Pathfinder Reference for
“The Lost Generation”
11th grade
Cane Ridge High School
Basic Reference Sources
There are certain key terms to search for which will guide you in your search for what the “Lost
Generation” was and its contribution to 20th century art and literature.
The key terms to search for in these reference sources: Hemingway, Ernest. Fitzgerald, F.
Scott (or Fitzgerald, Francis Scott Key). Stein, Gertrude. Pound, Ezra. Eliot, Thomas Stearns
(or Eliot, T. S.). Lost Generation. The Sun Also Rises. The Waste Land. Joyce, James. Picasso,
Pablo. Man Ray. Dali, Salvador. Surrealism. Cubism.
Collier’s Encyclopedia.
The Dictionary of Art.
Dictionary of Literary Biography: American Writers in Paris, 1920-1939, Vol. 4.
Encyclopedia Americana.
Encyclopedia Britannica.
Encyclopedia of Artists.
Encyclopedia of World Art.
Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century.
Masterplots.
Twentieth Century Authors.
The World Book Encyclopedia.
Starting Point for Topic
F Hem Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. This is Ernest Hemingway’s novel which first
used the term “The Lost Generation,” which was first coined by writer Gertrude Stein, to
describe writers and artists, who were mostly Americans, living in Paris after World War I. The
plot is based on many of the actions of his friends and acquaintances in Paris and Spain during
this period in the 1920s.
Subject Sources
Print Sources
Nonfiction
709.24 R26b Baldwin, Neil. Man Ray: American Artist. A biography about an American
photographer and artist who lived most of his life in Paris.
759.6 D136d v.1 Descharnes, Robert and Gilles Neret. Salvador Dalí, 1904-1989 : The
Paintings. Volume I, 1904-1946. This book offers many of the works of art which Salvador Dali
completed in Paris in the 1920s.
821.912 E42co Eliot, T. S.. Collected Poems, 1902-1962. A St. Louis native who lived in Paris
in the 1920s, but eventually lived the rest of his life in England, Eliot’s two most famous works,
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and The Waste Land, represent a new kind of poetry
which represented “Modernism,” a product of the Lost Generation.
B J893e Ellmann, Richard. James Joyce. A biography of the most famous writer to come out of
Ireland, James Joyce. He lived in Paris when his most famous work, Ulysses, was first published
in 1922.
B D143e Etherington-Smith, Meredith. The Persistence of Memory: A Biography of Dali. A
biography of the life of artist Salvador Dali.
813.52 H488m Hemingway, Ernest. A Moveable Feast. Ernest Hemingway’s memoir of his
experiences in Paris in the 1920s, when he became the leading American writer of the Lost
Generation.
759.4 P5868j Jaffé, Hans Ludwig C. Pablo Picasso. A collection of Picasso’s most famous
works of art. His career thrived while living in 1920s Paris.
813 S819Me Mellow, James R.. Charmed Circle: Gertrude Stein & Company. A nonfiction
book about American writer Gertrude Stein, a leading figure of the Lost Generation, and other
writers and artists in Paris of the 1920s.
709.44 M524 Melly, George. Paris and the Surrealists. This book is about the art movement
known as “Surrealism,” which Salvador Dali and Man Ray were two of its leading figures. This
movement began in 1920s Paris.
811.5 P87s Pound, Ezra. Selected Poems. A collection of poems by Idaho native Ezra Pound.
He, along with T. S. Eliot, were the leading Modernist poems of the time.
759.4 P5868r v.3 Richardson, John. A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932. This
book describes Picasso’s time in Paris when he became one of the leading artistic figures of the
Lost Generation.
B T646 Stein, Gertrude. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. Gertrude Stein’s autobiography
cleverly disguised as her best friend Alice B. Toklas’s autobiography. This is Stein’s first-hand
account of her life in Paris.
944.36 S819 ---. Paris France. This is another first-hand account by Gertrude Stein about her
life in Paris.
759.4 P5868st ---. Picasso. This is Gertrude Stein’s biography about her friend Pablo Picasso.
Fiction
F Fit Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Tender Is the Night. This is a novel by Minnesota native F. Scott
Fitzgerald that is based on his and his wife’s experiences in Europe after World War I.
Online databases
These databases offer many articles, book excerpts, and web links which will help you in your
research. Please use the same key search terms that are under the Basic Reference Source
section.
Gale Literary Index.
Literature Resource Center.
ProQuest.
Tennessee Electronic Library (TEL).
Journals
These journals provide valuable resources for anyone doing research on the artists and writers of
the Lost Generation. You may find these in any of the databases given above.
Art Journal.
Art Monthly.
Chronology of American Literature.
Studies in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature.
Twentieth Century Literature.
Media Resources
Biography: Lost Generation. A & E Home Video, 2001. VHS. This episode of the A&E series
Biography gives a documentary account of the people that made up the Lost Generation.
Midnight in Paris. Dir. Woody Allen. Perf. Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard,
Michael Sheen, and Corey Stoll. Sony Pictures Classics, 2011. Film. This comedic fantasy film
from Woody Allen stars Owen Wilson as Gil Pender who is an aspiring American novelist
visiting Paris in the present day, but, in a part of the city, when the clock strikes midnight, is
taken back to 1920s Paris where he meets the leading figures of the Lost Generation.
The Sun Also Rises. Perf. Tyrone Power, Ava Gardner, Errol Flynn, and Mel Ferrer. 20th
Century Fox, 1957. DVD. This is a 1950s film adaptation of the Ernest Hemingway novel of the
same name. It gives a clear visual picture of the plot of the novel.
Web sites
Bartleby. http://bartelby.com/. This web site offers many of the titles by the Lost Generation
authors which can be read online for free because they are now considered to be in the public
domain.
The Hemingway Resource Center. http://www.lostgeneration.com/. This site offers information
and web links on many important resources about Ernest Hemingway and his work.
Literary Criticism. http://www.ipl.org/div/litcrit/. This site offers web links and essays about
many of the writers of the Lost Generation.
Pablo Picasso. http://www.artchive.com/artchive/P/picasso.html. This site features a brief
biography of Pablo Picasso and his work.
Salvador Dali Art Gallery. http://www.dali-gallery.com/. This site features many of the famous
works of art by Salvador Dali.
Jarrett McCall 8 July 2011