Lost Generation is a term that has come to define a group of American writers who lived and rose to prominence in Europe during the 1920’s. The principal figures in the group included Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, E. E. Cummings, John Dos Passos, Thornton Wilder, and Hart Crane. These writers helped establish many of the stylistic and thematic foundations of modern literature.
Stein reportedly coined the term “lost generation.” Hemingway used Stein’s phrase “You are all a lost generation” in the preface to his novel The Sun Also Rises (1926). The novel describes the losses of traditional faith, values, and personal direction among a group of Americans living in Europe.
The Lost Generation writers were particularly associated with the unconventional art scene in Paris. These writers tended toward philosophic pessimism. They typically rejected what they considered to be the narrow-mindedness and materialism that followed the end of World War I in 1918. They also rejected the conventional literary techniques of the past.
