Immortal Youth: A Study in the Will to Create

In Short

Lucien Price's Immortal Youth: A Study in the Will to Create is a brief, heartfelt memoir celebrating the life and artistic spirit of Fred Adolph Demmler. Tracing Demmler’s trajectory from an aspiring portrait painter in Boston to his service and death in World War I, the book explores the quiet discipline required to choose a creative life over commercial success. Price anchors the narrative in shared moments of beauty, intellectual growth, and deep friendship. The book endures as a serene, authentic tribute to an uncompromising spirit, offering readers a meditation on how dedicated creation bestows its own form of immortality.

The Story

The narrative begins in 1912 at a humble Boston restaurant on Charles Street, where the author first meets twenty-four-year-old Fred "Fritz" Demmler. The grandson of a German architectural sculptor, Fritz abandons a conventional collegiate path at Cornell to study portrait painting. He deliberately resists the pull of American commercialism, choosing a life dedicated to artistic integrity over financial gain.

In Boston, Fritz shares a spartan fifth-floor room at 94 Charles Street with two fellow art students. His early years are defined by rigorous study at the Art Museum, simple meals, excursions to theater gallery seats, and long walks across Beacon Hill and the Massachusetts coast. Painting serves as his primary voice, unlocking an otherwise reserved personality. When he paints portraits—including those of a young farmer friend and the author—he works with complete, intense self-forgetfulness, capturing the hidden life histories of his sitters with striking psychological depth.

Seeking room to grow away from the social politics of the Boston art scene, Fritz returns to his hometown of Pittsburgh to paint independently. Over the next few years, his intellectual and spiritual horizons expand significantly. He immerses himself in the works of Meredith, Whitman, Hardy, Tolstoy, and Romain Rolland. Rolland’s biography of Michelangelo and Tolstoy’s philosophical writings on non-violence profoundly shape his outlook, instilling in him a conviction that true art requires moral independence and the courage to endure solitude. He deliberately navigates the personal sacrifices demanded by his calling, prioritizing intellectual and artistic focus over material ease or social convention.

As the First World War escalates, Fritz encounters Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God Is Within You, which convinces him of the futility of violence. Nevertheless, when the draft arrives, he registers and enters the military. He serves in a machine gun company, maintaining his quiet composure, appetite, and observant humor through camp life in Virginia and the harsh reality of combat in France. Letters sent to friends reveal him sketching between duties and counseling them to keep producing work, noting that physical victories are merely transient.

During the Argonne drive and subsequent operations in St. Mihiel and Belgium, Fritz demonstrates remarkable cool-headedness and helpfulness, earning promotion to sergeant and tending to wounded comrades despite suffering shrapnel wounds himself. On October 31, 1918, during an advance in Belgium, he is mortally wounded by an explosive shell. He dies on November 2 at Evacuation Hospital Number Five in Staden. Price closes the record by offering Demmler's memory to future generations, framing his brief life not as a tragedy of loss, but as a living call to creative devotion.

How It Unfolds

The encounter on Charles Street A chance dinner in a cheap Boston eatery introduces the author to a dark-eyed, quiet art student whose physical strength and intense reserve signal a deep commitment to painting.

Life at Number 94 Fritz settles into a modest fifth-floor studio with two roommates, spending his days studying at the Art Museum and joining long, frugal rambles along the New England coastline.

The painter's true voice Working on portraits of close friends, Fritz sheds his natural shyness, demonstrating an uncanny ability to paint the inner character and life history of his sitters.

Independence in Pittsburgh Rejecting the need to play social politics for commissions, Fritz moves back to Pittsburgh to paint independently, diving deeply into the literature of Hardy, Tolstoy, and Romain Rolland.

The moral crossroads Fritz accepts the quiet sacrifices of an artistic vocation, resolving the conflict between commercial demands and creative freedom while adopting a non-violent philosophy.

Into the machine gun company Drafted into the army, Fritz carries his observant, gentle nature to military camps and eventually to the front lines in France, maintaining his spirits through letters and field sketches.

The final march in Belgium After enduring the Argonne drive and earning a sergeant's stripes for his composure under fire, Fritz is mortally wounded near Staden and dies in a field hospital, leaving behind a legacy of uncompromising devotion.

The People

• Fred Adolph "Fritz" Demmler: A young portrait painter of German descent who wants to master his craft without succumbing to commercial pressures or art-world politics. Reserved in speech, he finds complete liberation and expression only when holding a paint brush. He faces down personal doubt, financial limits, and eventually the hazards of war, maintaining a calm, generous spirit until his death in Belgium.
• Lucien Price (The Narrator): A close friend and intellectual companion who observes Fritz's development with deep respect. He seeks to capture the painter's inner life, serving as his sitter, walking partner, and literary sounding board.
• Fred Middleton: A twenty-seven-year-old former Harvard student who chooses to leave modern business to work as a farmer. He sits for one of Fritz's early major portraits, offering patience while Fritz struggles to capture his large hands and rugged features accurately.
• Ralph Heard and Irving Sisson: Fritz’s two studio roommates at 94 Charles Street, who share the cold rooms, cluttered drawing boards, and shared jokes of their bohemian student days.

In Its Own Voice

"I don't say I shall ever be able to paint as well as they can; but I must be myself,--not an imitation Tarbell."

— Talking to the author during their first meeting, Fritz explains his determination to carve out an authentic artistic identity rather than copy established Boston masters.

"I am going to paint what I see or I am not going to paint at all."

— Fritz states his uncompromising rule as a portrait artist, refusing to flatter wealthy patrons or hide what he observes in their faces.

"We have seen great visions and dreamed splendid dreams. And the faith you have in me,--which I prize so desperately,--I have in you, no matter where each of us may be headed."

— Writing from France shortly before his death, Fritz reaffirms his lifelong bond of shared creative purpose with the author.

What It's Really About

At its heart, the book examines the choice between the will to create and the will to possess. Price frames Demmler's life as a direct stand against the commercialism of early twentieth-century America, which rewards business careers while offering few safeguards to artistic idealists. The text explores how an artist preserves personal integrity in a culture driven by acquiring wealth.

It also addresses the nature of artistic expression as a silent language. For Demmler, painting is not merely an aesthetic exercise, but a rigorous moral discipline that requires intellectual clarity, self-restraint, and courage. Ultimately, the book asks where true immortality resides, concluding that a life lived with vision and absolute sincerity continues to exist through the creative choices of those who remember it.

Why Read It Today

Immortal Youth appeals to anyone interested in the inner life of artists, the history of early twentieth-century American art communities, or memoirs of quiet conviction. It offers an intimate, visually evocative portrait of Boston's studio life and the rustic landscapes of New England before World War I. Readers who appreciate thoughtful meditations on craft and friendship will find Price's prose both reassuring and precise.

The book’s primary difficulty lies in its early twentieth-century idealistic tone and its romantic framing of art as a sacred calling, which may feel distant to modern readers accustomed to cynical biography. It also presumes some familiarity with the literary and cultural figures of the 1910s, including Wagner, Romain Rolland, and Tolstoy.

What remains with the reader, however, is the compelling clarity of Demmler's focus. Price captures the quiet intensity of a young man who asked very little of the material world so that he could give everything to his work.