AHR Forum: Revisiting the Transatlantic 1920s: Vincent Sheean vs. Malcolm Cowley

Cott compares the content and the reception of two autobiographical accounts of Americans abroad in the 1920s, with an eye toward their influence on the later historical understanding of their generation. Each intended to convey the zeitgeist of those coming of age after World War I. Each, however,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inThe American historical review Vol. 118; no. 1; p. 46
Main Author Cott, Nancy F
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Oxford University Press 01.02.2013
Subjects
Autobiographies
Cowley, Malcolm
Exile
Literary criticism
Sheean, Vincent
Writers
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Cott compares the content and the reception of two autobiographical accounts of Americans abroad in the 1920s, with an eye toward their influence on the later historical understanding of their generation. Each intended to convey the zeitgeist of those coming of age after World War I. Each, however, offered a very different view of this cohort of writers and intellectuals. Malcolm Cowley's account told of literary "exiles" seeking solace in Europe's cultural capitals through the pursuit of art for art's sake, but ultimately doomed by their own rootlessness to a failed quest, and destined to rediscover purpose only on native soil. Vincent Sheean's account, which became a bestseller, evoked an ongoing global pilgrimage of youth in search of self-definition. Cott's article weighs the consequences of Cowley's outsized influence and suggests that taking Sheean's book as a guide instead of Cowley's would lead toward revising views of Americans as internationalists in that era.
ISSN:0002-8762
1937-5239