Dateline: Paris, fin de siecle
WayWord Books’ next project, a literal “American in Paris” story, is not a Gene Kelly post-WWII tap dance along the banks of the Seine, but a veritable romp through the Latin Quarter as told by American art student Edward Cucuel, circa 1892. 
In Bohemian(s) Today, Cucuel and his enigmatic roommate, Bishop, quickly discover Paris has more to offer than school assignments. Students at L’Ecole des Beaux Arts from 1892–1896, the two men, eager to escape the crushing social norms that defined the Victorian era, availed themselves of cafés and cabarets, beautiful and mischievous models, and wild parties that defined the Parisienne arts scene.
They attended the very first Bal des Quat’z’Arts, a celebration of the arts that quickly became a “riotous Saturnalia” and which continued as the premiere arts event in Paris until 1966.
Cucuel casually mentions seeing Rodin at a party. He writes of enjoying coffee in a café where Voltaire himself once sat, and of watching women kick up their heels at the Moulin Rouge.
In one chapter, he alludes to the scandalous behavior of Sarah Brown, one of the artists’ models. In another, he describes the abandon with which an American tourist succumbs to Paris nightlife.
These tales are balanced by vignettes that reveal the grueling and unrelenting rhythm of Paris’s street vendors.
Interestingly, other than a small glimpse in one of his accompanying pen and ink sketches, Cucuel makes no mention of the Eiffel Tower. (Considered by many a monstrosity that marred the cityscape, the temporary structure was scheduled to be dismantled in 1909.)
Cucuel’s first-hand account of his time in Paris captures the raw excitement that defined the true Bohemian lifestyle. In these pages, he reveals a Paris before world wars, before Hemingway and Fitzgerald decamped there, before Bohemian became shorthand for a curated “effortlessness” meant to be emulated, and was instead a cultural movement that turned its back on society’s conventions.
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