We All Went to Paris: Americans in the City of Light 1776-1971

by Stephen Longstreet

First edition. 448 pages. cloth, dust jacket.. thick 8vo..

Genres: Nonfiction, History

Hardcover

Published June 1, 1972

About the author

Stephen Longstreet was a prolific novelist, screenwriter, cartoonist, and artist whose work ranged in subject from gourmet cookbooks to potboiler detective novels to portraits of American jazz greats. He published over 100 books in his lifetime, including the novel The Sisters Liked them Handsome, which was turned into a successful Broadway musical. Longstreet also wrote screenplays that would go on to star Hollywood greats from Ronald Reagan to Errol Flynn.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bunch of vignettes about people who from Ben Franklin to Henry Miller went to Paris. The author is somewhat judgmental about the different characters but is interesting move the less.

[Charburger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started dreaming about Paris when I read this.

[Bob Carroll · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stephen Longstreet elequently captures the lure of Paris to some of our most revered twentieth-century authors (Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner and Henry Miller) and the Lost Generation, not to mention moneyed heiresses, collectors (of art and characters), creative wannabes and other exotics. Decadents and drunks. Hedonists, hangers-on and has-beens.
There has always been a vague, somewhat romantic draw of Paris between the wars and the chrysalis of new-forming ideas of how to write or paint. One pictures La Boheme set to real life rather than music, the creative spark dancing from person to person, ever-growing and maturing. Mr. Longstreet quickly disabuses us of that notion. More often than not these creative geniuses are just getting slur-drunk or are mooching a meal or a place to sleep. Henry Miller in particular.Mr. Longstreet is not afraid (and an argument can be made that his goal is) to show us warts and all.
I have two complaints about the book. First, Mr. Longstreet has a habit of building to a climax, only to finish with a French phrase or sentence. He doesn't translate (either in parentheses or footnote) to those of us who didn't take French in high school or buy Rosetta Stone Level 1. I'm left to feel let down and left out. Second, Mr. Longstreet is an incorrigible name dropper. But not just any name dropper, a name dropper of people lost in time and probably known only to their mothers. Again, the feeling of let down and left out.
While slow going at times, the book was entertaining and informative.

[Jon Humphrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The excessive negativity got old really quick. Every American of note to reside in Paris seems to be dominated by weakness and misplaced ambition. I only read the book because I wanted to read about some of my favorite writers, Henry James and Henry Miller in particular. This book was informative, but it made me realize that I really just need to read a biography on a writer if I'm interested rather than trudge through chapters about people I had never heard of before.

I also think I may have been drawn to the book by a vague sense that I would like to live in another country at some point. Paris is so cliche I don't think I would go there to live, but that doesn't mean that the experience of some people in the city wouldn't be interesting.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Longstreet spares no one in this fascinating and highly subjective account of Americans in Paris.

[John Ratliffe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating to get a look at the characters in a new environment.

[Michaela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry but educational and very interesting.