“Hemingrebels” at a Glance
A rundown of temporal attributes and historical peers shared by many members of the Lost Generation
In my “Jigsaw Gens” series, I’ll be profiling the generational cohorts that have defined America (as well as the “microgenerations” born on the cusps of each main generation).
In This Installment…
Featured Generation: “Hemingrebels” (aka the Lost Generation, Hard Timers, Gatsbians, Distorters, Edwardians, Great Warriors)
Who they are: The first identified generation, whereupon Gertrude Stein described them as “lost”
When they were born: Approximately between 1884–1901
Key Members
Lawmakers: Harry Truman, Earl Warren, Adlai Stevenson, Fred Vinson, Margaret Chase Smith, Francis Biddle, Helen Gahagan Douglas, Everett Dirksen, Wendell Wilkie, Robert A. Taft, Stanley Forman Reed, John W. McCormack, William O. Douglas, Frank Murphy, Robert H. Jackson, Wiley Blount Rutledge, Harold Hitz Burton, Robert LaFollette Jr., Ernest McFarland, Tom C. Clark, Huey Long, Earle Clements, Hugh Scott, Averell Harriman, Joseph William Martin Jr., Leverett Saltonstall, J. Lister Hill, Sherman Minton, Alf Landon, Scott W. Lucas, John Marshall Harlan II, Charles Evans Whittaker, Stuart Symington, Floyd B. Olson, Earl Long, George Bender, Styles Bridges, Goodwin Knight, Coke Stevenson, Maurice Tobin, Samuel Wilder King, Bruce Barton
Literary Writers: Edna St. Vincent Millay, Sinclair Lewis, Nella Larsen, T.S. Eliot, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Edna Ferber, Langston Hughes, H.P. Lovecraft, William Faulkner, Ben Hecht, Zora Neale Hurston, Thomas Wolfe, Edmund Wilson, Frank Capra, Dashiell Hammett, Fannie Hurst, Raymond Chandler, Sterling Allen Brown, Rex Stout, Archibald MacLeish, Oscar Micheaux, Dorothy Kunhardt, Erle Stanley Gardner, Katherine Mansfield, Claude McKay, Ezra Pound, John Joseph Mathews, Stephen Vincent Benét, Djuna Barnes, Margaret Mitchell, Regina M. Anderson, Hart Crane, George S. Kaufman, Erich Maria Remarque, Younghill Kang, Mourning Dove, Garland Anderson, Katherine Anne Porter
Journalists & Historians: Arthur Schlesinger Sr., Walter Lippmann, Dorothy Thompson, Edgar Mowrer, Malcolm Cowley, John Gunther, Freda Kirchwey, David Sarnoff, Janet Flanner, Isabel Paterson, Max Eastman, Marie Mason Potts, Floyd Gibbons, Jovita Idar, Walter Duranty, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Raymond Swing, Frank Tannenbaum, Hubert Renfro Knickerbocker, Claude Albert Barnett, Walter Winchell, Fanny Butcher, John Dos Passos, Alice Lee Jemison, William Seabrook, Jun Fujita, Zelda Fitzgerald, Carleton Beals, Freeman Gosden, Mountain Wolf Woman, Martin Elmer Johnson, Osa Johnson, Helen Valentine, John R. “Doc” Brinkley, Peggy Hull, Clarence H. Haring, Floyd Gibbons, Lowell Thomas, Vincent “Jimmy” Sheean, Lillian Estelle Fisher, Charles Coughlin
Scientists & Researchers: George Gallup, Alfred Kinsey, Elizebeth Smith Friedman, Lloyd Hall, Carl Friedrich, Edwin Powell Hubble, Enrico Fermi, Margaret Mead, Wiley Post, Harold Urey, St. Elmo Brady, Karl Menninger, Alice Ball, Richard E. Byrd, Lloyd Wright, Bessie Coleman, Hermann Joseph Muller, Henry Trendley Dean, Ruth Benedict, Marguerite Williams, Charles Richter, Alan Frank Guttmacher, Edward Tolman, Roger Arliner Young, Edwin Howard Armstrong, Percy Lavon Julian, Harlow Shapley, Linus Pauling, Howard Aiken, Philip Showalter Hench, Charles Herbert Best, Mária Telkes, Jimmy Doolittle, Arthur Compton, Mary Loveless, Henry Murray, Ella Cara Deloria, Edward Sapir
Athletes: Jack Dempsey, Ty Cobb, Hack Wilson, Jim Thorpe, Edith Cummings, Duke Kahanamoku, Curly Lambeau, Gene Tunney, Casey Stengel, Rogers Hornsby, Ed Healey, George Halas, Charles Atlas, Shoeless Joe Jackson, George Gipp, Walter Hagen, George Sisler, Jimmy Conzelman, Tris Speaker, Fred Merkle, Walter Johnson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Stanley Ketchel, Phog Allen, Bill Tilden, Jack Johnson, Earl Cooper, Joey Guyon, Harry Greb, Eddie Collins, John J. McDermott Jr., Harry Hebner, Maurice McLoughlin, Alexa Stirling, Hazel Hotchkiss, Charles Albert Bender
Entrepreneurs & Business Leaders: Walt Disney, Henry Luce, Al Capone, Dale Carnegie, Louis B. Mayer, Colonel Harland Sanders, Hector Boyardee, William S. Paley, Conrad Hilton, Leslie Groves, Margaret Rudkin, Legs Diamond, Fred Koch, Howard Johnson, E.E. Smith, A’Lelia Walker, Marjorie Merriweather Post, J. Paul Getty, Juan T. Trippe, Gussie Busch, Clarence Birdseye, Polly Adler, Cass Canfield, Frederick McKinley Jones, Art Rooney, Wallace Carothers, Armand Hammer, Caresse Crosby, Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, Bennett Cerf, Glenn L. Martin, Eddie Rickenbacker, Theodore Miller Edison, Daniel Ludwig, Buckminster Fuller, William Griffith Wilson, Harry Pace, Edsel Ford, Leo Burnett, Nathan Cummings, H.L. Hunt
Activists & Organizers: Eleanor Roosevelt, Walter White, Septima Pointsette Clark, Alice Paul, George Smith Patton Jr., Lena Baker, A. Philip Randolph, Aldo Leopold, Dorothy Day, Hap Arnold, Roy Wilkins, Audley “Queen Mother” Moore, Frank Hamer, Chester Nimitz, Vernon Johns, Paul Robeson, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Gerald Winrod, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Alain Locke, James Forrestal, Elizabeth Dilling, Pearl Buck, Jerry E. Buckley, Raymond Spruance, Clyde Tolson, E.D. Nixon, Alvin York, Norman Vincent Peale, Omar Bradley, Dean Acheson, Claire Lee Chennault, A.J. Muste, Reinhold Niebuhr, Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, Agnes von Kurowsky, Rose Kennedy, Henry Gerber, Jack Silas Reed, Eugene Dooman, Murray Atkins Walls, Tonita Peña, Estelle Griswold, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., Clara Lemlich, Dorsey Willis
Entertainers: Ed Sullivan, Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Spencer Tracy, Jack Benny, Fred Astaire, George Burns, Humphrey Bogart, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Jean Arthur, Billie Burke, Clark Gable, Hattie McDaniel, Warner Baxter, James Cagney, Buster Keaton, John Ford, Mary Pickford, Al Jolson, Marjorie Husted, Shirley Booth, Agnes Moorehead, Gary Cooper, Mae West, Helen Hayes, Randolph Scott, Theda Bara, Moe Howard, Marlene Dietrich, Natalie Schafer, Moms Mabley, Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Jesse Cornplanter, Wallace Beery, Jack Haley
Musicians: Louis Armstrong, Cole Porter, Merle Evans, Paul Whiteman, Duke Ellington, Marian Anderson, Ethel Waters, Blind Willie Johnson, Fletcher Henderson, Aaron Copland, Jimmy Durante, Leo Sowerby, George Gershwin, Alfred Newman, Deford Bailey, Misssissippi John Hurt, Sara Carter, Jelly Roll Morton, Jimmie Rodgers, Ma Rainey, Henry Cowell, Roland Hayes, Sippie Wallace, Ida Cox, William Grant Still, Lead Belly, James P. Johnson, Ira Gershwin, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Marion Harris, Cliff Edwards, Oscar Hammerstein II, Alton Adams, Lorenz Hart, Bessie Smith, Jerome Kern, Helen Eugenia Hagan, Charles Tomlinson Griffe, Arthur Fiedler, Sidney Bechet, Norma Holt, Irving Berlin, Clifton Webb, Mamie Smith, Evelyn Nesbit, Gid Tanner
Visual Artists: Norman Rockwell, Alfred Hitchcock, Grant Wood, Robert Ripley, Georgia O’Keeffe, Alexander Calder, Peggy Guggenheim, Ub Iwerks, Harry Hershfield, Eubie Blake, James Thurber, Dorothea Lange, Horace Pippin, Berenice Abbott, Pop Momand, Edith Head, James Van Der Zee, A.E. Hayward, Beatrice Wood, John Held Jr., Carl Ed, Man Ray, Clementine Hunter, Barbara Shermund, George McManus, Henry Darger, Alice Neel, Max Ernst, Paul Bransom, Jimmy Edward Murphy Jr., Thomas Hart Benton, Edward Weston, Merrill Blosser, Edwina Dumm, Reginald Marsh, Augusta Savage, Stephen Mopope, Virginia Huget
Cusp Cohorts
Preceding Microgeneration: “New Wordsmiths” (born 1879–1883)
Prominent “New Wordsmiths”: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, Will Rogers, Helen Keller, Felix Frankfurter, H.L. Mencken, Rube Goldberg, William Boeing, Douglas MacArthur, Harry Warner, George Jean Nathan, Coco Chanel, Franklin Clarence Mars, Samuel Goldwyn, John Barrymore, George Bellows, Duncan Hines, Ethel Barrymore, Lon Chaney Sr., George Marshall, Cecil DeMille, Douglas Fairbanks, Sam Rayburn, Arnold Rothstein, Georgios Papanicolaou, Branch Rickey, Johnny Torrio, Ralph Flanders, Alice Ball, Jimmy “Beau James” Walker, Frances Perkins, Isabel Bolton, Jeannette Rankin, Cyrus Eaton, Margaret Sanger, Elmer Imes, Fiorello LaGuardia, Roy A. Young, William Fox, Jane Darwell, Crystal Eastman, Rube Foster, Maymie De Mena, Ed Walsh, Arthur C. Parker, King Oliver, Ruth St. Denis, Carl Van Vechten, Margaret Dumont, Francis Ford, James Reese Europe, Clyde Cessna, Edith Clarke, Smedley Butler, Ernest Spybuck, Lucy Burns, Pedro De Cordoba, Robert Goddard, Irving Langmuir, Otto Frederick Rehwelder, Tetsuo Toyama, Lois Weber, Christy Mathewson, Ernest Everett Just, William Halsey Jr., Clinton Davisson, Nancy Astor, Edward Hopper, Charles Demuth, Edward Steichen, George Herriman, Wilbur Sweatman, Elizabeth Arden, John L. Lewis, Arthur Dove, Hazel Harrison, Afifa Karam, Henry J. Kaiser, James John Walker, Ernest Kaʻai, Wade H. Hammond, Sara Estela Ramírez, Mary MacLane, Charles Lyon Chandler, Mack Sennett, Harriot Curtis, James F. Byrnes, Ernest Bloch, Hugh S. Johnson, Robert Nathaniel Dett
Subsequent Microgeneration: “Frugal Gatsbians” (born 1902–1906)
Prominent “Frugal Gastbians”: William J. Brennan, Mike Mansfield, Bing Crosby, Joan Crawford, Ray Croc, Tex Ritter, Charles Lindbergh, Bob Hope, Ansel Adams, John Steinbeck, Ella Baker, Cary Grant, Greta Garbo, Clare Boothe Luce, Eliot Ness, Carl Rogers, Theodor Seuss, Clara Bow, Satchel Paige, Lawrence Welk, Ethelda Bleibrey, Iron Eyes Cody, Bugsy Siegel, James “Cinderella Man” Braddock, Estée Lauder, John D. Rockefeller III, Helen Wills Moody, Arthur Godfrey, Virginia Foster Durr, Henry Fonda, Langston Hughes, Albert Sabin, Ted Poston, Henny Youngman, Stepin Fetchit, Ogden Nash, Lillian Hellman, Marvel Cooke, Virginia Hall, Moe Berg, Dolores del Río, Earl Hines, Margaret Hamilton, Strom Thurmond, Isamu Noguchi, Gene Sarazen, Charles Drew, Arna Bontemps, Barbara McClintock, James Sakamoto, William Warrick Cardozo, Anna May Wong, Thomas Dewey, Ayn Rand, Lou Gehrig, Benjamin Spock, Cool Papa Bell, Josephine Baker, Howard Hughes, W. Dorr Legg, Grace Hopper, Countee Cullen, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Philip Vera Cruz, Janet Gaynor, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Willa Brown, Alice Allison Dunnigan, Karl Yoneda, John Preston Davis, Jovita González, Hiram Fong, Glen Miller, Count Basie, B.F. Skinner, Roy Acuff, Jacqueline Cochran, Glenna Collett-Vare, Big Bill Broonzy, Theodore Roscoe, George Hitchings, Miriam Matthews, Richard Rodgers, Peter Carl Goldmark, Luther Simjian, John Sirica, Margaret McFarland, George Nakashima, Harold Arlen
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