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The 'Lost Generation' is a phrase made popular by American author Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short story author, and journalist. He was part of the 1920s expatriate community in Paris, France, and one of the veterans of World War I later known as "the Lost Generation"....
 in his first published novel The Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises

The Sun Also Rises is the first major novel by Ernest Hemingway. Published in 1926 in literature, the Plot centers on a group of expatriate United States in Europe during the 1920s....
. Often it is used to refer to a group of American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 literary notables who lived in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
 and other parts of Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, some after military service in the First World War
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
. Figures identified with the "Lost Generation" include authors and poets Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short story author, and journalist. He was part of the 1920s expatriate community in Paris, France, and one of the veterans of World War I later known as "the Lost Generation"....
, F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an United States writer of novels and short stories, whose works are evocative of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself....
, Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound

Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an United States expatriate poetry, critic and intellectual who was a major figure of the Modernist poetry movement in the first half of the 20th century....
, Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson

Sherwood Anderson was an United States writer, mainly of short story, most notably the collection Winesburg, Ohio . That work's influence on American fiction was profound, and its literary voice can be heard in Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, John Steinbeck, Erskine Caldwell and others....
, Waldo Peirce
Waldo Peirce

Waldo Peirce was an United States Painting, born in Bangor, Maine.For many years, until his death, Peirce was both a prominent painter and a well-known character....
, and John Dos Passos
John Dos Passos

John Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist and artist....
.

coining of the phrase is sometimes attributed to Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein was an American writer who spent most of her life in France, and who became a catalyst in the development of modern art and Modernist literature....
 and was then popularized by Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short story author, and journalist. He was part of the 1920s expatriate community in Paris, France, and one of the veterans of World War I later known as "the Lost Generation"....
 in the epigraph to his novel The Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises

The Sun Also Rises is the first major novel by Ernest Hemingway. Published in 1926 in literature, the Plot centers on a group of expatriate United States in Europe during the 1920s....
 and his memoir A Moveable Feast
A Moveable Feast

A Moveable Feast is a set of memoirs by United States author Ernest Hemingway about his years in Paris as part of the American expatriate circle of writers in the 1920s....
.






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The 'Lost Generation' is a phrase made popular by American author Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short story author, and journalist. He was part of the 1920s expatriate community in Paris, France, and one of the veterans of World War I later known as "the Lost Generation"....
 in his first published novel The Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises

The Sun Also Rises is the first major novel by Ernest Hemingway. Published in 1926 in literature, the Plot centers on a group of expatriate United States in Europe during the 1920s....
. Often it is used to refer to a group of American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 literary notables who lived in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
 and other parts of Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, some after military service in the First World War
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
. Figures identified with the "Lost Generation" include authors and poets Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short story author, and journalist. He was part of the 1920s expatriate community in Paris, France, and one of the veterans of World War I later known as "the Lost Generation"....
, F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an United States writer of novels and short stories, whose works are evocative of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself....
, Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound

Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an United States expatriate poetry, critic and intellectual who was a major figure of the Modernist poetry movement in the first half of the 20th century....
, Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson

Sherwood Anderson was an United States writer, mainly of short story, most notably the collection Winesburg, Ohio . That work's influence on American fiction was profound, and its literary voice can be heard in Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, John Steinbeck, Erskine Caldwell and others....
, Waldo Peirce
Waldo Peirce

Waldo Peirce was an United States Painting, born in Bangor, Maine.For many years, until his death, Peirce was both a prominent painter and a well-known character....
, and John Dos Passos
John Dos Passos

John Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist and artist....
.

Origin of the term

The coining of the phrase is sometimes attributed to Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein was an American writer who spent most of her life in France, and who became a catalyst in the development of modern art and Modernist literature....
 and was then popularized by Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short story author, and journalist. He was part of the 1920s expatriate community in Paris, France, and one of the veterans of World War I later known as "the Lost Generation"....
 in the epigraph to his novel The Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises

The Sun Also Rises is the first major novel by Ernest Hemingway. Published in 1926 in literature, the Plot centers on a group of expatriate United States in Europe during the 1920s....
 and his memoir A Moveable Feast
A Moveable Feast

A Moveable Feast is a set of memoirs by United States author Ernest Hemingway about his years in Paris as part of the American expatriate circle of writers in the 1920s....
. In the latter, he explained, "I tried to balance Miss Stein's quotation from the garage owner with one from Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes is a book of the Hebrew Bible. The English name derives from the Greek language translation of the Hebrew #Title.The main speaker in the book, identified by the name or title Qohelet, introduces himself as "son of David, and king in Jerusalem." The work consists of personal or autobiographic matter, at times expressed in aph...
." (A few lines after, recalling the risks and losses of the war, he adds, "I thought of Miss Stein and Sherwood Anderson and egotism and mental laziness versus discipline and I thought who is calling who a lost generation?")

It also refers to the time period from the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression
Great Depression

File:International depression.pngThe Great Depression was a worldwide economic Recession starting in most places in 1929 and ending at different times in the 1930s or early 1940s for different countries....
. More generally, the term is used for the generation
Generation

Generation , also known as reproduction, is the act of producing offspring. In a more generic sense, it can also refer to the act of creating something inanimate such as electricity generation or cryptography code generation....
 of young people coming of age in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 during and shortly after World War I. For this reason, the generation is sometimes known as the World War I Generation. In Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, they are most often known as the Generation of 1914, for the year World War I began. In France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
, the country in which many expatriates settled, they are sometimes called the Génération du Feu, the Generation of Fire. Broadly, the term is often used to refer to the younger literary modernists
Modernist literature

Modernist literature is the literary expression of the tendencies of Modernism, especially High modernism.Modernism as a literary movement reached its height in Europe between 1900 and the middle 1920s....
.

In Britain the term was originally used for those who died in combat in World War I , and often implicitly referred to upper-class casualties who were perceived to have died disproportionately, robbing the country of a future elite. Many felt "that 'the flower of youth' and the 'best of the nation' had been destroyed", for example such notable casualties as the poets Isaac Rosenberg
Isaac Rosenberg

Isaac Rosenberg was an English poet of the World War I who was considered to be one of the greatest of all British war poets. His "Poems from the Trenches" are recognised as some of the most outstanding written during the First World War....
, Rupert Brooke
Rupert Brooke

Rupert Chawner Brooke was an England poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the World War I ; however, he never experienced combat at first hand....
 and Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen Military Cross was an England poet and soldier, regarded by many as one of the leading poets of the World War I. His shocking, realistic war poetry on the horrors of Trench warfare and Poison gas in World War I warfare was heavily influenced by his friend Siegfried Sassoon and sat in stark contrast to both the publ...
., or physicist Henry Moseley
Henry Moseley

Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley was an England physics. His main contributions to science were the quantitative justification of the previously empirical concept of atomic number, and Moseley's law....
.