by Jan from Logie Bookshop
In 2026 Logie is celebrating 100 years since the Steading buildings were first constructed as a model farm. Here at the Bookshop we thought we would take a look at some literature from the time.
1926 was a time of post WW1 disillusionment and many authors were questioning the traditional values and direction of society. Novels of the time include iconic, modernist and socially critical works that helped define the era. The term ‘The Lost Generation’ was coined to describe those searching, and calling, for social change.
F. Scott Fitzgerald coined the term ‘The Jazz Age’ to describe the era’s fast paced, rebellious culture, referring to the upbeat jazz, blues and dance band music styles of the time. Young women challenging traditional, conservative behaviours were often associated with dancing to jazz music and were known as ‘flappers’.
Novels focused on the dizzying, hedonistic and shifting social norms of the 1920’s, particularly in the U.S. Writers were experimenting with new narrative techniques, such as stream-of-consciousness, to explore the inner lives of their characters.
Ernest Hemingway’s novel ‘The Sun Also Rises’ was a defining novel of the ‘Lost Generation’. Dealing with themes of moral bankruptcy, spiritual disillusionment, unrealised love and vanishing illusions, published in 1926, the novel helped to establish Hemingway as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.
Other important works from the era include:
- F. Scott’s Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ (published in 1925)
- Edith Wharton’s ‘The Age of Innocence’ (published a few years earlier in 1920)
- Virginia Woolf’s ‘Mrs Dalloway’ (published in 1925 and a landmark in stream-of-consciousness writing)
- E. E. Cummings modernist memoir of wartime imprisonment ‘The Enormous Room’ (published in 1922)
- Franz Kafka’s ‘The Trial’ was a key work of existential dread (published posthumously in 1925)
Other well known children’s writers and works from the era include:
- A.A. Milne with the iconic ‘Winnie the Pooh’ being published in 1926
Enid Blyton’s ‘Book of Fairies’ (published in 1924) - Elinor Brent Dyer’s ‘The Chalet School’ series began in 1925
- Joyce Lankester Brisley’s ‘Milly Molly Mandy’ (published in 1928)
- Richmal Crompton’s ‘Just William’ (published in 1922)
Look out for further blogs throughout the year touching on poets, influential artists of the era, local history, recipes, crafts and traditions and more.
