Cafe Lipp

Léonard Lipp opened his brasserie in the 1870's after fleeing Alsace during the Franco-Prussian War. The menu is typical of that region including beer, sausage, and sauerkraut. (A brasserie serves alcohol and food.) It stayed in the family until 1920 when Marcellin Cazas bought it. (In 1958, Cazas was given the Legion of Honor for running the best literary salon in Paris.)
Hemingway liked the Lipp for it's oysters and wine and it was a good place to write.
After "The Sun Also Rises" was published, Hemingway was told that some of his friends were out to get him since they thought they were recognizable characters in the novel. Hemingway responded that he would be at the Lipp between two and four every day if anyone wanted to confront him. No one did.

Two Hemingway Photos

These two photos of Ernest are new to me. They were brought to my attention by a writer friend and Hemingway fan, Joe Grant.
Joe's best guess is that they are publicity shots for "The Sun Also Rises." I believe that they were taken by Man Ray.
Here is some biographical information on Joe:
"My short stories have been published in 140 literary reviews and e-zines, such as Byline, New Authors Journal, Underground Voices, Nite-Writer's International Literary Arts Journal, Howling Moon Press, Hack Writers, New Online Review, Literary Tonic, six sentences, NexGenPulp, three UK literary reviews, Bottom of the World and Cupboard Gloom and three most recently in Darkest Before Dawn, strangeroad and a story in the anthology of horror, Northern Haunts, (available at Barnes & Noble, Target and on Amazon). I have been nominated for the Million Writers Award. I have won “Story of the Month” at Bartleby-Snopes Literary Review and Story of the Month at 6 Sentences. I have completed my first novel. I currently reside in Los Angeles. NOTE: Six stories of mine have been featured in 6S Volume 1, a collection of short stories by various writers available at Amazon and 6S Volume II out now. I have also been nominated for a South Stories Literary Award."

Hemingway At The Select

As regular visitors know, I have given quite a bit of space on the blog to Paris cafe life. Hemingway and the expat crowd used the cafes as places to work, socialize, and establish a sense of community.
They also liked to drink, and after leaving Prohibition America they imbibed quite a bit in the cafes.
The Select was one of Ernest's favorite haunts. He went there for breakfast and frequently stayed to write or just catch up on the gossip.
Hemingway also put Jake Barnes and friends, from "The Sun Also Rises" at the Select.

A present day American expat, Rick Tulka, and co-author Noel Riley Fitch have written a book called "Paris cafe: The Select Crowd."
Rick has been generous enough to let me use the above illustration of Hem.
For a change of pace, I'm adding a link to a Youtube clip , so you can see the present day Select and Rick at work. I think that it is very enjoyable and I hope that you do, too.

Some More Cafe Life

The sidewalk cafes of Paris and the circle of friends that Hemingway met there is a central theme to "A Moveable Feast."
He did much of his most productive writing sitting in a cafe with his blue notebooks and a few pencils and a pocket knife to keep them sharp. The walk from his apartment or just a stroll through Paris to the cafe were stimulants for a good day's work.
His first published short stories were written that way and his beginning of "The Sun Also Rises" started there, too.
The painting is called "Hemingway's Paris," and is courtesy of Maranda Pleasant of Big Modern Art.

Some Of The Lost Generation

The Lost Generation: Hemingway and the circle of ex-pat friends he later incorporated in The Sun Also Rises. Top photo includes, Harold Loeb, the model for Robert Cohn in The Sun Also Rises, on the left, and Hemingway in the center.
In the bottom photo: Hemingway on the left, Harold Loeb, Lady Duff Twysden, Hadley, Don Stewart and Pat Guthrie.
Writing the book, Hemingway thought of himself as the Jake Barnes character, Lady Duff Twysden was Brett, Pat Guthrie was Mike Cambell, and as mentioned, Harold Loeb was Robert Cohn.

First Novel Published

Fired with the fictional possibilities that he saw during his visit to the Pamplona bullfights in 1925, Hemingway started translating them into a novel, initially titled, Fiesta, soon after leaving the Spanish town. Within roughly two months, the first draft of what would eventually be titled The Sun Also Rises was done. Although this work is a classic today, one reviewer charged, at its publication in 1926, that Hemingway was hiding his talents "under a bushel of sensationalism and triviality." Many others, however, disagreed. One critic claimed that its "lean, hard narrative prose" put a good deal of "literary English to shame," and yet another noted that the novel contained the best dialogue to be found in contemporary fiction.
The celebrity that the novel brought him marked the beginning of the end of the early innocence of the Paris years.

Hemingway In 1925

This was the rear cover
of "The Sun Also Rises."
He wrote the first draft
In two months after their
trip to Pamplona to see
the bullfights in the Festival
of San Fermin.