# Robert McAlmon

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American poet (1895–1956)

"McAlmon" redirects here. For the American Christian singer, songwriter and musician, see [Terry MacAlmon](/source/Terry_MacAlmon).

Robert McAlmon 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) Desert Hot Springs, California, U.S. 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 published [Ernest Hemingway](/source/Ernest_Hemingway), [Gertrude Stein](/source/Gertrude_Stein), [James Joyce](/source/James_Joyce) and [Ezra Pound](/source/Ezra_Pound).

## Life

McAlmon was born in [Clifton, Kansas](/source/Clifton%2C_Kansas), the youngest of 10 children of an itinerant Presbyterian minister. He died in [Desert Hot Springs, California](/source/Desert_Hot_Springs%2C_California), at age 60.

McAlmon studied for one semester as the [University of Minnesota](/source/University_of_Minnesota) in 1916 before enlisting in the [United States Army Air Corps](/source/United_States_Army_Air_Corps) in 1918. After [World War I](/source/World_War_I), he returned to university (1917–1920), this time at the [University of Southern California](/source/University_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 with [William Carlos Williams](/source/William_Carlos_Williams) on the *[Contact Review](/source/Contact_(literary_magazine))*, which did not last for long but published poetry by [Ezra Pound](/source/Ezra_Pound), [Wallace Stevens](/source/Wallace_Stevens), [Marianne Moore](/source/Marianne_Moore), [H.D.](/source/H.D.), [Kay Boyle](/source/Kay_Boyle), and [Marsden Hartley](/source/Marsden_Hartley).

The next year, he moved to Paris after marrying the wealthy English writer Annie Winifred Ellerman, better known as [Bryher](/source/Bryher_(novelist)). This was a marriage of convenience which allowed Ellerman, a lesbian, to continue her relationship with [Hilda Doolittle](/source/H.D.), and guarded McAlmon after he publicly identified himself as bisexual, stating: "I'm bisexual myself, like [Michelangelo](/source/Michelangelo), and I don't give a damn who knows it."[2] Ellerman divorced McAlmon in 1927.

McAlmon typed and edited the handwritten manuscript of [Ulysses](/source/Ulysses_(novel)) by [James Joyce](/source/James_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 in [South Dakota](/source/South_Dakota).

## Contact editions

Having published his book of short stories *A Hasty Bunch* with James Joyce's printer Maurice Darantière in [Dijon](/source/Dijon) 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.'s *Palimpsest*, [Mina Loy](/source/Mina_Loy)'s *Lunar Baedeker*, [Ernest Hemingway](/source/Ernest_Hemingway)'s first book *Three 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 by [Ford Madox Ford](/source/Ford_Madox_Ford), [Gertrude Stein](/source/Gertrude_Stein) (*The Making of Americans*, 1925), [Mary Butts](/source/Mary_Butts) (*Ashe of Rings*), [John Herrmann](/source/John_Herrmann) (*What Happens*), [Edwin Lanham](/source/Edwin_Lanham) (*Sailors Don't Care*), [Robert Coates](/source/Robert_Coates_(critic)) (*The Eater of Darkness*), Texas schoolteacher [Gertrude Beasley](/source/Gertrude_Beasley)'s *My First Thirty Years* and [Saikaku Ihara](/source/Saikaku_Ihara)'s *Quaint Tales of Samurais*. McAlmon paid for the publication of *The Ladies Almanack* by [Djuna Barnes](/source/Djuna_Barnes).

One of McAlmon's most important and best-received works is *Village: As It Happened Through a Fifteen Year Period* (1924) which presents a bleak portrait of an American town. The book shows his love for [Eugene Vidal](/source/Eugene_Luther_Vidal) (Eugene Collins in the book), [Gore Vidal](/source/Gore_Vidal)'s father, with whom he grew up in [Madison, South Dakota](/source/Madison%2C_South_Dakota), which is documented in Gore Vidal's mid-90s memoir, *[Palimpsest](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Palimpsest_(Gore_Vidal)&action=edit&redlink=1).*

Other works include the short story collection *A Companion Volume* (1923), the autobiographical novel *Post-Adolescence* (1923), *Distinguished Air (Grim Fairy Tales)* (1925), the poetry collections *The Portrait of a Generation* (1926), and *Not Alone Lost* (1937), the 1,200 line epic poem *North America, Continent of Conjecture* (1929), and his memoir *Being 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 at [Desert Hot Springs, California](/source/Desert_Hot_Springs%2C_California), almost unknown in his native country, sixteen years later.

In the 1990s, [Edward Lorusso](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_Lorusso&action=edit&redlink=1) brought out three volumes of McAlmon's fiction (many were first American publications), *[Village](/source/Village)* (1924, 1990), *[Post-Adolescence](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Post-Adolescence&action=edit&redlink=1)* (1923, 1991), and *[Miss Knight and Others](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Miss_Knight_and_Others&action=edit&redlink=1)* (1992), all through [University of New Mexico](/source/University_of_New_Mexico) Press. [Edward Lorusso](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_Lorusso&action=edit&redlink=1) also published *[Naked Truth: The Fiction of Robert McAlmon](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Naked_Truth:_The_Fiction_of_Robert_McAlmon&action=edit&redlink=1)* in 2020.

McAlmon is heavily featured in the book *Memoirs of Montparnasse* by [John Glassco](/source/John_Glassco) about the golden age of Paris in the 1920s when writers and artists flocked to the city.

His social circle and friendship with [Ernest Hemingway](/source/Ernest_Hemingway) are discussed in the novel *[The Paris Wife](/source/The_Paris_Wife)* by [Paula McLain](/source/Paula_McLain).

In 2007, his fictionalized memoir *The 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]

An [epistolary novel](/source/Epistolary_novel) about McAlmon's life in Greenwich Village, his expatriate adventures in Paris, and final years in California, *[Letters from Oblivion](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Letters_from_Oblivion&action=edit&redlink=1)* was published by [Edward Lorusso](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_Lorusso&action=edit&redlink=1) in 2014.

## Bibliography

### Fiction

- *A Hasty Bunch*. n.p., n.d. Printed by Maurice Darantière in Lyon in 1922. Short stories

- *A Companion Volume*. Contact, Paris 1923. Short stories

- *Post-Adolescence*. Contact, Paris 1923. Short stories

- *Village: As It Happened Through a Fifteen Year Period*. Contact, Paris 1924. Novel

- *Distinguished Air: Grim Fairy Tales* Contact, Paris 1925 [Photo-reprinted as *There Was a Rustle of Black Silk Stockings*. 1963]

- *The Infinite Huntress and Other Stories*. [Black Sun Press](/source/Black_Sun_Press), Paris 1932 [4][5]

- *A Scarlet Pansy* (under pseudonym Robert Scully), William Farro, Inc. (Roth), 1933

- Robert E. Knoll: *McAlmon and the Lost Generation. A Self Portrait*. University of Nebraska, Lincoln 1962.

- *Miss Knight and Others*. University of New Mexico Press, 1992

- *The Nightinghouls of Paris*. University of Illinois Press, 2007

- "La nuit pour adresse". Maud Simonnot (Paris: Editions Gallimard, 2017)

### Memoirs

- *Being Geniuses Together*. Secker & Warburg, London 1938. Memoir

- *Being Geniuses Together*. Doubleday, New York 1968 (revised with supplementary chapters by [Kay Boyle](/source/Kay_Boyle))

### Poetry

- *Explorations*. Egoist Press, London 1921.

- *The Portrait of a Generation*. Contact, Paris 1925.

- *North America, Continent of Conjecture*. Contact, Paris 1929.

- *Not Alone Lost*. [New Directions Publishing](/source/New_Directions_Publishing), Norfolk, CT, 1937.

## Legacy

[William Saroyan](/source/William_Saroyan) wrote a short story about McAlmon in his 1971 book, *[Letters from 74 rue Taitbout](/source/Letters_from_74_rue_Taitbout) or Don't Go But If You Must Say Hello To Everybody*.

[Charles Demuth](/source/Charles_Demuth) painted a watercolor based on McAlmon's *Distinguished Air: Grim Fairy Tales* titled *Distinguished Air.*[6]

## Notes

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Biography_1-0)** [Biography of McAlmon.](http://www.haciendahotsprings.com/McAlmon.htm)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Mellow, James R. ["Talent and All the Right Connections"](https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/22/books/talent-and-all-the-right-connections.html). *New York Times*. Retrieved February 8, 2024.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Herlihy-Mera, Jeffrey; Koneru, Vamsi (2013), "The Nightinghouls of Paris: Robert McAlmon's Queer Paternalism and The Twilight of the Expatriate Movement by Chase Dimock", *Paris in American Literatures On Distance as a Literary Resource*, Rowman & Littlefield, [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9781611476071](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781611476071)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["ROBERT McALMON \[aka ROBERT SCULLY\] (1895 1956) A Scarlet Pan"](https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/ROBERT-McALMON-%5baka-ROBERT-SCULLY%5d-(1895-1956)-A-Scarlet-Pan?saleno=2544&lotNo=44&refNo=772986). *Swann Auction Galleries*. Retrieved May 22, 2021.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Pearson, Neil. ["A Scarlet Pansy: Robert McAlmon's Secret Book"](https://www.neilpearsonrarebooks.com/BOOKS-AND-ARTICLES/a-scarlet-pansy-robert-mcalmons-secret-book). *Neil Peason Rare Books*. Retrieved May 22, 2021.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** ["Charles Demuth Paintings, Bio, Ideas"](https://www.theartstory.org/artist/demuth-charles/). *The Art Story*. Retrieved February 22, 2024.

## References

- Robert McAlmon (1962). Robert E. Knoll (ed.). [*Robert McAlmon and The Lost Generation: A Self Portrait*](https://archive.org/details/mcalmonlostgene00mcal). University of Nebraska Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-803-20225-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-803-20225-2). {{[cite book](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_book)}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility ([help](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:CS1_errors#invalid_isbn_date))

- Sanford J. Smoller (1975). *Adrift Among Geniuses: Robert McAlmon, Writer and Publisher of the Twenties*. Pennsylvania State University Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-271-01173-8](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-271-01173-8). The only biography of the author.

- Humphrey Carpenter (1987). *Geniuses Together: American Writers in Paris in the 1920s*. Unwin Hyman. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-04-440331-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-04-440331-3). Contains an insightful account of McAlmon's life.

- Mellow, James R. (July 22, 1990). ["Talent and All the Right Connections"](https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/22/books/talent-and-all-the-right-connections.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm). *[New York Times](/source/New_York_Times)*. Retrieved August 30, 2012. Village: As It Happened Through a Fifteen Year Period. By Robert McAlmon. Edited by Edward N. S. Lorusso.

## External links

- [Robert Menzie McAlmon](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/125882451) at [Find a Grave](/source/Find_a_Grave)

- [Robert McAlmon Papers](https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.mcalmon). Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

- [Works by Robert McAlmon](https://librivox.org/author/14151) at [LibriVox](/source/LibriVox) (public domain audiobooks)

Authority control databases International ISNI 2 VIAF GND FAST WorldCat National United States France BnF data Italy Portugal Netherlands Israel Belgium Other IdRef Open Library SNAC Yale LUX

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Robert McAlmon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McAlmon) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McAlmon?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.