1920's Literature: Authors of the Lost Generation
Many writers came to ligh during the early years of the post-WW1 era. They were a diverse group who hailed from many different regions and ethnic backgrounds. These writers included F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and T. S. Eliot.
![]() T. S. Eliot was born on September 28, 1888 in St. Louis, Missouri. He was another major writer of the lost generation. Eliot's major works in the 1920s were The Waste Land and The Hollow Men. Both poems are considered dark and morose, as they confront the idea of death. T. S. Eliot's works are broken into parts, reflecting the brokenness in 1920s society. Also, many allusions are made to Dante's Divine Comedy, especially to Inferno. In 1927, T. S. Eliot left the United States and became a naturalized British Citizen. Eliot's poems and stories have gone down in history as impenetrable and influential.
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Ernest Hemingway![]() Ernest Hemingway, a World War One veteran, was born July 21st, 1899. As a close friend to F. Scott. Fitzgerald, he was a famous author. Fighting in the first World War left him disillusioned, which is mirrored in many of his works. In The Sun Also Rises (1926), he wrote about Americans traveling to Pamplona. The novel promoted the idea of false relationships and the aimlessness of the lost generation. Hemingway also wrote A Farewell To Arms (1929), a novel about a man returning from war. Nihilistic as well, it shows the damage done to the lost generation by World War One. Ernest Hemingway shot himself in 1961, similar to many other modernist artists.
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