Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Morrill Cody: Two Degrees of Separation, or the One That Got Away

Abstract

Abstract:This article discusses the life and works of Morrill Cody (1901–1987), a journalist who lived in Paris throughout the 1920s and intimately knew Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and other literary and artistic figures associated with the expatriate modernist movement. Cody should be better known than he is, and this article attempts to elevate his reputation among scholars and Fitzgerald researchers who might not be familiar with his life and works. His 1984 book, The Women of Montparnasse: The Americans in Paris (with Hugh Ford), is a personal but seminal work that concentrates on the women who played leading and important roles in 1920s Paris. Cody later became a cultural diplomat who organized a celebrated exhibit in Paris in 1959 on "The Writers of Paris" that a number of figures from the 1920s attended. Cody's papers were donated to Amherst College and contain letters from Hemingway to Cody as well as other celebrated figures from the 1920s, such as Sylvia Beach, Djuna Barnes, Kay Boyle, and others.