Robert McAlmon (1896–1956)

2017 Review:
On second reading, and having read more books tangential to this one, I think it stacks up very well. It's the same four stars now as the first time, only because I am very stingy with the fives -- amazing is, in my opinion, to be reserved for very special books. But whereas I recently said that Morley Callaghan's book is the best on the subject, I must now beg to differ with myself. This one is substantially different and just as good.

McAlmon and Boyle complement each other and their two stories and points of view make for excellent reading. After his death, Boyle added her parts to the book that McAlmon had already written. But her objective was not just to bring to light the writer she loved and admired who had not received the recognition he deserved. She also had justice in mind. Because McAlmon was a talented and generous man, who had helped many writers of the time by promoting and publishing their work, helping some financially when they needed it, and suffering harsh criticism and betrayal from almost all of them. And finally, Boyle's story of her own life in those years is fascinating as is the portrayal that both of them give us of the men and women who created an extraordinary society for themselves in Paris in the 20s and 30s.

2011 Review:
The book is well written, parts by Robert McAlmon, parts by Kay Boyle. Boyle put it together as a book after McAlmon's death. He was, according to many accounts within the book, a very important factor in the publishing of many of the writers living in Paris at that time (the 20s). He was also an excellent writer/poet himself, but never received the recognition he deserved. Hence this book. I found the beginning and last parts very interesting, the middle had too many names (for me), and didn't hold my interest quite as much. But I stuck to it because I find that period fascinating, and having just read Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, folllowed by a biography of Hadley Hemingway, I wanted to know more. McAlmon didn't think much of Hemingway, nor of Gertrude Stein. His opinions were very interesting indeed.… (more)

I expected to like this. I liked McAlmon's We Were Geniuses Together. I thought McAlmon wrote well, was unpretentious, and had creditable openions. I also liked Isherwood's stories about Berlin, written about a decade later. I've heard that Isherwood's stories are a lighter, more sanitary version compared to McAlmon's. The thing is, I prefer that. I enjoyed the Isherwood stories so much I've read them more than once. They are colorful and sensitive and for me, they painted a picture of a place that I enjoyed spending time in while I was reading. McAlmon's Berlin gave me the feeling I wanted to buy a ticket for somewhere, anywhere else. When it came to the final story, which takes place not in Berlin but somewhere in mid-America, that promised to be rather unpleasant, I decided I had had enough.

To top it off (or actually, to begin with), the foreword by Gore Vidal was quite bitchy and was trashing writing of McAlmon that isn't even in this book. I think McAlmon could write. It's just that in this volume I don't care for what he is writing about and that is part of the pleasure of reading for me.… (more)

The [1] rating is for the eBook editions (2011 to 2016) from various grey market publishers which are advertised with the description: "earlier, more textually honest version of the author's account of gay/trans life in Berlin that was later reprinted in "Rustle of Black Silk Stockings," as originally published by his own press in Paris."

Whether through intentional bowdlerization and deception or through ordinary incompetence all of these eBooks drop the "Miss Knight" short story from the original trio of 1921 Berlin-based tales (the two others are "Distinguished Air" and "The Lodging House") and quietly add a later midwestern-America based story "The Indefinite Huntress" from 1932 in its place.

No authentic modern edition of "Distinguished Air" (Contact Editions, 1925) thus exists, but the 3 Berlin stories are collected in either the 1962 exploitation paperback "There Was a Rustle of Black Silk Stockings" (which adds an unrelated story "The Highly-Prized Pajamas") or the more scholarly 1999 "Miss Knight and Others" (which also adds "The Indefinite Huntress").

A true edition would rate a [3] for its historical curiosity and its lost-generation & gay/trans life tie-ins. McAlmon's stories were based on his 1921 time in Berlin and thus predate Christopher Isherwood's "The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr Norris/Goodbye to Berlin" (the basis for the later play "I Am a Camera" and then the famous musical & movie "Cabaret") based on the latter's 1931-33 Berlin experience. While McAlmon is more open about the antics & drug use, his stories come across as dull hedonism reportage which lacks the doomed aura that surrounds Isherwood's characters trapped in the world of the emerging Nazi totalitarian state.

Stray Observations
- Fordham University Press are publishing a scholarly edition of Robert Scully's "A Scarlet Pansy" (originally William Faro 1932) as of September 2016. Because of that book's parallels to McAlmon's life and his Paris lost generation associates and to elements of the "Miss Knight" short story, there has been speculation that McAlmon was behind the pseudonym of author Robert Scully. McAlmon authorities doubt that the gossipy McAlmon would have kept this a secret for the rest of his life though. Perhaps Robert J Corber, editor of the new edition, will help clear up the speculation.… (more)