In the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway
And yet, of course, some Midwestern writers stand out. Ernest Hemingway, perhaps the most famous midwesterner in France, with L'Adieu aux Armes or Pour qui sonne le glas. He was born on July 21, 1899 in Chicago's Oak Park neighborhood to a father who was a doctor, hunter and fisherman, and a mother who was a musician. Like his father, he loved fishing and would later write about it. He soon became a reporter for the Kansas City Star. In 1917, he joined the Red Cross and became an ambulance driver on the Italian front. Seriously wounded at the age of eighteen, he was hospitalized in Milan, where he fell in love with a nurse, Agnes von Kurowsky, forming the basis of L'Adieu aux armes. Back in the U.S., he married Hadley Richardson and thought of returning to Europe. He landed a journalistic assignment and was not yet a household name when he settled in Paris in 1920, where he met Gertrude Stein, who taught him to write in a precise, clear and uncluttered style. Three Stories and Ten Poems (1923), In Our Time (1925), where themes of violence, war and death are already present. He frequented the intellectuals of Paris. In May 1925, he met Fitzgerald in Paris at the Diego Bar: Fitzgerald was already famous and would come to appreciate Hemingway's quality as a writer; a relationship marked by both friendship and rivalry would develop between them. After his father's suicide, his divorce and remarriage, he published A Farewell to Arms (1919), a work inspired by his own experience on the Italian front. In 1930, he moved to Key West, Florida, and wrote Mort dans l'après-midi (Death in the Afternoon) , set against the backdrop of bullfighting. In 1936, he is in Spain and joins the Republican forces. He became an alcoholic and wrote En avoir ou pas (1937), in which he denounced social injustice; For Whom the Bell Tolls(1940) was inspired by his involvement in the Spanish war. He then moved to a large house near Havana, and returned to Paris, which he adored, many times... In 1952, The Old Man and theSea denounced the precariousness of material success. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. Aged, ill and physically diminished, he committed suicide on July 2, 1961 at his Kechtum estate in Idaho. Three years after his death, Paris est une fête appears.
In Oak Park, west of downtown Chicago, you can visit his childhood home and the museum dedicated to him, either on your own or with a guide! The two buildings of theErnest Hemingway Birthplace and Museum are nestled just a few yards apart. In the museum, visitors discover everything there is to know about the author and his life. It's possible to read the diary he kept as a child, some of his early works and even discover photos from his youth... Aficionados can indulge themselves in the small store selling novels, posters and other gifts. The Victorian-style house where he spent his early years was built by his grandparents. There's nothing more pleasant or disorienting than treading on the very ground where little Ernest took his first steps!
Other great names to remember
Another Midwestern genius, Francis Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1896. A leader of the Lost Generation, he discovered Ernest Hemingway and launched his career. Fitzgerald left his mark on American literature with Gatsby the Magnificent (1925), a splendid drama considered his masterpiece. His other novels include L'envers du Paradis (set in his St. Paul home in 1920), Les Heureux et les Damnés (1922), Tendre est la nuit (1934) and Le Dernier Nabab (1941). His best-known short stories include Bérénice se fait couper les cheveux (1920), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (1921), adapted for the screen by David Fincher in 2008 and starring Brad Pitt, Un diamant gros comme le Ritz (1922) and Rêves d'hiver (1922). Fitzgerald was also known for his sentimental escapades with his wife Zelda. He lived in poverty at the end of his life, receiving little recognition during his lifetime.
Carl Sandburg also comes to mind. Born in 1878 in Galesburg, Illinois, Sandburg was one of the finest poets of the American industrial age, a "poet of the people" who combined the mystical patriotism of Walt Whitman with the social activism of Woody Guthrie. He joined the army, serving in the Spanish-American War of 1898. After becoming a writer, he turned his attention to the unrest and spirit of the Middle West and urban America. He published four volumes of poetry: Chicago Poems (1916), Oke and Steel (1920), Good Morning America (1928) and The People, Yes (1936). Sandburg is also best known for his colossal six-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln. In 1927, he published his American Songbag, a collection of folk songs and poems he collected on his travels across the United States. He twice won the Pulitzer Prize: in 1940, for Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and The War Years, and, in 1950, for Complete Poems. Sandburg was married to Lillian Steichen. He died in July 1967.
In the same vein, Hamlin Garland, born in 1860 in West Salem, Wisconsin, was renowned for his fictional works, mainly about the lives of Midwestern farmers in the 1910s-1920s.
Another great American writer of the last century, Thornton Niven Wilder was born in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1897. The son of an American diplomat, he spent much of his childhood in China. His brother, Amos, and three younger sisters, Charlotte, Isabel and Janet, were also well-known writers. Considered gifted by his fellow students, Wilder began writing at an early age. In 1926, he published his first novel, The Cabala, and in 1927, The Bridge of San Luis Rey brought him commercial success and his first Pulitzer Prize, in 1928. Between 1930 and 1937, he taught literature at the University of Chicago. During the Second World War, Wilder rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Air Force and received numerous decorations. After the war, he became a professor at the University of Hawaii, then taught poetry at Harvard. He continued to write, however, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963. He died in December 1975, in Connecticut, where he had been living for several years with his sister Isabel.
Sinclair Lewis, born in Sauk Center, Minnesota, in 1885, was the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930, for his novel Babitt (published in 1922). This novelist describes modern American society, as well as the sometimes vulgar foibles of small country towns.
Laura Ingalls Wilder, born in Wisconsin in 1867, is the author of the Little House on the Prairie series of children's novels (published from 1932), from which the well-known TV program was derived. The Ingalls moved constantly, settling in several Midwestern states, including Missouri, Kansas, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. Inspired by her experiences and her own family, Laura Ingalls' novels depict life on Midwestern farms in the 1870s. In 1929, she wrote her autobiography, Pioneer Girl, which was published long after her death, in 2014.
More recently, Iowa-born Jane Smiley made her mark with A Thousand Acres and Moo. These days, Garrison Keillor, born in Anoka, Minnesota, is known for his novels as well as his humorous radio shows. Thomas McGuane, born in Wyandott in 1939, evokes life in the heart of Michigan. A writer of nature and the great outdoors, he has published nine novels, of which Ninety-two in the Shade(33° à l'ombre, 1973) is the most famous.
Some contemporary feathers!
Joseph Coulson was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1957. A novelist and poet, he is renowned for his social satire and acerbic criticism of American society. He has written several plays and poems, as well as two novels, The Decline of the Moon (2004) and Great Lakes Blues (2007).
Another Michigan native, Jim Harrison, is the author of North Michigan and Autumn Legends. Finally, authors such as Chad Harbach with L'Art du jeu (published in French in 2013) and Nickolas Butler with Retour à Little Wing (published in French in 2015) introduce us to contemporary Wisconsin.
2002 saw the publication of TheDevil in the White City, a novel by bestselling author Erik Larson (b. 1954). It has sold over two million copies. Erik Larson drew on real events and characters to write this crime novel, set during the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. This was the time of a certain H.H. Holmes, a pharmacist considered to be the first serial killer in American history.
In 2005, Irish author Nuala O'Faolain (1940-2008) published The Story of Chicago May, the story of a thief who seduced men in order to steal from them. The novel was awarded the Prix Fémina étranger in 2006.
Also worth mentioning is Veronica Roth (b. 1988), who in 2011 wrote the Divergent trilogy, which has sold over 20 million copies worldwide... These novels are set in a post-apocalyptic Chicago where society is divided into five clans. The trilogy has, of course, been adapted for the screen in several installments.
Sebastian Barry, a writer born in Dublin in 1955, wrote Du côté de Canaan (2011), which tells the story of Lilly Berre from her childhood to her arrival in Chicago. Daryl Gregory (b. 1965) published a science-fiction novel in the same year: The Education of Stony Mayhall.
Museum of American Writers
At 180 North Michigan Avenue is theAmerican Writers Museum (AWM), which we can translate as Museum of American Writers. Opened in 2017, this space aims to trace 500 years of American literature through the lives and works of the 100 most famous writers. Inspired by the Writers Museum in Dublin, Malcol O'Hara, a retired banker, embarked on this crazy project, the first of its kind in the United States! This museum is driven by an interactive concept. Technology has a place of honor, as well as the sound dimension, an attractive way to bring back to life all the most beautiful American writers. One can also remember, in the manner of Proust, thanks to the smells that these writers were particularly fond of! In short, a museum that combines classical culture and modernity.
