Bailey is an accomplished bibliographer. . . . His annotations document the scintillating Paris of the early 1900s in smooth prose. Contents are arranged in eight broad topical groups, like `Writers and Their Crowds,' with author and subject indexes. . . . Scholars of English and French literatures, American and French history, and 20th-century fine arts will find relevant materials here. ChoiceAmericans in Paris, 1900-1930 concentrates on the influx of artistic Americans who booked passage for the City of Lights during the early twentieth century. Bailey traces the Americans' arrival in Paris to their departure during the Great Depression.The book is divided into eight chapters. The first chapter provides background on Americans in Paris prior to 1900 and on the rise of French bohemia. Newspaper Accounts document the astonishing flow of people and money from America to France. The Expatriation Question studies the problem of Americans speaking out against their homeland. Tourism and Americanization probes America's rapid influence in France. Writers and Their Crowd identifies the serious artists who wrote about their experiences in Paris. Painters, Sculptors, Photographers singles out those Americans who enrolled in Paris art schools and benefited from exposure to an art-rich city. Musician and Other Paris Americans rounds out the diverse gathering of these intriguing people. Creative Literature captures the Paris experience in fiction and speaks more truth than many of the memoirs.
