne in Paris. Ferlinghetti’s City Lights bookstore, named after the Charlie Chaplin movie, still stands in its original location in San Francisco’s North Beach.

Respected as one of the most important poets in the Beat movement, Ferlinghetti was born in Yonkers, New York, and raised in France by a female relative. He did not speak English until he returned to America at the age of five. In the late 1920’s Ferlinghetti began writing poetry during his years at boarding school. When his guardian, Sally Bisland, gave him a copy of Baudelaire’s poems, the gift inspired his love for literature.

In World War II, Ferlinghetti joined the Navy and ultimately became a Lieutenant Commander. After the war, he, like many other American expats, took advantage of the benefits of the G. I. Bill to go to college. In 1948 he received a Master of Arts from Columbia University, and later he obtained his Ph.D. in creative writing from the Sorbonne University of Paris. During this time abroad he met writers Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Dylan Thomas, as well as other “Beat Generation” poets and writers.

The Beat generation, a small group of writers, represented an important period in time for American writers. While the Beat sub-culture was one of the most creative and explosive times in postmodern literature, today it is looked upon as a very distinguished period. Lawrence Ferlinghetti remains its most celebrated writer and his work is still widely read and admired. Paris had a special allure for the writers of the ‘’Beat’’ movement, partly because of its discernible art and culture; the museums, theaters, glorious gardens and outdoor cafes blended beautifully with the Beats' creative energy.

89, Rue de Vaugirard (6th arrondissement)—In 1948, Ferlinghetti arrived in Paris for the first time, at the age of 28. He took two rooms here, below street level. The rooms cost $26 and he stayed for one year. He went on to open the City Lights Bookshop when he returned to San Francisco.

52, Rue de Seine (6th arrondissement)—Ferlinghetti stayed in the Hôtel de Seine in June 1963 to spend time visiting his old haunts.

TUESDAY: James Baldwin (4th & 6th arrondissements)

James Baldwin, one of the most prominent figures in African American literature, moved to Paris on Armistice Day, November 11, 1948. He was only 24 when he became part of a group of black expat writers that included Chester Himes and Richard Wright; Baldwin considered Richard Wright and Ollie Harrington mentors. And although Baldwin did not speak French at the time, he had read the classics and watched the films of Marcel Carné, which he felt gave him enough information about France and the French to help him adjust to this new culture. It was life as an expatriate in France that helped Baldwin find his voice as an author.

Baldwin, the eldest of nine children, was born in 1924 into a poor family in Harlem, New York. Yet despite the poor quality of the public schools he attended as a boy, he managed to become an excellent student and matured into a voracious reader. Spirituality and his exposure to the Pentecostal Church played an important role in his development as a writer. But he became disillusioned with the church early on and rejected its teachings, even though biblical themes are plentiful in his work, most notably the religious anguish of the character John Grimes in Go Tell It on The Mountain (1953).

Baldwin wrote his first novel, Go Tell it on the Mountain, in Paris. This book established him as one of the leading commentators on the condition of black people and their social injustices in the United States. From then on, his novels began working at a personal level, exploring issues of identity, family, and sexuality. This made Baldwin a literary and political star in Paris and the United States. But despite this success, Baldwin’s did not share the same fondness for France and the French as many of his fellow expatriates. While many enjoyed the ways of the French, Baldwin appreciated that the French were indifferent and left him alone. ‘’This total indifference came as a great relief and, even as a mark of respect,’’ he said.

Baldwin remained a prominent presence on the Paris intellectual scene for 20 years and regularly spoke at many cultural events and political meetings. The French awarded him the Legion of Honor in 1985, and when he died in Saint Paul in December 1987, the French press and TV treated him as an honorary citizen of France.

10, Quai d’Orléans (4th arrondissement)—James Jones, author of From Here to Eternity, bought a house here where Baldwin was a frequent guest.

170, Boulevard Saint-Germain (6th arrondissement)—Café Deux Magots
James Baldwin meets the writer Richard Wright at the café. Wright helps Baldwin to find an affordable hotel.

WEDNESDAY: Margaret Fuller (9th arrondissement)

Margaret Fuller, writer and lecturer, was born into a distinguished family in Massachusetts in 1810. She received a full classical education at an early age that led to some psychological pressures in her adolescence. She often complained of having ‘’spectral illusions, somnambulism, and nightmares’’ throughout her youth.

As a young woman Fuller became interested in transcendentalism and subsequently served as editor on THE DIAL: a magazine for literature, philosophy and religion (1840 to 1842). When Fuller was 36 she accepted an invitation from Horace Greeley to move to New York and become the first literary critic of the New York Herald Tribune. Fuller achieved a career that brought her respect, fame, and an influential social position in the liberal wing of reformers in New York.

Fuller was an ardent feminist, and her work Women in the Nineteenth Century (1845) dealt with politics, intellectualism, and the sexual aspects of feminism. In 1846 she spent several months in Paris before heading off to Italy, where she married the Marchese Ossoli and had an infant son. In 1850 the ship that was to bring her back to America was wrecked and she, her husband, and their infant son were drowned.

4, Cité Rougemont (9th arrondissement) Métro: Rue Montmartre

Margaret Fuller spent several months here in the Hôtel de la Cité, beginning December 1846. At this time she was the epitome of Boston’s intellectual and literary society.

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BP Senior Editor, Christiann Anderson is the creator and co-author of Paris Reflections: Walks through African American Paris (McDonald & Woodward, 2002.). She is the author of The Single Woman's Guide to Paris and Ribjoint (both due for release 2005).

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