The district of Montparnasse has long been associated with literature and art. In the 17th century, the area was a popular site for Parisian students to meet and recite poetry; they named the region after the mythological home of the Muses and…

Honoré de Balzac was born in 1799 to a family that managed to earn a measure of respectability through hard work and industry. His father was obsessed with raising their social standing, even going so far as to change the familial surname to sound…

Born in 1874 in Allegheny, Pennsylvania to wealthy Jewish parents, Gertrude Stein moved to Vienna and then Paris with her family at a very young age. Her parents encouraged their children to absorb European culture, an experience that would have a…

A member of the Lost Generation, a conglomeration of thinkers, artists, and authors, Hemingway spent a great deal of time in the bohemian neighborhood of Montparnasse. It was here that he talked with Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald, it was…