Robert McAlmon | |
|---|---|
_(Robert_McAlmon).jpg) McAlmon in 1923 | |
| Born | Robert Menzies McAlmon (1895-03-09)March 9, 1895 Clifton, Kansas, U.S. |
| Died | February 2, 1956(1956-02-02) (aged 60) |
| Pen name | Robert M. McAlmon |
| Occupation | Writer, poet, publisher |
| Education | University of Minnesota University of Southern California |
| Spouse | Annie Winifred Ellerman |
Robert Menzies McAlmon (also used Robert M. McAlmon, as his signature name, March 9, 1895 – February 2, 1956) was an American writer, poet, and publisher.[1] In the 1920s, he founded in Paris the publishing house,Contact Editions, where he publishedErnest Hemingway,Gertrude Stein,James Joyce andEzra Pound.
McAlmon was born inClifton, Kansas, the youngest of 10 children of an itinerant Presbyterian minister. He died inDesert Hot Springs, California, at age 60.
McAlmon studied for one semester as theUniversity of Minnesota in 1916 before enlisting in theUnited States Army Air Corps in 1918. AfterWorld War I, he returned to university (1917–1920), this time at theUniversity of Southern California. He attended classes intermittently until 1920, when he moved to Chicago and then New York City, where he worked as a nude model at an art school. Once in New York, he collaborated withWilliam Carlos Williams on theContact Review, which did not last for long but published poetry byEzra Pound,Wallace Stevens,Marianne Moore,H.D.,Kay Boyle, andMarsden Hartley.
The next year, he moved to Paris after marrying the wealthy English writer Annie Winifred Ellerman, better known asBryher. This was a marriage of convenience which allowed Ellerman, a lesbian, to continue her relationship withHilda Doolittle, and guarded McAlmon after he publicly identified himself as bisexual, stating: "I'm bisexual myself, likeMichelangelo, and I don't give a damn who knows it."[2] Ellerman divorced McAlmon in 1927.
McAlmon typed and edited the handwritten manuscript ofUlysses byJames Joyce, with whom he had a friendship.
McAlmon became a prolific writer after the move, with many of his stories and poems based on his experiences as a youth inSouth Dakota.
Having published his book of short storiesA Hasty Bunch with James Joyce's printer Maurice Darantière inDijon in 1922, he founded the Contact Publishing Company in 1923 using his father-in-law's money. Lasting until 1929, Contact Editions brought out books by Bryher (Two Selves), H. D.'sPalimpsest,Mina Loy'sLunar Baedeker,Ernest Hemingway's first bookThree Stories & Ten Poems (1923), poems by Marsden Hartley, William Carlos Williams (Spring and All, 1923), Emanuel Carnevali's only book during his lifetime (The Hurried Man), prose byFord Madox Ford,Gertrude Stein (The Making of Americans, 1925),Mary Butts (Ashe of Rings),John Herrmann (What Happens),Edwin Lanham (Sailors Don't Care),Robert Coates (The Eater of Darkness), Texas schoolteacherGertrude Beasley'sMy First Thirty Years andSaikaku Ihara'sQuaint Tales of Samurais. McAlmon paid for the publication ofThe Ladies Almanack byDjuna Barnes.
One of McAlmon's most important and best-received works isVillage: As It Happened Through a Fifteen Year Period (1924) which presents a bleak portrait of an American town. The book shows his love forEugene Vidal (Eugene Collins in the book),Gore Vidal's father, with whom he grew up inMadison, South Dakota, which is documented in Gore Vidal's mid-90s memoir,Palimpsest.
Other works include the short story collectionA Companion Volume (1923), the autobiographical novelPost-Adolescence (1923),Distinguished Air (Grim Fairy Tales) (1925), the poetry collectionsThe Portrait of a Generation (1926), andNot Alone Lost (1937), the 1,200 line epic poemNorth America, Continent of Conjecture (1929), and his memoirBeing Geniuses Together: An Autobiography (1938).
McAlmon returned to the United States in 1940, residing in El Paso, Texas, where he sought treatment for a pulmonary ailment. He died atDesert Hot Springs, California, almost unknown in his native country, sixteen years later.
In the 1990s,Edward Lorusso brought out three volumes of McAlmon's fiction (many were first American publications),Village (1924, 1990),Post-Adolescence (1923, 1991), andMiss Knight and Others (1992), all throughUniversity of New Mexico Press.Edward Lorusso also publishedNaked Truth: The Fiction of Robert McAlmon in 2020.
McAlmon is heavily featured in the bookMemoirs of Montparnasse byJohn Glassco about the golden age of Paris in the 1920s when writers and artists flocked to the city.
His social circle and friendship withErnest Hemingway are discussed in the novelThe Paris Wife byPaula McLain.
In 2007, his fictionalized memoirThe Nightinghouls of Paris was published, based on the experiences of Glassco and his friend Graeme Taylor with McAlmon in Paris. The previously unpublished book was based on a typescript held by Yale's archives.[3]
Anepistolary novel about McAlmon's life in Greenwich Village, his expatriate adventures in Paris, and final years in California,Letters from Oblivion was published byEdward Lorusso in 2014.
William Saroyan wrote a short story about McAlmon in his 1971 book,Letters from 74 rue Taitbout or Don't Go But If You Must Say Hello To Everybody.
Charles Demuth painted a watercolor based on McAlmon'sDistinguished Air: Grim Fairy Tales titledDistinguished Air.[6]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)Village: As It Happened Through a Fifteen Year Period. By Robert McAlmon. Edited by Edward N. S. Lorusso.
