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Everybody Was So Young
Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy, A Lost Generation Love Story | Amanda Vaill
7 posts | 5 read | 15 to read
"Once upon a time there was a prince and a princess -- that's how the story of the Murphys should begin," said a friend of this golden pair. Handsome, gifted, wealthy Americans with homes in Paris and on the French Riviera, Gerald and Sara Murphy were at the very center of expatriate cultural and social life during the modernist ferment of the 1920s. Gerald Murphy -- witty, urbane, and elusive -- was a giver of magical parties and an acclaimed painter. Sara Murphy, an enigmatic beauty who wore her pearls to the beach, enthralled and inspired Pablo Picasso (he painted her both clothed and nude), Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The models for Nicole and Dick Diver in Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night,the Murphys also counted among their friends John Dos Passos, Dorothy Parker, Fernand Leger, Archibald MacLeish, Cole Porter, and a host of others. Far more than mere patrons, they were kindred creative spirits whose sustaining friendship released creative energy. Yet none of the artists who used the Murphys for their models fully captured the real story of their lives: their Edith Wharton childhoods, their unexpected youthful romance, their ten-year secret courtship, their complex and enduring marriage -- and the tragedy that struck them, when the world they had created seemed most perfect, in what Gerald called, "our most vulnerable spot, our children." Certainly Fitzgerald, who once complained that there were no second acts in American lives, could not have envisioned the tenacity with which the Murphys struggled to hold themselves and their charmed circle together through the dark years of the thirties and forties, when death, financial ruin, madness, and war assailed it. Amanda Vaill's account of the Murphys and their friends follows them through the whole arc of their glittering and sometimes tragic lives -- the first such account to do so. Drawing on a hitherto untapped wealth of family diaries, photographs, letters and other papers, as well as on archival research and interviews on two continents, Vaill has documented the pivotal role of the Murphys in the interplay of cultures that gave rise to the Lost Generation. She explores for the first time the sexual undercurrents that ran beneath Gerald's and Sara's relationships with Picasso, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald and affected the work of all three men. Most important, she evokes both Murphys, and the geniuses who had the good fortune to be their friends, with a clarity and tenderness that makes them virtually step off the page. "There was a shine to life wherever they were," said the poet Archibald MacLeish -- and this book, which reads as much like a rich and engaging novel as a work of biography, shows why.
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DivineDiana
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Thank you so much @Jas16 for not only passing on your book to me, but adding another beautiful book as well! Love the Oscar Wilde card! 💖 #bookmail

Jas16 I hope you enjoy! 7mo
DivineDiana @Jas16 ❤️ 7mo
53 likes2 comments
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Jas16
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Pickpick

Expat Americans Gerald and Sara Murphy seemed to socialize with the who‘s who of the 1920‘s- Picasso, Hemingway, the Fitzgeralds, and Dorothy Parker just to name a few. However their generous spirits and zeal for life and art make them equally captivating figures. This biography was very detailed which made it plod along at times but it is a period time I always love reading about. Last book for #fourfoursin23 #glossyposse

Lauredhel Well done! This sounds like a perfect fill for that prompt. Congrats! 7mo
Lauredhel Well done! This sounds like a perfect fill for that prompt. Congrats! 7mo
DivineDiana This looks so good! I have been a fan of the Murphys for quite some time. ❤️ 7mo
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Jas16 @DivineDiana I would be happy to send my copy to you if you would like 7mo
DivineDiana @Jas16 That is so kind of you! Would you give me your email, so that I can send mg address? 7mo
Jas16 @DivineDiana himynameisjen@hotmail.com 7mo
DivineDiana Thank you! 7mo
38 likes7 comments
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Vegamon
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Here is what I've been reading lately! Some for pleasure and one out of necessity haha. "Everybody was so young" is great so far, I love reading about the lost generation!

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Reviewsbylola
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I love reading about the Fitzgeralds, Murphys, Hemingways, and their entourage. Villa America wasn‘t as engrossing as I wanted it to be, but I intend to read Everybody Was So Young because I‘d love to learn more about the Murphys! #factfiction #septemberdanes

emilyhaldi I was literally going to use that same book for my post today 😱 6y
Reviewsbylola 😂😂😂 I just went down my read list until I found a book that worked. 😂😂 @emilyhaldi 6y
Mdargusch I‘m still intrigued by this book. 6y
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Kalalalatja I have no idea who the Murpheys were, but I can feel a trip down the google rabbit hole coming on 😄 6y
Cinfhen Great graphics!!! 5y
DivineDiana I am wild about the Murphys and their friends! Did you read 5y
89 likes3 stack adds6 comments
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Leftcoastzen
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#Aprella #AmericanMoney Gerald Murphy was being groomed to take over the family business,legendary leather goods company Mark Cross , but he would have none of it. Both he and wife Sara had an artistic bent & fled to Europe to avoid family pressures.They socialized with the likes of Dorothy Parker , the Fitzgeralds , the Hemingways, Picasso, & Cole Porter.The depression changed their fortunes , but the experiences they had seem priceless.

Rachbb3 The Murphy's were an interesting couple. They went through some serious heartache. 6y
Leftcoastzen @Rachbb3 Amazing highs and devastating lows for sure. 6y
emilyhaldi Ah yes, I remember reading about the Murphy's in this book ✨ 6y
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Leftcoastzen @emilyhaldi I need to read Z. 6y
Cinfhen Such an interesting time in history 6y
Mdargusch I love reading about that group and their decadent lifestyle! 6y
Reviewsbylola I‘ve been wanting to read the book on the right! 6y
39 likes3 stack adds7 comments
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umbrellagirl
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1. Easy. F Scott Fitzgerald. We could share a bottle of gin.

2. Scary thought, you know, being a woman and all. I‘d choose 1863 in Glasgow. I‘m a genealogist and I have some questions for my GGG-Grandmother.

3. Kate Winslet before she lost weight.

#tuesdaytidbits but it‘s actually Thursday 😉

robinb Kate Winslet for me too! ❤️ 6y
JenlovesJT47 💚💚💚 6y
56 likes3 comments
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Jas16
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Here are two nonfiction selections for #artdeco. #feistyfeb

MrBook Oooh! 7y
Reviewsbylola The Vaill book has been on my TBR forever!! Have you read it? 7y
Jas16 @Reviewsbylola I haven't. I bought it ages ago and really need to start it 7y
lynneamch Me too. 7y
46 likes1 stack add4 comments