Art Lovers discussion

The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris

The Greater Journey is the enthralling, inspiring—and until now, untold—story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, architects, and others of high aspiration who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, ambitious to excel in their work.

After risking the hazardous journey across the Atlantic, these Americans embarked on a greater journey in the City of Light. Most had never left home, never experienced a different culture. None had any guarantee of success. That they achieved so much for themselves and their country profoundly altered American history. As David McCullough writes, “Not all pioneers went west.” Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in America, was one of this intrepid band. Another was Charles Sumner, who enrolled at the Sorbonne because of a burning desire to know more about everything. There he saw black students with the same ambition he had, and when he returned home, he would become the most powerful, unyielding voice for abolition in the U.S. Senate, almost at the cost of his life.

Two staunch friends, James Fenimore Cooper and Samuel F. B. Morse, worked unrelentingly every day in Paris, Cooper writing and Morse painting what would be his masterpiece. From something he saw in France, Morse would also bring home his momentous idea for the telegraph.

Pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk from New Orleans launched his spectacular career performing in Paris at age 15. George P. A. Healy, who had almost no money and little education, took the gamble of a lifetime and with no prospects whatsoever in Paris became one of the most celebrated portrait painters of the day. His subjects included Abraham Lincoln.

Medical student Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote home of his toil and the exhilaration in “being at the center of things” in what was then the medical capital of the world. From all they learned in Paris, Holmes and his fellow “medicals” were to exert lasting influence on the profession of medicine in the United States.

Writers Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mark Twain, and Henry James were all “discovering” Paris, marveling at the treasures in the Louvre, or out with the Sunday throngs strolling the city’s boulevards and gardens. “At last I have come into a dreamland,” wrote Harriet Beecher Stowe, seeking escape from the notoriety Uncle Tom’s Cabin had brought her. Almost forgotten today, the heroic American ambassador Elihu Washburne bravely remained at his post through the Franco-Prussian War, the long Siege of Paris and even more atrocious nightmare of the Commune. His vivid account in his diary of the starvation and suffering endured by the people of Paris (drawn on here for the first time) is one readers will never forget. The genius of sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the son of an immigrant shoemaker, and of painters Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent, three of the greatest American artists ever, would flourish in Paris, inspired by the examples of brilliant French masters, and by Paris itself.

Nearly all of these Americans, whatever their troubles learning French, their spells of homesickness, and their suffering in the raw cold winters by the Seine, spent many of the happiest days and nights of their lives in Paris. McCullough tells this sweeping, fascinating story with power and intimacy, bringing us into the lives of remarkable men and women who, in Saint-Gaudens’s phrase, longed “to soar into the blue.” The Greater Journey is itself a masterpiece.

We can start reading this anytime. I think we have decided to read this one for the new year, give it maybe a 1-1/2 months then have the discussion. Or we can discuss as we read, however you feel. I am still welcome to suggestion.

Heather,
Thank you and I'll go get this book soon.
Merry Christmas to you!
Love, Jeannie

It's an interesting topic, I have about 8 books I am reading right now, but if I have a 1 1/2 months I will see if I can participate. The expat pheenomenon is a very interesting one--if the Euro declines we might see a similar one today....

Hey guys! Hmmmm, no discussion yet? Does anyone have the book? Just wondering, although I think we decided to actually read the book before starting a discussion.

I would like to know who has started and how you find it!

I will read it in February.

ok, Carol. I might join along in February. I have started the Virginia Woolf Diary Vol 1 and really getting into it. But as my past reading history has revealed, I can read more than one book at a time (I just hope to be able to contribute to the discussion of this one!)

I got it from the public library and it is excellent!!! It makes me wish I could time travel back to the Paris of that day (though I certainly love the Paris of today) and meet and share the experiences these creative people had.

Wow, three exclamation points, Terri Lynn! It must be good! Now, I really want to read it. Thank you.

I am a fan of this author to start with. Some people complain about the length of the book or that the author covers a lot of people but this does not put me off at all.

I am reading this now and am loving it. I have lived in Paris myself and understand the tug that the city has for creative types.

Hi -- I can't believe we are near the end of March. I was wondering if anyone is interested in reading and discussing in April The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris?

I'd be delighted to Carol. I read the book recently and loved it!!!

That's a good idea, Carol.

Heather and Terry Lynn -- that's great, I have been wanting to read this for awhile. I just ordered it online from the library. When I get it, I can set up a reading schedule since it is 576 pp. long. OK?

Sounds good. I don't mind rereading at all.

Thanks Terri Lynn! I have heard many good reviews from my friends so I am looking forward to reading & discussing it.

I will reread it too and discuss it.

I picked up the book this morning. (Unfortunately for me my book is a 14 day loan.) Is this a good schedule for everyone?

Reading/discussion schedule for The Greater Journey -- Americans in Paris:

Week 1 - Thurs. March 29 - Wed. April 4 Part 1/ CH 1 & CH 2 (55 pp.*holidays)
Week 2 - Thurs. April 5 -- Wed. April 11 -- Part 1/ CH 3 & CH 4 (73 pp.)
Week 3 - Thurs. April 12 -- Wed. April 18-- Part 2/ CH 5 & CH6 (97 pp.)
Week 4 - Thurs. April 19 -- Wed. April 25 --Part 2/ CH 7 & CH 8 (61 pp.)
Week 5 - Thurs. April 26 -- Wed. May 2-- Part 3/ CH 9, CH 10 & CH 11 (85 pp.)
Week 6- Thurs. May 3 -- Wed. May 9 -- Part 3/ CH 12, CH 13, & CH 14 (91 pp.)

Discussion of chapters begins on the day it is posted, so if you are interested in posting on day 1, it's fine to have that section read before the opening date. But you can post anytime during the week. If you are reading ahead of the schedule, please be careful not to post spoilers – thanks.

I placed a hold on it at the library.

I've got a copy.

Thanks Melanie, Ed and Susanna, this should make for interesting discussions.
I was wondering how many have been to Paris?

Not I, unfortunately.

Me neither -- hopefully some day.

FYI --
Charlie Rose interview with David McCullough on the book (3:34)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB5NKa...

Interesting overview of the book by David McCullough. (3:56)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVKBoV...

and just for fun -- McCullough Wishes He Had This Talent (1:32)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2jSUF...

Carol wrote: "FYI --
...just for fun -- McCullough Wishes He Had This Talent (1:32)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2jSUFdIa...
..."

I hope that Mr. McCullough does not attempt all 3 at the same time!

I have been fortunate to have been to Paris on a Humanities Study Abroad class in college. The art abounded! We got to visit the Musee d'Orsay, Le Louvre, La Pompedou (sp?) and I chose to visit the Rodin museum (of course) rather than go with the class to Versailles. To me, it was worth it.

I am going to opt out of reading the book at this time, but know I will enjoy the upcoming discussions.

I have lived in Paris and loved the museums best of everything there. I go there several times a year in my work and always spend a lot of time museum hopping.

sheesh there are three copies in our library system and 37 holds...

Melanie wrote: "I have lived in Paris and loved the museums best of everything there. I go there several times a year in my work and always spend a lot of time museum hopping."

I took the Chunnel from London for a day trip to Paris and couldn't believe how cool Paris was.

So I have to admit some envy (a feeling that I might have had a few times at most) for Your living in Paris and being able to go there for work as well. One lucky lady are You.

Good morning everyone!
I hope everyone was able to get a copy of the book. It is a challenge!
Today begins the discussion on Chapters 1 & 2.

Here are some questions from the Book Browse site.
(I thought it would be a good way to start the discussion.)

(1) The Greater Journey opens with a quotation by the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens: "For we constantly deal with practical problems, with moulders, contractors, derricks, stonemen, trucks, rubbish, plasterers, and what-not-else, all while trying to soar into the blue." How does this quotation set the stage for The Greater Journey? What kinds of "practical problems" did Americans in Paris face, and how did they manage to "soar into the blue?"

(2) What were some of the challenges travelers faced on the journey from America to Paris? "Great as their journey had been by sea, a greater journey had begun, as they already sensed, and from it they were to learn more, and bring back more, of infinite value to themselves and their country than they yet knew." What is the "greater journey" that these Americans began after their voyage across the ocean? Why do you think McCullough chose the title The Greater Journey for this book?

(3) Describing Augustus Saint-Gaudens, McCullough writes, "he had something he was determined to accomplish, and thus became accomplished himself." What were some of the reasons that Americans made the trip to Paris? What did they need to accomplish in Paris, and how did they become accomplished there?

Good questions, Carol. I'm looking forward to people's thoughts.

It seems to me that there were so many people mentioned in the beginning of this book that, at times, I found it hard to follow, especially since they all traveled at different times. I will list some of them in the order that they left for Paris with a brief bio.

Departed to Paris in 1826.

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)
http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/ste...
Quote: “ Should we distrust a man because his manners are not our manners?” (The Last of the Mohicans)

The first major U.S. novelist.
Cooper grew up in a prosperous family in the settlement of Cooperstown, founded by his father. The Spy (1821), set during the American Revolution, brought him fame. His best-known novels, the series The Leatherstocking Tales, feature the frontier adventures of the wilderness scout Natty Bumppo and include The Pioneers (1823), The Last of the Mohicans (1826), The Prairie (1827), The Pathfinder (1840), and The Deerslayer (1841). He also wrote popular sea novels, notably The Pilot (1823), and a history of the U.S. Navy (1839). Though internationally celebrated, he was troubled by lawsuits and political conflicts in his later years, and his popularity and income declined.

Departed to Paris in 1829.

Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791--1872)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia...
Quote: “My price is five dollars for a miniature on ivory, and I have engaged three or four at that price. My price for profiles is one dollar, and everybody is willing to engage me at that price.”

U.S. painter and inventor.
The son of a distinguished geographer, he attended Yale University and studied painting in England. He returned home to work as an itinerant painter; his portraits still rank among the finest produced in the U.S. He cofounded the National Academy of Design and served as its first president. Independent of similar efforts in Europe, he developed an electric telegraph, believing his to be the first. He developed the system of dots and dashes that became known internationally as Morse code. Though denied support from Congress for a transatlantic telegraph line, he received congressional support for the first U.S. telegraph line, from Baltimore to Washington; on its completion in 1844 he sent the message “What hath God wrought!” His patents brought him fame and wealth.

Departed to Paris in 1830.

Emma Willard (1787 - -1870)
http://www.americanantiquarian.org/Gr...
Quote: “Genuine learning has ever been said to give polish to man; why then should it not bestow added charm on women?”

American women’s rights activist.
Willard dedicated her life to education. She worked in several schools and founded the first school for women’s higher education, the Troy Female Seminary in Troy, New York. With the success of her school, Willard was able to travel across the country and abroad, to promote education for women. The Troy Female Seminary was renamed the Emma Willard School in 1895.

Departed to Paris in 1833.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809--1894)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia...
Quote: ““I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving - we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it - but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.”

An intellectual triple threat as doctor, speaker and author.
Oliver Wendell Holmes was a leading citizen of 19th-century Boston. He graduated from Harvard in 1829 and first came to prominence the next year, when his patriotic poem "Old Ironsides" helped prevent the scrapping of the historic battleship U.S.S. Constitution. ("Aye, tear her tattered ensign down!" is the poem's opening command.) Holmes studied medicine in Paris, then returned to Harvard and earned his M.D. in 1836. At the early age of 33 he became the first dean of Harvard Medical School and from 1847 until 1882 he was a popular professor of physiology and anatomy; his research produced a groundbreaking 1843 paper on "The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever." He also became a highly-regarded public speaker at Boston affairs of all sorts. Beyond that, he published many volumes of writings and essays throughout his life, starting with Poems in 1836. In 1858 he helped found the magazine Atlantic Monthly, and for many years he wrote the magazine's popular feature "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," whose protagonist held forth at an imaginary Boston boarding house, dishing up witty opinions on an endless variety of subjects. These essays were eventually collected in a series of books, including The Professor at the Breakfast Table and The Poet at the Breakfast Table. Holmes also wrote a popular biography of his Boston contemporary Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Departed to Paris in 1834.

George P. A. Healy (1813--1894)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia...
Quote: "I knew no one in France, I was utterly ignorant of the language, I did not know what I should do when once there; but I was not yet one-and-twenty, and I had a great stock of courage, of inexperience—which is sometimes a great help—and a strong desire to be my very best.”

American painter (active also in Europe).
At 17 he set up a studio in Boston after receiving encouragement from Thomas Sully, who was painting portraits there. Despite his youth and lack of training, he presented himself to the society figure Mrs. Harrison Gray Otis and asked if he might paint her portrait (untraced); she agreed and later sponsored Healy's first trip abroad. In 1834 he entered the studio of Antoine-Jean Gros; the French master's suicide the following year ended Healy's only sustained period of artistic study. In Gros's studio he first encountered Thomas Couture, but they did not meet again until the next decade, when Couture's friendship and example became important components of Healy's future success.

Departed to Paris in 1837.

Charles Sumner (1811--1874)
http://blogs.archives.gov/prologue/wp...
Quote: “The thought of going abroad makes my heart leap.”

U.S. Senator from Massachusetts and ardent abolitionist; a founder of the Republican Party; chairman of the powerful Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from 1861 to 1871; chief of the Radical Republicans during the Civil War and Reconstruction; Lincoln's friend and, later, Grant's nemesis; as well as an advocate for universal equality, international peace, women's suffrage, and educational and prison reform.

BIO: short http://www.biography.com/people/charl...

I can’t imagine how dangerous it was to travel aboard -- first there is the daunting choice of sailing first to England and then cross the Channel. Or to sail directly into Le Havre -- which was the favored route. Mc Cullough states that it is “no better then when Ben Franklin set off for France in 1776.” Cargo ships would take passengers, and they hoped for the best. To be spared many weeks of violent seas, seasickness, the cramped quarters, little or no privacy, dismal food, and the monotony. Samuel Morse’s journey took 26 days with 5 days & nights with gale winds when no one slept.

In Sketch Book” by Washington Irving he describes his first crossing of the Atlantic.
“But a wide sea voyage severs at once. It makes us conscious of being cast loose from the secure anchorage of settled life, and sent adrift upon a doubtful world. It interposes a gulf not merely imaginary, but real,between us and our homes --gulf subject to tempest and fear an uncertainty, rendering distance palpable and return precarious.”

Carol, I love the photos you posted!!! As a person who has traveled worldwide, the descriptions of the the misery of life at sea really caught my imagination too. I've been on luxury cruise ships where you have so many comforts and to try to imagine the smell, the lack of privacy, the food available, the rocking of the boats, and the general dangers and discomforts is mindboggling.

One would have to have a very strong desire to go to Europe to put up with such conditions. There is also the matter of having the sea between you and your homeland. We now can fly across the ocean in a matter of hours but at that time, you had an ocean to cross and it took weeks. You then had to go through the same thing in order to return home.

Some of the people covered in this book did not really want to go home but did so because their families would not fund any more time in Europe or for other reasons. Paris charmed them and that is exactly what it did to me!

Carol wrote: "Departed to Paris in 1830.

Emma Willard (1787 - -1870)

Quote: “Genuine learning has ever been said to give polish to man; why then should it not bestow added charm on women?”
Emma Willard was one of the most amazing travelers in this book. Women were not expected to have such adventures!
American women’s r..."

Carol wrote: "Departed to Paris in 1830.

Emma Willard (1787 - -1870)

Quote: “Genuine learning has ever been said to give polish to man; why then should it not bestow added charm on women?”

American women’s r..."

A book Emma wrote is still available! It is a history of the United States through geography and maps.

Thanks Terri Lynn. I remembered from John Adams just how treacherous crossing the Atlantic could be.

Emma Willard published many textbooks --
The Woodbridge and Willard Geographies and Atlases (1823),
History of the United States, or Republic of America (1828),
A System of Fulfillment of a Promise (1831),
A Treatise on the Motive Powers which Produce the Circulation of the Blood (1846),
Guide to the Temple of Time and Universal History for Schools (1849),
Last Leaves of American History (1849),
Astronomical Geography (1854),
Morals for the Young (1857).

She also wrote one book on poetry entitled --"The Fulfilment of a Promise" with her most popular poem entitled “Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep.” I wonder if this trip to Paris inspired her in this poem. http://www.bartleby.com/248/52.html

I am familiar with Willard because the first University I attended has a building named in her memory. Emma Hart Willard is a Connecticut native.

Glad we are now getting around to this book. I got an early start on reading it, and am forging ahead -- for those starting now, you can look forward to many fascinating characters, and close-up accounts of great events in American and French history. McCullough introduces us to artists, writers, doctors, politicians, soldiers, scientists, entertainers and others. Not to mention the city of Paris. Wonderful to read.

As for the journey, one my favorite vignettes describes Cooper's departure from New York:

"a man on board a passing vessel, recognizing Cooper, called out, "How long do you mean to be absent?" "Five years," Cooper answered. "You will never come back," the man shouted."

Of course Cooper did come back. But the exchange highlights the understanding that traveling to Europe then was a life-changing decision. It was so hard, dangerous, and expensive that it could be nothing less.

Once they arrived at Le Havre, things were very unsettled. People pushing, shouting, porters, coachmen, and draymen vied for attention while their trunks and bags were carried off to the Custom House for inspection. All personal effects (except clothing) were subject to duties and delays. Their American passports were taken by French authorities to be sent on to Paris and any sealed letters were subject to fine.

They set off on their journey of 110 miles to Paris but stopped half way at Rouen to view the Gothic masterpiece. With it's 440 ft. spire it was taller than the largest building in the US -- the Capitol in Washington. In her journal, Emma Willard struggled to find works equal to the "inexpressible magic," the "sublimity" she felt. Charles Sumner could hardly contain his rapture.
http://www.frenchmoments.com/Rouen_Ca...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chelmsfo...

found a Q&A with David McCullough

Q: Where did you get the title for your new book, ”The Greater Journey”?

A/McCullough: It happened on November 15th, as a matter of fact. I somehow rather know exactly when I suddenly thought that’s the title, ”The Greater Journey”, because I was trying to think, what is this book about? It’s about a journey but a different kind of journey or a – or a mission or an adventure or an odyssey. And I kept working with these words. The word ”journey” kept coming back.

And then I was thinking about their – the voyage of these Americans who ventured off to France at a time when they were all only able to go across the North Atlantic by sailing ship and it was rough and it was anything but traveling on a cruise liner, and what a journey that was.

And then they got to – they landed at La Have, almost all of them. And they then went by land to Paris which was a two-day trip by a huge, cumbersome stagecoach affair. And they would stop at Rouen halfway and they would see for the first time a European masterpiece and the masterpiece was the Rouen Cathedral.

And many of them wrote at length and very much from the heart about the impact of this one building, this one experience, and that they knew that something greater had begun being in the old world. The old world to them was the new world.

And I thought that’s it, the greater journey. They know then that they are on a greater journey which will be their experience, their spiritual, mental, professional journey in the city of Paris where they’re trying to – to rise to the occasion to excel in a particular field whether it was writing or music or painting or sculpture or medicine, because many of them in that day went to – as medical students because Paris was the medical capital of the world.

So they are – they’re ambitious to excel and they are going against the trend because to go off to Europe then was not fashionable yet and it wasn’t part of one’s broadening education yet. Many of them had no money. Many of them had no friends in Europe, knew no one in Paris and spoke not a word of the language. And yet they were brave enough to go, to embark on the greater journey.

In Chapter 2, on page 35 “the French dine to gratify, we to appease appetite,” observed John Sanderson. “We demolished dinner, they eat it.”
Have times changed at all?

http://0.tqn.com/d/gofrance/1/0/L/A/p...

In Chapter 2, on page 39 where you surprised to learn that our country’s capital was the work of a Frenchman, Pierre Charles L’Enfant? L'Enfant wrote to President Washington asking to be commissioned to plan the city. However, any decision on the capital was put on hold until July 1790 when Congress passed the Residence Act. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-cu...

Chapter 2, pg. 30 – “…to walk is practically a way of life. Paris is a place where one wants to walk."

Honore de Balzac wrote -- “Ah! To wander over Paris! What an adorable and delectable existence is that! Flanerie is a form of science, it is the gastronomy of the eye.”

http://mymelange.net/wp-content/uploa...

walking tours http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g18...