The Paris We Dreamed, The Paris We Made: American Writers in France

Sessions will be held weekly (skipping the week of Election Day, Nov. 4–8)
on Tuesday afternoons from 1:30 to 2:45 p.m. ET.

Registration fee: $200 (includes a copy of )

get the special rate of $150 (25% off). Find out more about becoming a Member.
To ensure you receive your copy of Americans in Paris by the first session, October 22, please register by Thursday, October 10.
Please note: Due to the high cost of international delivery, we are unable to ship books outside the U.S. and its territories.

This fall, embark for the European capital of our national literature with bestselling New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik. This four-part online course, inspired by Gopnik’s , offers a guided tour of the City of Light through the eyes of Americans who discovered personal and creative freedom amid its rues, garrets, and cafes.

Beginning with the first stirrings of an “American Paris” with Founders Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams, the class will explore the Belle Epoque brilliance of Mark Twain, Henry James, and Edith Wharton; the breakthrough masterpieces of Lost Generation writers Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein; the Black travelers and expatriates Frederick Douglass, James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, and James Baldwin; and poets, humorists, and food writers including A. J. Liebling, M.F.K. Fisher, and Gopnik himself.

Drawing on his love and deep knowledge of the city, its history, denizens, and culture, Gopnik will lead the class—in his characteristically engaging style—through American literature’s longstanding French connection, showing how this transcontinental exchange shaped some of our greatest writers and transformed our culture in the process.

Registration is required to attend this event. Classes will take place on the Zoom platform and will last 75 minutes. Attendees are encouraged to share questions in advance and during the class, and Adam Gopnik will send a follow-up e-mail after each meeting with reflections on the class discussion, suggestions for further reading, and a recording of the full session.

Library of America, a nonprofit organization, champions our nation’s cultural heritage by publishing America’s greatest writing in authoritative new editions and providing resources for readers to explore this rich, living legacy.

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