I found myself thinking about this, and thinking about the fact that the twenties were still a part of living history when I was a girl.
I decided that I wanted to learn more about that decade. I've gathered the books I own that were written then, or are about people who lived during that time. I want to buy a nonfiction book about the 1920s. And I've bought Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers. I'm not planning to read exclusively about this time period, but I want to read a fair amount to bring myself back to those years.
Here are the books I have on my shelves. I have read some of them. The Great Gatsby and The Sun Also Rises are two of my all-time favorite books, as well as A Moveable Feast.
Hadley has come out in a new edition and with a new name - Paris Without End. It was published around the same time as the fictional, The Paris Wife. I've had my Hadley for years and I so look forward to reading it. The cover has Hemingway's famous, heartbreaking words.
Hadley is buried in New Hampshire, only about 60 miles from me, and I hope to visit her grave, and post pictures when I write about the book!
Funny you should post this today. I was at my dad's yesterday and he told me that for the first time in his life he realizes just how old he really is. What did it? The move into this new decade of the twenties. He was born in 1922 and vaguely remembers that decade as the roaring twenties. It makes him laugh a little now that people are calling this decade the roaring twenties.
ReplyDeletePlease do visit the grave if at all possible. I'd love to see your pictures.
Quite a coincidence! Sounds like his mind is still clear at his age! Good for him. And lucky you.
DeleteWe are pretty set on going down to see it. I know in Texas 60 miles is nothing!
I have been thinking about the 20s too...but the 30s and 40s were after so all I wish for is peace :) but it does give one pause, that we are in the '20s now! hard to believe!
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to believe!
DeleteCute pictures a pretty dress. There will no doubt be a lot of roaring in these twenties.
ReplyDeleteI just can't imagine!
DeleteAnd thank you. I think I felt quite beautiful in it! Born to be a flapper :<))))
DeleteI love that picture of you, Nan! So cute! My parents were both born in the 1920's and so they would turn 100 during this coming decade if they were still around. Seems crazy somehow. I keep thinking about all the turmoil when the calendar was about to turn to the year 2000 and now that is 20 years ago. Time passes fast.
ReplyDeleteThank you! It is crazy to think of. My father would have been 20 in 1926. I bet he had stories, which of course I never heard. I do have some high school photos my mother took. She was born in 1913. The hairstyles and clothes are great. I'll try and remember to put them into some of the 1920s posts. I'm also thinking of having some music.
DeleteThe dress is fabulous and you are adorable in it!
ReplyDeleteI've thought about the same things, Nan. My parents were from the mid-20s, my mother is still with us. And when I think about when I was born, the Civil War was almost as near to that as the 20s are now to me. Your book selection is adventurous. Our youngest son is a huge Hemingway fan and is now working on replacing all of that collection with first editions. He brought one with him when they were here at Christmas, I can't remember the title but it is one that Hemingway wrote purposely bad so that he could get out of his publishing contract. I tried reading it, kept thinking it would get better, gave up and sent it home with him. I do have Dorothy Canfield Fisher's The Home-Maker, such an advanced book for its time! I did enjoy The Paris Wife so probably would Hadley. I have stacks of women's magazines from the 20s and loved reading them when we lived in our 1920 house. Our son and daughter-in-law who bought the house from us plan on having a centennial celebration party for the house this year. Perhaps we should all go dressed in clothes from then.
I think you must be like me in that you easily get lost in a certain time period, falling down rabbit hole after rabbit hole. Am I right?
My most beloved Scribner's editions cost - are you ready - $1.25, $1.65, and $1.95! So many women now really don't like Hemingway but I will always and forever be a fan. I envy your boy his first editions. Mostly, I love that he is doing that!
DeleteThat is truly amazing about the time periods.
I've had The Home-Maker for years, and hope to finally read it. DCF lived right next door in Vermont.
I couldn't bring myself to read a fictionalized version of Hadley's life. I have loved her for decades, and only wanted the true woman, not a made up one. But I know that this book probably brought her into the consciousness of a lot of people so that's a good thing!!
I sure would love to pop in and peruse those magazines with you showing me articles you especially love. Two of our very best friends live in SC and NC, so maybe someday we will get down there, and come by. Not that far away, I think because the NC friend has a fellow in Tennessee, and visits all the time.
What a cool, cool thing about the centennial celebration! Absolutely dress up!
You are indeed right.
That's a lovely photo of you! Very stylish.
ReplyDeleteI am one of those women who doesn't like and never has liked Hemingway. I do think any twenties reading list should include Evelyn Waugh.
Thanks!
DeleteAnd most women don't, and I sure get why.
I'm not such a fan of Waugh except for one of my top 10 favorite books - Brideshead Revisited. I do have a book about him that perhaps I may add - Paula Byrne's Mad World. I read her book on Kick Kennedy and it was perfectly wonderful. Thanks for the recommendation.
On New Year's Eve, my sister and I were talking about how we were now in the '20s all over again, and were making jokes about how we would be dancing the Charleston and playing Ragtime on the piano (we both learned from Oscar Peterson books when we were in our teens).
ReplyDeleteI would love a party where everyone dresses in 20s style!
Your collectiin of books made me realise that I have read quite a few from that period myself, but I doubt the authors' names will mean anything to you (Irmgard Keun, Hans Fallada, Erich Kästner).
And last but not least: a) love the picture of 13-year-old you!! b) Thank you for having my favourite header picture up again! :-)
I love the idea of 1920s parties. I bet there will be a lot of them.
DeleteYou're right, I've not heard of the writers, sadly.
I thought of you when I put the header picture up!
The Homemaker! Very advanced for it's time, I think, and I loved it. Hope you will too. My parents, both now dead were born in the 1920s. Both a little two young to have enjoyed/appreciated it (and too bloomin' poor too!).
ReplyDeleteI look forward to it.
DeleteWe forget there was poverty, and other troubles because of the hype of alcohol and drugs and music and parties. I hope my reading will be a broader look at those years. Just like when someone talks about the 1960s - they were not all "sex and drugs and rock and roll"- those were just the last few years of the decade, and it certainly didn't apply to most people.
What a lovely photo of you!
ReplyDeleteI get surprised every time I hear somebody talk of old books, and I understand that they are talking about books from the 70s or even later!
Wishing you the best for this new year!
Margaretha
Thank you!
DeleteThat is so the truth!
Thank you, and the same to you.
Lovely to hear from you.
I was just thinking about the 1920's today. My grandmother was born in 1920, and the others in the year or so before. They all were children during that time. And when I think back to the seventies and eighties, they don't feel so long ago at all. I imagine to children like my daughter, who is only 8, that seems like the dinosaur age. I hope you have a great New Year, Nan.
ReplyDeleteThat's so interesting about time. A weird thing is time!
DeleteI wish you the same!
Hi Nan,
ReplyDeleteThis is a post that I would like to revisit--so many depths here. In 1961, I was 8 years old, to your 13. But I do remember how "recent" the 1920s were in the 1960s. All the older relatives remembered the era, not all of them fondly, but it was interesting. I remember reading an excellent history of the 1920s in high school--it was great fun, really, and fascinating, but you would want to read a history of a more recent vintage. I wish you luck finding just the right book. Wish I knew one to recommend!
I don't suppose you recall the title??
DeleteI love that picture of you Nan (you look older than 13). We found Emily Dickinson's grave in Amherst, MA. My parents were born in 1916 and 1917!
ReplyDeleteThat's great about finding her grave. The only cemetary I've really visited was Pere Lachaise in Paris. I may have mentioned somewhere on the blog that we were there after Jim Morrison had been buried but we didn't even know he had died. Ah, the days of slow communication.
DeleteMy grandparents (who lived very near us and were a huge part of my growing up) were born in the 1890s and my mother was born in 1915. I actually grew up hearing a lot about the twenties. My grandmother's youngest sister was very advanced for her time and owned her own beauty shop and had beautiful beaded dresses that my mother often mentioned. I'll be very interested in reading about your coming reading and visit to Hadley's grave. I really liked The Homemaker and it reminded me of a rather different book which was ahead of its time (perhaps) Aunt Jane of Kentucky by Eliza Calvert Hall. You might find that interesting, too though not at all of the roaring twenties!
ReplyDeleteHow lucky to have had such grandparents. My mother was born in 1913.
DeleteI love it that you remember them talking about life in the twenties. A beauty shop!!!
I will look into the Calvert book!
That dress, I love it! Do you still have, I wonder?
ReplyDeleteMy Dad was born in 1927. Don't know about anywhere else but it was a rough time in Georgia, especially for poor farming families like his.
No, it went back to the woman from whom I borrowed it. I wonder what happened to all those clothes. And I can't even remember her name.
DeleteI'm sure it was. My mother grew up on one of those farms in this state. There were ten kids. The girls boarded in town when they went to high school.
Nan, I don't know much about the 20s, though my grandparents and parents (the latter born in 1936 and 1940) often told me stories about their life and hardship in India during the freedom struggle and after independence, in 1947, from British rule. Those were hard times but they sailed through.
ReplyDeleteLucky you that they told you stories. You ought to write a book. I just saw there's a new book out on the Mountbattens. I wonder if you'd be interested. https://www.themountbattens.com/
DeleteThis is a such a brilliant idea Nan. I’m familiar with some of the books in your stacks (all but the Allinghan in the top photo, and at least one in each of the others), and the era has always been fascinating to me (certainly living history in my life. My mother was born in 1910 and her sister was 12 years older... I knew that Aunt quite well and she was a great story-teller! )....Much to add to my Kindle wishlist!
ReplyDeleteYour mother was only three years older than mine, and four years younger than my father! Probably also a big family to have such an age difference. Siblings in families like that most likely had such different experiences growing up.
DeleteNan, we must be almost the same age. I turned 13 in November of 1961. That was a lovely dress and you look really good in it. My mother was born in 1927, my father in 1921. I miss them both.
ReplyDeleteI cannot remember if I have read The Great Gatsby or not, so I hope to read it this year. I was really into Fitzgerald and Zelda in college so probably I did... but it will new again now.
Yes, we are!
DeleteEvery time I read Gatsby it feels "new again" - a marvel of a book.