by Robert A. Schanke (2003)
"In the first book-length biography of Mercedes de Acosta, theater historian Robert A. Schanke adroitly mines lost archival materials and mixes in his own interviews with de Acosta's intimates to correct established myths and at last construct an accurate, detailed, and vibrant portrait of the flamboyantly uninhibited early-twentieth-century author, poet, and playwright." "Born to wealthy Spanish immigrants, Mercedes de Acosta (1893-1968) lived in opulence and traveled in the same social circles as the Astors and Vanderbilts. She was introduced to the New York theater scene at an early age, and her dual loves of performance and of women informed every aspect of her life thereafter. De Acosta was notorious for walking the streets of New York in mannish pants, pointed shoes trimmed with buckles, a tricorn hat, and a cape. With her chalky white face, deep-set eyes, thin red lips, and jet black hair, de Acosta was labeled "Countess Dracula" by Tallulah Bankhead. And Alice B. Toklas's observation, "Say what you will about Mercedes, she's had the most important women in the twentieth century," was well justified, as her romantic conquests included such internationally renowned beauties as Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, and Isadora Duncan, as well as Alla Nazimova, Eva Le Gallienne, Tamara Karsavina, Pola Negri, and Ona Munson." "Not merely a record of her personal life and infamous romances, this account offers the first analysis of de Acosta's complete oeuvre, including three volumes of poetry, two novels, two film scripts, and a dozen plays. Although only two of her plays were ever published during her lifetime, four of them were produced, featuring such stage luminaries as John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, and Eva Le Gallienne. When she published her first volume of poetry, Moods, in 1919, critics praised her achievements and predicted her rise to literary fame. Unfortunately, the love of other women that fueled her writing also limited her opportunities to fulfill this destiny. Failing to achieve any lasting fame, she died in relative poverty at the age of seventy-five." "Aided by twenty-seven photographs, Schanke establishes Mercedes de Acosta's rightful place as a pioneer - and indeed a champion - in the early struggle for lesbian rights in this country. The famous portrayal of her as "that furious lesbian" should now be considered an admiring description rather than a scornful slur."--Jacket.
Christopher Bram
Describes how the trailblazing, post-war gay literary figures, including Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, and Allen Ginsberg, paved the way for newer generations, including Armistead Maupin, Edmund White, and Edward Albee.
Maryellen V. Keefe
"Follows the life and career of Sally Benson, acclaimed writer of New Yorker fiction and Hollywood screenplays."--Publishers website
Lisa Alther
The author looks for her father's family in Virginia. They may have belonged to a mysterious group known as the Melungeons.
Janet Malcolm
"How had the pair of elderly Jewish lesbians survived the Nazis?” Janet Malcolm asks at the beginning of this extraordinary work of literary biography and investigative journalism. The pair, of course, is Gertrude Stein, the modernist master whose charm was as conspicuous as her fatness” and thin, plain, tense, sour” Alice B. Toklas, the worker bee” who ministered to Stein’s needs throughout their forty-year expatriate marriage.” As Malcolm pursues the truth of the couple’s charmed life in a village in Vichy France, her subject becomes the larger question of biographical truth. The instability of human knowledge is one of our few certainties,” she writes. The portrait of the legendary couple that emerges from this work is unexpectedly charged. The two world wars Stein and Toklas lived through together are paralleled by the private war that went on between them. This war, as Malcolm learned, sometimes flared into bitter combat. Two Lives is also a work of literary criticism. Even the most hermetic of [Stein’s] writings are works of submerged autobiography,” Malcolm writes. The key of 'I' will not unlock the door to their meaning you need a crowbar for that but will sometimes admit you to a kind of anteroom of suggestion.” Whether unpacking the accessible Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, in which Stein solves the koan of autobiography,” or wrestling with The Making of Americans, a masterwork of magisterial disorder,” Malcolm is stunningly perceptive.