Walking Paris with Henry Miller

Nice work on the maps. This project is really coming together nicely. Good job!

Hi Kreg!

Do you know if Ned Calmer was living in Montparnasse too? RC had an interesting post on him last December, giving these details:

«Edgar ‘Ned’ Calmer and his wife were part of Henry’s infamous list of people to scrounge meals off of in 1931. His novel «All The Summer Days» (1934) was the fictional story of a group of ex-patriot Americans working for the Chicago Tribune (called the Paris American in the novel).»

Miller appears in the book as Irving Brace, and he wrote this to his friend Emil Schnellock: «There is another book, by a friend of mine named Edgar Calmer (a Virginia fellow) who calls me Irving Brace in his book Always Summer [sic], which is being published by Harcourt Brace & Co. He has me killed at the end of the book–run down by a taxi while in an ecstatic mood. (Not to mention that he plagiarized a few paragraphs from T. of C.–which I thought a good joke, particularly because he didn’t think I noticed them.)»

Also, do you have any idea where Wambly Bald (Van Norden) lived in Montparnasse? In T.of C. he says to Henry: «Find me a room in a quiet street, somewhere near here. I’ve got to stay around here. I’ve got credit here.»

Love your blog!
Pierre from Montreal

Hi RC. Thanks for your compliments. I just read your post on Frances Steloff and the Gotham Book Mart. You turned up some great information there. I had the chance to visit the Gotham Book Mart a few years ago at it’s previous location - quite an enchanting place. Unfortunately, I arrived about a decade too late to have run into Frances.

Hi Pierre.

I believe Ned Calmer lived in the Latin Quarter at a place called Hotel de Lisbonne at 4 rue Vaugirard. The name has been changed to Hotel Luxembourg. Next door to this at number 8 is the hotel where Knut Hamsun lived from 1893 to 1895 and where he wrote Pan. There’s a plaque marking Hamsun’s stay at this address, which you can see here. A quick biographical sketch of Ned which mentions the Hotel de Lisbonne can be found here.

As for Wambly Bald - I don’t have an address for him in Montparnasse. I know he briefly lived next door to Miller and Perlès in Clichy. And in Tropic of Cancer Miller helps him move into room 57 of a hotel where Guy de Maupassant once lived, but he doesn’t give the name of the hotel or its address.

Thank you Kreg!
I had forgotten the Maupassant link concerning Van Norden’s hotel, and I now realize that Miller mentions it twice in T.of C. !!!??? Must be getting too old! (I’m 59 actually). I just found in my archives a « Magazine Littéraire » on Maupassant (no.156, January 1980) with plenty of details on his different Parisian sojourns. I’ll look over the hotels mentioned; it might help. If I find something interesting, I’ll tell you. And thank you also for the info on Calmer. If I can make an easy metaphor : you are a “gold mine” (so is RC in Toronto).
Take care!
Pierre from Montreal

Pierre,

You’re welcome. If you find any further info on the hotel where Maupassant stayed, I’d love to hear it. Speaking of which, this is a tantalizing possibility: Brassai in his book on Miller, Henry Miller, Happy Rock, records a conversation with Miller where Brassai says, “In Paris itself, I remember you were eager to visit the Orfila boarding house, to see the room where Strindberg lived and, on rue des Beaux-Arts, the hotel where Oscar Wilde and Maupassant stayed.” (Google books link)

The hotel he’s referring to here would have to be L’Hotel at 13 rue des Beaux Arts in the Saint Germain/Latin Quarter area. The hotel is most famous today as the place where Oscar Wilde died and as Jorge Borges’ favorite hotel in Paris.

Hi Kreg. I’m absolutely amazed at your sight and the information on it, because for years now I’ve always wondered where the addresses are that Miller talked about. Now I know where the Schrank’s and Walter Lowenfels lived it brings the book even more to life, and makes the area even more interesting. But do you know where the Alba hotel on the rue Raymond-Losserand/Vanves was, because I went to the spot a few years ago but couldn’t make out anything that would have possibly made an hotel in 1930.

Hi Michael.

The Hotel Alba was located at 60 rue de Vanves (now the rue Raymond Losserand). I can’t be positive that the building located at 60 rue Raymond Losserand today is the same one, but I believe that it is.

I have a photograph of the site here and the building in back with it’s entrance on the right would be the Alba.

There was a previous comment on the location of the Alba here. That might provide a little more information. Hope that helps - and thanks for posting your comment.

Oops… looks like I was wrong about the location of the Cinema Vanves. The cinema seems to have been located a few doors down from the Hotel Alba at number 53. this was the Vanves Palace which was open from 1908-1962. Today it is a church called Le Monde à Venir.

I still believe the building at 60 rue Raymond Losserand is the former Hotel Alba.