[Ads-l] Quotation: You are all a lost generation

[Shapiro, Fred]

When I saw the heading on Garson's email, I thought, "What more is there to say about 'Lost Generation'"?  I was wrong, of course: Garson doesn't treat a topic unless he has something significant to say about it.  Congratulations to him on this fine posting !

Fred Shapiro



________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2022 4:27 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Quotation: You are all a lost generation

You might be wondering about this phrase:

C’est un generation perdu.

In 1925 Ernest Hemingway wrote the above phrase in a proposed foreword
to the book that became “The Sun Also Rises”. Hemingway decided not to
publish the foreword. In any case, he probably should have written:

C’est une génération perdue.

Garson

On Sun, Sep 25, 2022 at 4:15 AM ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The latest Quote Investigator article explores the provenance of the
> label applied to the cohort before the “greatest generation”. Here are
> three pertinent phrases:
>
> (1) You are all a lost generation.
> (2) You are all a génération perdue.
> (3) C’est un generation perdu.
>
> Here is a link to the QI article:
> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fquoteinvestigator.com%2F2022%2F09%2F24%2Flost-generation%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7Ceaa1428d7cf144cb5f0e08da9ecfd9c0%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637996912790666687%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=4xuCbsrVihScU%2FSxV5mBaBrOxoBQ3ACC9eqHtr2Xayc%3D&reserved=0
>
> In 1926 Ernest Hemingway published “The Sun Also Rises” which began
> with the following epigraph:
>
> [Begin epigraph]
> “You are all a lost generation.”
> —Gertrude Stein in conversation.
> [End epigraph]
>
> Interestingly, author Gertrude Stein did not coin this phrase, but
> there are two different stories about the originator. Hemingway
> claimed that Stein heard the phrase from an automobile repair shop
> owner. Yet, Stein wrote that she heard the phrase from a hotel keeper.
> Details are given in the QI article.
>
> Feedback welcome
> Garson

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