Americans in Paris: A Literary Anthology (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

From the earliest years of the American republic, Paris has provoked an extraordinary American literary response. An almost inevitable destination for writers and thinkers, Paris has been many things to many Americans: a tradition-bound bastion of the old world of Europe; a hotbed of revolutionary ideologies in politics and art; and a space in which to cultivate an openness to life and love thought impossible at home. Including stories, letters, memoirs, and journalism, Americans in Paris distills three centuries of vigorous, glittering, and powerfully emotional writing about the place that Henry James called "the most brilliant city in the world."

American writers came to Paris as statesmen, soldiers, students, tourists, and sometimes they stayed as expatriates. This anthology ranges from the crucial early impressions of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin to the latter-day reflections of writers as varied as James Baldwin, Isadora Duncan, and Jack Kerouac. Along the way we encounter the energetic travelers of the nineteenth century—Emerson, Mark Twain, Henry James—and the pilgrims of the twentieth: Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, E. E. Cummings, Cole Porter, Henry Miller. Come along as Thomas Paine takes a direct and dangerous part in the French Revolution; Harriet Beecher Stowe tours the Louvre; Theodore Dreiser samples the sensual enticements of Parisian night life; Edith Wharton movingly describes Paris in the early days of World War I; John Dos Passos charts the gathering political storms of the 1930s; Paul Zweig recalls the intertwined pleasures of language and sex; and A. J. Liebling savors the memory of his culinary education in delicious detail.

Americans in Paris is a diverse and constantly engaging mosaic, full of revealing cultural gulfs and misunderstandings, personal and literary experimentation, and profound moments of self-discovery.

About the Author

Adam Gopnik is a staff writer at The New Yorker and author of the bestselling Paris to the Moon. He lived in Paris with his family from 1995 to 2000, where he wrote the magazine’s "Paris Journals," which led the French newspaper Le Monde to call him a "witty and Voltairean commentator on French life." His writing has won the National Magazine Award for Essays and Criticism and the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 650 pages
• Publisher: Library of America (March 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931082561
• ISBN-13: 978-1931082563
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #149,078 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Next Best Thing to Being There, November 19, 2004

By	Mark Sarvas "TEV" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As I've noted at my literary weblog The Elegant Variation, where I've recommended this title, "Gopnik's at his best writing about Paris, and his opening essay and brief introductions set the stage perfectly for excerpts ranging from the letters of Ben Franklin and Abigail Adams to familiar passages from A Moveable Feast and The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas to James Baldwin and Langston Hughes offering African-American perspectives. Hart Crane's 22-word postcard is a highlight, as is A.J. Liebling's quote that "In France, accidents occur in the bedroom, not the kitchen." The Library of America project is one we laud, and we direct you to this fine volume, if only to recall a distant time when Le Monde could praise the "charm, his beautiful and great words" of an American president (Roosevelt). It's the next best thing to being there."

29 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A highly articulate literary composite portrait, May 18, 2004

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Compiled and edited by New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik, America In Paris: A Literary Anthology is a seminal celebration of statesmen, soldiers, student tourist, and sometimes even expatriates' experiences in the grand, romantic, and one-of-kind city of Paris. Excerpts from journals, letters, and stories spanning centuries from pre-colonial days down to the modern times offer a grand cohesive whole of Paris through American eyes, painting a captivating picture that shifts with subtle nuances and the march of years. An enchanting and highly articulate literary composite portrait, featuring writings from Benjamin Franklin, Abigail Adams, P. T. Barnum, William Faulkner, Jack Kerouac, and many more.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Remembering Paris, August 8, 2007

By	Ray "A Reader" - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Amazon Verified Purchase

Gopnik's literary anthology of Americans in Paris is a lovely volume, full of charm, wit, anecdote, and yes, melancholy for all those who have visited, or lived in, the City of Lights. Part of the Library of America, a continuing book trust fund dedicated to keeping American literature perpetually in print, (and doing so in ultra high quality hardbound volumes), this entry is nothing short of a fabulous look into the many Americans who passed through "La Ville-Lumière" at some point in their lives.

"Americans in Paris" captivates anyone who has spent time in the city. Paris is remarkable in the emotion it evokes in people, and when we read the words both small and great of writers both small and great, we are drawn back in our own minds to the similar thoughts Paris evoked in us, but never took time to record in print. Some of the writings in this book are funny, some intriguing, some explanatory - but we never miss out on the fact that Paris was the constant in all of them. We live vicariously through these writings, and yet, use them to relive our own experiences in the city. It truly is the next best thing to being there. Read it for enjoyment, introspection, and also to look forward to your next trip to Paris.

The book runs about 600 pages, and can be read in any order, by date, by person, or by topic. Entries are placed chronologically, starting with Benjamin Franklin and Abigail Adams in the late 18th century all the way to Vreeling and Tanning in the 20th century. Authors include Charles Lindbergh, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson, P. T. Barnum, Irwin Shaw, Henry James, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ernest Hemmingway, Art Buchwald, Ralph Waldo Emerson, James Baldwin, and a host of others too lengthy to list here.