- 6 weeks ago
Women artists in Paris in the 20s
Female artists, writers, photographers, designers and adventurers settled in Paris between the wars.
They embraced France, some developed an ex-pat culture and most cherished a way of life quite different from the one left behind.
Female artists, writers, photographers, designers and adventurers settled in Paris between the wars.
They embraced France, some developed an ex-pat culture and most cherished a way of life quite different from the one left behind.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00:00Sur les quais du vieux Paris, le nom de la Seine, le bonheur sourit.
00:00:09Sur les quais du vieux Paris, l'amour se promène en cherchant un nid.
00:00:18Vieux bouquiniste, belle floriste, comme on vous aime, vivant pour aime.
00:00:28Sur les quais du vieux Paris, de l'amour bohème, c'est le paradis.
00:00:40Tous les vieux ponts nous connaissent, témoins de folles promesses.
00:00:48Qu'au fil de l'eau, leur écho va compter, ô guémoineaux effrontés.
00:00:54Et dans tes bras qui m'enchaînent, en écoutant les sirènes,
00:01:02je laisse battre et perdu de bonheur, mon cœur auprès de ton cœur.
00:01:10The city of Paris has often been portrayed as a seductive woman,
00:01:21both mistress and muse to generations of male poets and artists.
00:01:26But not all those drawn to the city of light have been men.
00:01:29At the dawn of the 20th century, creative women flocked to the left bank,
00:01:38responding not only to the beauty of Paris, but even more to its promise of freedom.
00:01:43They created a community, which made it possible for them
00:01:46to follow their passions into a life filled with art and literature.
00:01:51Neither mistress nor muse, Paris became a haven for a new kind of woman.
00:01:56It's curious the question of Paris.
00:02:17First of all, many of these women were leaving home situations
00:02:20in which, if they were going to be an artist or a writer,
00:02:25they were going to have to find some way to juggle this
00:02:27against marriage, motherhood, and the classic pattern of women's lives.
00:02:33And that they didn't want to do this.
00:02:35They wanted to be professional first,
00:02:37and they wanted to live independent lives.
00:02:40Once these women arrived in Paris,
00:02:42especially those women who crossed over
00:02:44into the French avant-garde culture that was there,
00:02:46there, they discovered a richness in Paris
00:02:49that they had never anticipated would be there before.
00:02:52Gertrude Stein came to Paris in 1903
00:03:13to join her brothers, Leo and Michael.
00:03:16As the Stein family built up the world's first collection of modern art,
00:03:20Gertrude began to write in earnest.
00:03:26Gertrude Stein, rich in enthusiasm but modest in means,
00:03:30and then about as unknown as a writer as Picasso was as a painter,
00:03:34began her famous and eclectic Picasso collection.
00:03:38For her first Picasso, she and her brother Leo paid 150 francs,
00:03:43and all three quarreled about the picture's merits.
00:03:45It was an early, exquisite, conventional nude.
00:03:49Miss Stein, who was already ripe to prefer stranger sights in art,
00:03:54thought the girl looked classically flat-footed.
00:03:59From 1906 to 1909,
00:04:02the Stein family controlled the Picasso output,
00:04:05since no one else wanted it.
00:04:08Janet Flanner, an American in Paris.
00:04:11As Gertrude and Leo's collection grew,
00:04:17people called at 27 Rue de Fleurieu to see the curious paintings.
00:04:22These gatherings developed into an informal Saturday night salon,
00:04:25at which Matisse and Picasso were frequent guests.
00:04:30Picasso, in particular,
00:04:31loved the international flavour and sexual ambiguity of the evenings.
00:04:35Then, in 1907,
00:04:40Gertrude Stein met Alice B. Talkless.
00:04:43She invited her to dinner,
00:04:45invited her to the salon,
00:04:46and eventually asked her to marry her.
00:04:49When Alice moved in,
00:04:51Gertrude's brother Leo moved out.
00:04:53And at once I knew her voice as being something apart.
00:05:01She had a deep, rich, contralto voice
00:05:05that was natural to her.
00:05:08It was so wonderful,
00:05:09such a beautiful voice.
00:05:10And she had an exceptional, rare laugh.
00:05:15It was very hearty, fairly loud,
00:05:19but oh, it was music.
00:05:20If you hear her snore,
00:05:22it is not before you love her.
00:05:24You love her so that to be her beau is very lovely.
00:05:27She is sweetly there,
00:05:29and her curly hair is very lovely.
00:05:31Her little tender nose is between her little eyes,
00:05:34which close, and are very lovely.
00:05:36She is very lovely,
00:05:37and mine, which is very lovely.
00:05:41Go to Nardy,
00:05:41come here to take walks together.
00:05:43She liked to walk in the afternoon.
00:05:44Walk around Paris?
00:05:45Yes, she liked to walk.
00:05:47And it was winter and cold,
00:05:48so that if you went, well, off the doors,
00:05:50you had to walk quickly.
00:05:52She took me up to Montmartre to see Picasso earlier.
00:05:55No, as a matter of fact,
00:05:57I met Picasso and Fernandre about a week after we arrived.
00:06:02I think that he and Gertrude
00:06:04were the people that impressed me at first sight.
00:06:10Really deeply impressed me.
00:06:11They were moving, were they?
00:06:14Because they had a physical beauty, too.
00:06:17You see, Picasso was very beautiful when he was young.
00:06:19Incredibly beautiful.
00:06:22And they hammered out between them
00:06:24the beginnings of cubism.
00:06:27Cubism was, of course,
00:06:28a very occult new way
00:06:31of regarding what you could not see.
00:06:34I think Gertrude Stein was very helpful
00:06:37when she said,
00:06:39the point of cubism is that you paint,
00:06:42and I had this from Picasso, she said.
00:06:44She didn't at all.
00:06:45She helped make it up herself.
00:06:46But she said,
00:06:48after all,
00:06:49you paint what you know is there,
00:06:52not what you can see.
00:06:55But it must be there
00:06:56because you have other evidences than reality.
00:07:00They would trade a painting
00:07:03for food and eggs
00:07:05and stuff like that.
00:07:07And when a little more money came to Gertrude,
00:07:10she began to purchase things
00:07:13by Juan Gris and Picabia
00:07:16and Marie Laurentin.
00:07:19The first time Gertrude Stein
00:07:21ever saw Marie Laurentin,
00:07:24Guillaume Apollinaire brought her
00:07:25to the Rue de Flores.
00:07:27In the early days,
00:07:28Marie Laurentin painted a strange picture,
00:07:31portraits of Guillaume,
00:07:33Picasso, Fernand,
00:07:34and herself.
00:07:36Gertrude Stein bought it,
00:07:38and Marie Laurentin was so pleased.
00:07:40It was the first picture of hers
00:07:41anyone had ever bought.
00:07:44Gertrude Stein,
00:07:45autobiography of Alice B. Toklas.
00:07:47Well, I came over to Paris during the war
00:08:12to study French literature.
00:08:14And there I used to see the French
00:08:18and I got to know all the French writers.
00:08:21And I used to go to my friend's bookshop
00:08:23where all these writers came.
00:08:25She knew them all.
00:08:27Adrienne Monnier was just 23
00:08:30when she realized a childhood dream.
00:08:32In 1915,
00:08:34she opened La Maison des Amis des Livres,
00:08:37a small bookshop on the Rue de Lodien.
00:08:39She transformed the business of bookselling
00:08:41into an intellectual and artistic profession.
00:08:44I was very young too.
00:08:54I was 23 years old at the time.
00:08:56And my parents had the opportunity.
00:08:58They were poor.
00:08:59My father was a postier ambulant.
00:09:02I never had any money.
00:09:03My father was a postier.
00:09:09He was in a terrible roadway
00:09:12where he had to die.
00:09:14After that,
00:09:15he gave me an indemnity,
00:09:16an indemnity of 10,000 francs,
00:09:18which was a big sum at the time.
00:09:20And he didn't hesitate to let me
00:09:22take this sum to make this library
00:09:25which I dreamed for about a year
00:09:27about a year before I did it.
00:09:30She wrote a letter to Gilles Romain
00:09:32telling him
00:09:34there is a bookstore
00:09:35in number 7, Rue de Lodien
00:09:37who likes you very much
00:09:40and would love to meet you
00:09:41and admire her.
00:09:44And then she signed
00:09:44A. Monnier.
00:09:47So Gilles Romain
00:09:48thought it was a man
00:09:49and he went to 7, Rue de Lodien
00:09:52and you see
00:09:53a nice little woman sitting there
00:09:55and he said
00:09:55Can I speak to Mr. Monnier?
00:09:58I said to me, me
00:09:59I am a woman.
00:10:02But in those times
00:10:04the woman was
00:10:05had no rights whatsoever.
00:10:06No woman in the government
00:10:08and so on.
00:10:09It didn't exist.
00:10:10That she was a minister,
00:10:11a feminine minister
00:10:12and I know.
00:10:14So it all came later,
00:10:15much later.
00:10:17I remember
00:10:18an only friend of Adrienne
00:10:19who was a woman
00:10:21who was a doctor
00:10:22and she said
00:10:22I am the first generation
00:10:23of women
00:10:25who could study
00:10:26at the university.
00:10:30Adrienne Monnier
00:10:30really invented
00:10:31the idea
00:10:32of the lending library
00:10:33in France
00:10:34because she was concerned
00:10:36that the price
00:10:37of books
00:10:38was very high
00:10:39and that in particular
00:10:40women were disadvantaged
00:10:41in these ways
00:10:42because very few women
00:10:44went to university
00:10:45and most housewives
00:10:47didn't have pocket money
00:10:48to spend on books
00:10:49and so for Adrienne
00:10:51her desire was
00:10:51to not only have
00:10:52a bookshop
00:10:53where books were sold
00:10:54but to have a shop
00:10:55in which books
00:10:56were lent out.
00:10:57And she had a concept
00:11:00of the role
00:11:01of the library
00:11:01who, I'm not sure
00:11:03that this concept
00:11:05inspired encore
00:11:06a lot of libraries
00:11:06in their own
00:11:06perhaps a little name
00:11:07and who was very
00:11:09beautiful and very
00:11:09very emotional.
00:11:10First, she wrote
00:11:11she was founded
00:11:12on the price
00:11:13and she had to
00:11:13first read a book
00:11:14before knowing
00:11:15if she wanted to buy it.
00:11:16And the majority
00:11:17of the habitual
00:11:19of the library
00:11:19read the books
00:11:21that they had to pay
00:11:22but they didn't buy
00:11:23a small number
00:11:25of these books.
00:11:26And then,
00:11:27the second principle
00:11:29is that
00:11:30you have to know
00:11:30your reader.
00:11:32And it's the reason
00:11:32for which
00:11:33with a lot of discreet
00:11:34and adoration
00:11:35and especially
00:11:36of goodwill
00:11:36they spoke
00:11:38to the young
00:11:38that we were
00:11:39we made it
00:11:40and it was
00:11:41a little bit
00:11:41that we knew
00:11:42and discreetly
00:11:42without having to
00:11:43have a look
00:11:43to guide us.
00:11:44And she had
00:11:45a very high conception
00:11:46of the library
00:11:47and we would
00:11:48very much wish
00:11:49that this conception
00:11:50will be developed
00:11:50again.
00:11:51And so she pioneered
00:11:53what in the United States
00:11:55we had sort of
00:11:55taken as a given
00:11:57to the public library.
00:11:59And she was particularly
00:12:00seeking a readership
00:12:02of women.
00:12:04I knew Claudel
00:12:05and Gide
00:12:06and Valérie
00:12:07and St. John
00:12:08Perce
00:12:09and Jules Romain
00:12:09and all those people.
00:12:11And I used to go
00:12:13to all these readings
00:12:14they gave.
00:12:15It's very interesting.
00:12:16And they used to read
00:12:17each other's works
00:12:18and I loved these things
00:12:19and I think I was
00:12:21the only American
00:12:21who went to this bookshop.
00:12:23And I have to mention
00:12:25I believe in my great
00:12:26friend Sylvia Beach
00:12:27who is American
00:12:28and who came to the library
00:12:31in the summer of 2016.
00:12:33it was all at the beginning of the house.
00:12:35She was at Paris when the United States was in war.
00:12:38She was very amateur,
00:12:42she followed the science of l'IREE-Palette,
00:12:45she assisted the famous representation
00:12:48of the Mamelles of Tiresias in 1917,
00:12:51and I think it was immediately after these Mamelles,
00:12:54perhaps in thinking that labourage and pâturage
00:12:56were the Mamelles of France,
00:12:58that she was engaged as a volunteer agriculture.
00:13:01Yes, she was quite brave,
00:13:03but also courageous.
00:13:04She made the moissons and vendanges in France.
00:13:07In 1918, she was engaged in the American Red Cross
00:13:10and went to Serbia,
00:13:12where she was just in 19,
00:13:14in a civil rescue.
00:13:17To tell the truth,
00:13:18the terrible goddess of war favoured me.
00:13:21Because there was a war on,
00:13:23shops were available at reasonable prices
00:13:25in the noble academic neighbourhood to which I aspired.
00:13:28Competition could not stifle me
00:13:30because most of the booksellers were in the army.
00:13:33And because the pace of life was slowed down,
00:13:36I had the time to learn a profession
00:13:38whose practice I was completely ignorant of.
00:13:41I loved books, that was all.
00:13:44Adrienne Monnier, Souvenir de l'Autre Guerre.
00:13:52Adrienne Monnier supplied books to troops at the front.
00:13:55Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas did volunteer work
00:13:59in the war-ravaged countryside.
00:14:01The war, in a kind of way, had changed our lives.
00:14:09Living wasn't as easy, as cheap as it was.
00:14:13And we had spent a great deal of money in the other war.
00:14:16And Gertrude and I were terribly in the dish when the war was over.
00:14:19Dead broke.
00:14:20Gertrude sold pictures to live.
00:14:22There was so much need.
00:14:23You didn't have to hunt for it.
00:14:25Put upon you.
00:14:26What can you do for this?
00:14:28There were no official agencies.
00:14:30All that's modern.
00:14:31There was the French Red Cross,
00:14:34whom you couldn't appeal to
00:14:36because you were Americans helping French.
00:14:38You had no right to appeal to the French.
00:14:40You were Americans helping the French.
00:14:43So you appealed to Americans.
00:14:44Well, I appealed to my father.
00:14:46He was very good.
00:14:47His club sent an ambulance.
00:14:49When we wanted to send an x-ray apparatus for a hospital.
00:14:54Our society was very good in supplying comforts and bandages
00:15:00and surgical instruments and things of that kind.
00:15:10Business life of Paris during the war had been taken over by women.
00:15:14So women came into roles outside the house during the First World War
00:15:20and discovered their interests, their abilities
00:15:22and had to be kind of trained on the job.
00:15:33With the end of World War One, hordes of American tourists arrived.
00:15:38They checked into the inexpensive left bank hotels
00:15:41as if the arrondissement were a kind of summer resort.
00:15:52Prohibition back home and the inflated dollar abroad
00:15:55fueled the American invasion.
00:16:11We were all voluntary exiled temporarily.
00:16:28We went willingly and gladly and lived grandly on little money.
00:16:33Wine was so cheap, you know, that it seemed as if you drank it for nothing.
00:16:36Excellent food in small bistros.
00:16:40Wonderful sense of excitement in the city.
00:16:44So full of writing and literature
00:16:46that every stone, it seemed to me, had a literary style to it.
00:16:51That's what called men like Hemingway.
00:16:53That's what called a woman like Etude Stein.
00:16:55That must have been even what called Picasso
00:16:57because it was the centre of art.
00:16:59Janet Flano answered the call of Paris in 1923.
00:17:06She and her friend, the writer Solita Solano,
00:17:10left their husbands in America
00:17:12and began a new way of life together.
00:17:14They settled in a small hotel in Saint-Germain
00:17:17and began to write their first novels.
00:17:20They spent all their afternoons at their corner cafe, Le Deux Margaux,
00:17:29where Janet was content to pass the rest of her life.
00:17:32When friends in New York launched a new magazine,
00:17:35they enlisted Janet to write a weekly column.
00:17:38Using the pen name Jeunet,
00:17:40her letter from Paris became a centrepiece in the New Yorker
00:17:43for the next 40 years.
00:17:45Janet Flanner looking around the Paris left bank for subjects
00:17:52for her weekly articles in the New Yorker
00:17:56turned to the group that she herself was most interested in.
00:18:00She wanted to provide a focus on women.
00:18:04The international avant-garde culture of Paris
00:18:09provided rich material for her column.
00:18:12The Russian theatre and costume designer, Alexandra Exeter.
00:18:18The Irish-born architect and designer, Eileen Gray.
00:18:24The French avant-garde filmmaker, Germain Dulac.
00:18:28The black American singer and nightclub owner, Bricktop.
00:18:33And the American photographer, Leigh Miller,
00:18:35were among the many women who flocked to Paris
00:18:38and shook up its cultural life.
00:18:40The most fantastic female influence in Paris
00:18:43was Josephine Baker.
00:18:45She fell in love with France immediately
00:18:47when she was seated on the train to Paris
00:18:49in the same compartment as White's.
00:18:51But that was nothing compared with the way France
00:18:53would soon fall in love with her.
00:18:55Eileen Gray, howling was 37 women
00:18:57for the woman in the country
00:18:58while she still laws and laws and the shops
00:18:59were certain people who spread their butts
00:19:00in its midst of various spaces.
00:19:01In the same way the most potent can be
00:19:02the most potent can be created.
00:19:03She was an unforgettable female woman
00:19:04on the other thể of France.
00:19:05She was an unforgettable female in the town.
00:19:06And the French finds her
00:19:07in the United States.
00:19:08She was an unforgettable female ebony statue, a scream of salutation spread through the
00:19:29theatre.
00:19:58The two specific elements had been established and were unforgettable.
00:20:02Her magnificent dark body, a new model that to the French proved for the first time that
00:20:08black was beautiful, and the acute response of the white public in the capital of hedonism
00:20:13of all Europe, Paris.
00:20:17Genet, letter from Paris.
00:20:20I made so many friends among them, and then I decided to have a bookshop of my own.
00:20:34And it was my French friend who encouraged me to, and my French friend.
00:20:38And they all said, oh yes, have this bookshop and we'll all come to it.
00:20:41And they did?
00:20:42And they did.
00:20:43They all turned up immediately.
00:20:44Jean-André Gilles came the first day and subscribed, and Jules Romain came, and they all came, every
00:20:52one of them.
00:20:53And Valérie became a great friend of mine.
00:20:55And Valérie Larbeau, who was the favorite of all the young writers, he became the godfather
00:20:59of my bookshop.
00:21:01And he brought me a little house of Shakespeare that he had when he was a child, a little
00:21:05china house that was cracked.
00:21:08And he gave me that, and some American soldiers that he'd had made from documents in the National
00:21:13Library, and he said those were to guard the house of Shakespeare.
00:21:19Adrienne gave her advice about how to get through the red tape in France as a non-French citizen
00:21:25to set up an operation like that.
00:21:30I think the personal relationship between Sylvie and Adrienne had everything to do with
00:21:34the ways in which those two bookshops became the center of cultural life for the expatriate
00:21:40community.
00:21:41They became very close friends.
00:21:43They were lovers.
00:21:44They lived together for many, many years.
00:21:46Their apartment was a little bit further up the street on the Rue de l'Odion.
00:21:50I was a young student, and I went through Rue de l'Odion, and always, when there was
00:21:55a bookstore, because I was so interested in literature, I looked, found a book, found a book,
00:22:00from Jérôme, and discussed all the two francs or something, so I went in.
00:22:06There was seated a very nice-looking woman, it was Adrienne Monnier.
00:22:11Half an hour later, she knew everything about me, and then she told me about her life.
00:22:16And I went very often to Rue de l'Odion to see Adrienne, because she said, if you have
00:22:21a little time, help me with the books, because each book which you had to have a new cover,
00:22:28with this brilliant paper, you know.
00:22:30And to her I met Valérie, I met certain of her good friends who came each day or every
00:22:37second day to visit her, to discuss things.
00:22:41I couldn't discuss much, because at those times I didn't know much about French literature.
00:22:45Paul Valérie came to the Rue de l'Odion for the first time in 1917.
00:22:51He appeared early in the afternoon, behind the shop window.
00:22:55I already knew how to recognize men of letters by their way of looking at the window.
00:22:59Valérie's was the most discreet that I had yet seen, but his eyes said literature.
00:23:05He said it in a singular manner.
00:23:09Adrienne's clientele were primarily French.
00:23:14Sylvia definitely wanted an English-speaking clientele, but what happened, of course, is
00:23:20that people crossed the street from one bookshop to the other.
00:23:26She went there, we have somebody I will present you to, and run over the street to Sylvia Beach
00:23:34with me, and presented me to Sylvia.
00:23:37That's how I met Sylvia Beach, who had a bookshop nearly in front of hers, and had around her
00:23:43all the American and English writers, or would becoming great writers.
00:23:48And the French writers were very interested in the English and the American writers, and
00:23:53they encouraged me with all the young writers, and Valérie Larbeau used to be very encouraging
00:23:58too.
00:23:59Sylvia Beach was a typical American, and her pronunciation of the French was very funny,
00:24:18and she invented words, you know.
00:24:20She never spoke perfectly French, but it was very funny.
00:24:23And she was always nice to everybody.
00:24:26And I went, of course, to Sylvia Beach's bookshop, and met Sylvia Beach.
00:24:34And when I mentioned the name of Gertrude Stein to her, she opened like a flower, and talked
00:24:40to me at length about Gertrude and Alice.
00:24:45Two women came in while Sylvia was there.
00:24:51And one was stout and short, and the other was thin and wily, and exotic looking.
00:25:00And, of course, they turned out to be Alice B. Talkless and Gertrude Stein.
00:25:07The stout party was Gertrude.
00:25:13Sylvia Beach and Adrienne Mournier and Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Talkless became neighborhood
00:25:18friends, although always at sorts point in their differing opinions on writing.
00:25:23According to Janet Flaner, whatever it was the French 1920s had to give, the offer became
00:25:45even bigger, because it was shared by so many non-French.
00:25:49The most extraordinary of the characters you see in public was, of course, Picasso.
00:25:54He used to come to the Café des Fleurs.
00:25:57I lived up below it, off the Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés, extraordinary little eyes like a black, round
00:26:05eyes like a bull, and such a sense of concentration in his whole mind and his whole body, this quick,
00:26:15taurine look, which he glanced around in the café.
00:26:20And I always drank a bottle of water.
00:26:22And for a man who was supposed to be the most modern of all the artists and the most unpredictable,
00:26:29he certainly was the most normally reliable.
00:26:31We all would make the same restaurant at Lips.
00:26:33When he went home at night, about 11 o'clock, he always walked home the same way, down on
00:26:37the, to the cave.
00:26:38I mean, for a, a mad modernist, you'd have thought he'd have chosen a different group once in a
00:26:43while.
00:26:44People who had just arrived by boat from the United States would check into their hotel
00:26:51and go up to the Dome or the Coupole or some place to have an afternoon drink, and would
00:26:55immediately find themselves taken into a larger group.
00:26:58You were immediately a part of it.
00:27:09Perhaps the most notorious woman in the neighbourhood was Natalie Barnet, whose Friday afternoon salon
00:27:24was virtually an institution.
00:27:26At the turn of the century, the American heiress had rejected her stodgy debutante life in Washington,
00:27:32DC, and fled to Paris, because it was, in her words, the only city where you can live and
00:27:39express yourself as you please.
00:27:44She fell in love with a young poet, René Vivien.
00:27:47Together, they discovered opera, French symbolist poetry, and the newly translated fragments of Sappho.
00:27:55Inspired by the writings of Pierre-Louis, Natalie fantasized recreating the golden age of Lesbos.
00:28:01Theatricals performed in her garden reflected both the literary and sensual qualities of Sappho,
00:28:08which Natalie so admired.
00:28:12Miss Barnet was a personality that she knew very, very well to receive.
00:28:26In fact, she had the reputation of her literary salon.
00:28:31There were only three in Paris at that time.
00:28:33There were only three literary salons at that time, which were really literary salons.
00:28:38There were many people in the city where we would sit for tea.
00:28:41Miss Barnet received a lot of people.
00:28:44Jusqu'à 200 people, in my time.
00:28:46But the most beautiful receptions were from 1927 to 1939, when the war exploded.
00:29:16The literary salon, there were young people who came with manuscripts, so there was Madame Radley, Jeannette Flaner, Germaine Beaumont, the Duchess de Montaner,
00:29:32they would read the manuscript, and 8 or 10 days after, or 15 days, they would report the manuscript, they would say to this young woman, that it was good.
00:29:44And they were recommended to a editor, it's not like now that we put it on the layers.
00:29:50You know, all manuscripts that we bring are often on the layers.
00:29:54Part of Nalibari's salon was a place in which women could read their work.
00:29:58And if they were doing performing kinds of work, as Colette was for a while, to actually stage performances.
00:30:07She is the person who has no counterpart anywhere.
00:30:11At one time, she believed she saw herself in the features of a young woman.
00:30:15And again, in the features of a handsome young man.
00:30:20Yes, of a young man, why not?
00:30:22So handsome that love seemed to despair of him.
00:30:25Colette, the pure and the impure.
00:30:29Oh, yes, Colette, Colette, it was a great friend.
00:30:36She was a great friend.
00:30:38She was a great friend.
00:30:39She was a great friend.
00:30:40She was a great friend.
00:30:41She was a great friend.
00:30:42You know, I was a great friend too.
00:30:44You know, Miss Barnet, in 1928, with Roman Brook,
00:30:50she was the best friend of her life for her life.
00:30:54She was a great friend of mine for 62 years.
00:30:56She always told me that, Miss Barnet.
00:30:58So I said it, frankly, since she told me, I repeat it.
00:31:04One of France's most esteemed and celebrated authors, Colette,
00:31:08earned the highest possible award in France, the coveted Legion of Honour.
00:31:13Yet she was still excluded from the Académie Française,
00:31:16that venerable but blinkered institution which prohibited women from studying and exhibiting art.
00:31:26Colette was a founding member of her friend Natalie Barney's Académie des Femmes,
00:31:31an informal reproach to the Académie Française
00:31:34and an example of Natalie's commitment to promoting the work of women artists she admired.
00:31:40Her lifelong friend, Romaine Brooks, in particular.
00:31:44Oh, Romaine Brook, c'était...
00:31:46Je me suis toujours demandé
00:31:48comment ces deux femmes très différentes
00:31:51ont pu rester amies pendant 62 ans.
00:31:54Miss Barnet, qui était...
00:31:56Vous savez, qui riait trop-temps.
00:31:58Et Romaine, qui était dans sa peinture toujours,
00:32:02qui ne riait pas, qui n'aimait pas sortir,
00:32:05qui n'aimait...
00:32:06On l'a forcée à venir à la réception.
00:32:09Tout à fait différente.
00:32:10C'est-à-dire que Miss Barnet aimait recevoir Romaine n'aimait pas recevoir.
00:32:15Romaine Brooks painted to exorcise the demons of her childhood,
00:32:21including an insane brother and a cruel, unloving mother.
00:32:25A childhood so awful that people who read her unpublished memoirs refused to believe them.
00:32:31She painted in obscurity and isolation until her first exhibition in Paris in 1910 established her reputation.
00:32:38Dubbed the thief of souls, Romaine Brooks painted intense portraits in muted colours.
00:32:45Elle était très facile à parler.
00:33:05Quand Miss Barnet avait fini de déjeuner avec Romaine,
00:33:10Miss Barnet allait s'allonger dans son salon.
00:33:14Et Romaine restait avec moi dans la salle à manger.
00:33:17Et alors on discutait robe, jaquette, un tas de choses dans ce genre-là.
00:33:22Parce qu'elle défaisait les manches et puis il fallait que je les fasse, moi.
00:33:26Elle défaisait toutes ses manches de costumes.
00:33:28Et puis je répinglais et puis je refaisais les manches de costumes.
00:33:32Voilà, avec moi elle était très facile, elle m'a jamais...
00:33:36Elle était très difficile avec son personnel, mais avec moi jamais.
00:33:39Juna Barnes was an enigmatic woman,
00:34:04About whom everyone seems to have had something to say.
00:34:08Janet Flanner found her to be quite handsome,
00:34:11Bold-voiced and a remarkable talker.
00:34:14Natalie Barnet called her a rough diamonds sort of genius,
00:34:18Who cut everything to pieces and then blamed the cuts.
00:34:21Sylvia Beach thought she was one of the most talented
00:34:24And most fascinating literary figures in the Paris of the 20s.
00:34:28And Gertrude Stein simply remarked that she had beautiful legs.
00:34:33When I saw her for the first time,
00:34:40She was a very beautiful, red person, very big,
00:34:46Very majestic, you know.
00:34:48She was really a character. Really.
00:34:53She was already a writer.
00:34:55She has already written a very beautiful book in her youth.
00:34:58Journalism provided a means for American women in particular,
00:35:02To find their way to Paris.
00:35:05Juna Barnes and Janet Flanner intended to go to Paris,
00:35:08Because they wanted to be writers,
00:35:10And they wanted to be a part of that literary community.
00:35:12But they needed to support themselves.
00:35:15While living a bohemian life in Greenwich Village,
00:35:18Juna Barnes pioneered a new kind of journalism,
00:35:21Documenting her own adventures.
00:35:23She was once rescued from a skyscraper by a fireman's rope.
00:35:28Her reputation in Paris preceded her arrival.
00:35:32I was devoted to Juna, and she was quite fond of me too,
00:35:43In her superior way.
00:35:45She wrote The Lady's Almanac, and illustrated it boldly.
00:35:49It was a take-off of many ladies in the American colony,
00:35:52Published privately by Miss Natalie Barney,
00:35:55Who appeared in it as a leading character.
00:36:00I was one of a pair of journalists called Nip and Tuck.
00:36:04Janay, Paris was yesterday.
00:36:07A more serious literary instruction
00:36:10We have celebrated the cultural history
00:36:12of the Garton Times,
00:36:14The Lady's Almanac أش亡し
00:36:16The LAMATE Boyle
00:36:17Whoever had a couple of years
00:36:19In Argentina is the same way
00:36:20We've found even a very interesting director
00:36:21of the Garton Times.
00:36:23HeNan is the same way
00:36:24He found the story of the Garton Times
00:36:25In the frame,
00:36:26the Garton Times
00:36:27The LAMATE Boyle
00:36:28The LAMATE Boyle
00:36:29How was the Garton Times
00:36:30The LAMATE Boyle
00:36:31A more serious literary endeavor was Juna Barnes's novel, Nightwood.
00:36:40Considered to be her masterpiece, it was inspired by the great love of her life,
00:36:45the American artist Thelma Wood.
00:37:01The relationship of Juna Barnes and Thelma Wood is a very complicated one,
00:37:07and it's a major part of the story that is told in Nightwood.
00:37:10But for the first time in Juna Barnes's life, in that relationship,
00:37:15she lived in a family situation that made her happy.
00:37:19She stayed with Nora until midwinter.
00:37:24Two spirits were working in her, love and anonymity.
00:37:28Yet they were so haunted of each other that separation was impossible.
00:37:37Nora bought an apartment in the Rue de Cherche Midi.
00:37:41Robin had chosen it.
00:37:45In the passage of their lives together,
00:37:48every object in the garden, every item in the house,
00:37:53every word they spoke attested to their mutual love,
00:37:57the combining of their humors.
00:38:06Où sont tous mes amants?
00:38:10Tous ceux qui m'aiment tant
00:38:12Jadis quand j'étais belle
00:38:16Ma dieu les infidèles
00:38:20Ils sont je ne sais où
00:38:23Pas d'autres rendez-vous
00:38:26Moi mon cœur n'a pas vieilli pourtant
00:38:30Où sont tous mes amants?
00:38:39Dans la tristesse et la nuit qui revient
00:38:42Je reste seule, isolée, sans soutien
00:38:46Sans nul entrave
00:38:48Sans nul entrave
00:38:48Mais sans amour
00:38:49Comme une épave
00:38:51Mon cœur est lourd
00:38:53Moi qui jadis ai connu le bonheur
00:38:56L'espoir de fête et adorateur
00:39:00Je suis esclave des souvenirs
00:39:03Et cela me fait souffrir
00:39:06Où sont tous mes amants?
00:39:10Tous ceux qui m'aiment tant
00:39:13Jadis quand j'étais belle
00:39:17Ma dieu les infidèles
00:39:20Ils sont je ne sais où
00:39:24Pas d'autres rendez-vous
00:39:27Moi mon cœur n'a pas vieilli pourtant
00:39:30Où sont tous mes amants?
00:39:35Parce que Gertrude Stein et Alice B. Toklas
00:39:39Devoutaient leurs vies à Steyn's writing
00:39:41Ils ne participaient pas dans le bohémien
00:39:43Nightlife de Paris
00:39:44Ils préféraient d'entertainer à la maison
00:39:46L'auteur, Thornton Wilder
00:39:49C'était une partie de leur cercle de amis
00:39:51Alice Toklas était invitée
00:39:54De temps en temps avec Gertrude Stein
00:39:56Et puis Romaine
00:39:58Alors Romaine aimait bien Gertrude
00:40:01Je n'ai jamais eu de conversation
00:40:03Avec Gertrude Stein
00:40:05Avec Mistoklas, oui
00:40:06Elle était très gentille d'ailleurs
00:40:08Et c'était elle qui faisait la cuisine
00:40:10Et tout ça
00:40:11Mon mari était chasseur
00:40:12Et chaque fois qu'il tuait des pères d'eau
00:40:14A cette époque-là
00:40:15Il y en avait beaucoup
00:40:16On l'apportait des pères d'eau
00:40:17Il m'en emportait des douzaines
00:40:19Mise-ma-l'année à manger
00:40:20Des faisans et des pères d'eau
00:40:21Toutes sa vie à cause de mon mari
00:40:23Mais on en donnait toujours à Mistoklas
00:40:26Il les faisait cuir pour Gertrude
00:40:28Et pour elle
00:40:29Tout ça
00:40:30La rencontre d'Alice B. Toklas
00:40:35Et Gertrude Stein
00:40:37C'était crucial pour la carrière de Stein
00:40:40Toklas aussi
00:40:41Il y a beaucoup de matériaux pour Stein
00:40:44One of Stein's very early portraits
00:40:46Ada
00:40:47Is about Toklas
00:40:49And there is a whole flood
00:40:52Of Stein's most interesting
00:40:55Experimental and erotic writings
00:40:58That are about her life
00:41:00With Alice B. Toklas
00:41:04Toklas was publisher
00:41:06Typist
00:41:07Cook
00:41:08Muse
00:41:09And enabler
00:41:10And a very interesting person
00:41:12With whom to live
00:41:18One of the most striking qualities
00:41:19About this creative circle of women
00:41:21Was their way of invoking the female muse
00:41:24No longer on a pedestal
00:41:26She's redefined as a crucial part
00:41:28Of a working relationship
00:41:30Like the Greek gods
00:41:32Who came to earth
00:41:33The metaphor of the female muse
00:41:35Took human form
00:41:36Women often looked to each other
00:41:38For inspiration
00:41:39As well as for practical support
00:41:41There was no alcohol
00:41:44Said in this science house
00:41:45Except for lunch
00:41:46And then very good wine
00:41:47And there might be
00:41:50All of the people
00:41:51The young people
00:41:52Of consequence
00:41:53And without money
00:41:54She was such a dominant
00:41:56And fantastic woman herself
00:41:58After she got her hair off
00:41:59She was a very handsome
00:42:00Roman emperor
00:42:01Before that she was a rather
00:42:03Overburdened California lady
00:42:05With the largest mop of hair
00:42:07Available on the back of her head
00:42:08And she always led the conversation
00:42:12Well get rid of that everything
00:42:13You had to be very spry
00:42:16To get out of her way even
00:42:17In the rapidity of her thoughts
00:42:21The excitement of her thinking
00:42:24It would come this sudden
00:42:26Rumble of laughter
00:42:28It was so warm
00:42:30Like you know
00:42:31When a stove roars
00:42:32With heat
00:42:33And when she laughed
00:42:34Everyone in the room laughed
00:42:35I mean
00:42:37It was more than a signal
00:42:38It was a kind of
00:42:39Contagion of good spirits
00:42:41She
00:42:43When Gertrude talked
00:42:44She talked
00:42:45With the greatest sense
00:42:46Coherency
00:42:47Simplicity
00:42:49And precision
00:42:50Of any woman
00:42:51I think I've ever heard
00:42:52In my life
00:42:53While Gertrude orated
00:42:54And made
00:42:55The pattern
00:42:56Of the conversation
00:42:57Her great friend
00:42:58Miss Alice B. Tockless
00:42:59Was sitting behind
00:43:00A tea tray
00:43:01It was if Gertrude
00:43:02Were giving
00:43:03The address
00:43:04And Alice
00:43:05Was supplying
00:43:06All of the corrective
00:43:07Footnotes
00:43:08And you had
00:43:09Wonderful
00:43:10Sandwiches
00:43:11Excellent
00:43:12Homemade
00:43:13Cookies
00:43:14Excellent
00:43:15Chinese
00:43:16And then
00:43:17Alice's
00:43:18Quite sly
00:43:19Swift
00:43:20Rather whispered
00:43:21Conversation
00:43:22Et nous avons connu
00:43:23Aussi
00:43:24Très vite
00:43:25Gertrude Stein
00:43:26Nous avons été chez elle
00:43:27Dans son fameux appartement
00:43:28De la rue de Fleurus
00:43:29Elle avait des Picasso
00:43:30Merveilleux
00:43:31Je me souviens
00:43:32D'un coffre
00:43:33Plein de dessins de Picasso
00:43:34Tellement beau
00:43:35Tellement émouvant
00:43:36Maintenant
00:43:37Je dois avouer
00:43:38Que quand je regarde
00:43:39Je ne pense pas toujours
00:43:40Je pense à ce coffre
00:43:41Et ça m'aide
00:43:43A bien aimer Picasso
00:43:44Gertrude Stein
00:43:45Gertrude Stein
00:43:46And Pablo Picasso
00:43:47Are one of the most interesting relationships in 20th century cultural history
00:43:56When Stein walked through the streets of Paris to have Picasso paint her portrait
00:44:03They were young, they were not yet famous, and they were on the cutting edge of modern culture
00:44:09He was doing his experiments for the sake of painting, she was doing her experiments for the sake of literature
00:44:16They were, in the deepest most beautiful sense of the word, kindred spirits
00:44:22If I told him, would he like it, would he like it, would he like it, would
00:44:24Napoleon would
00:44:25Napoleon would
00:44:26CYPICASO
00:44:56napoleon if napoleon if i told him if i told him would he like it would he like it if i told him
00:45:01miracles play play fairly play fairly well a well as well as or as presently let me recite what
00:45:12history teaches history teaches in terms of radical experimentation gertrude stein was the
00:45:22writer who most boldly said what would literature be like if we didn't have the conventional beginning
00:45:28to middle to end narrative what would literature be like if we wrote about language rather than
00:45:35about people and thirdly she said what would literature be like if we didn't use a lot of
00:45:43historical illusions now she knew history but what would it be like if we stripped it to the
00:45:50sensations and events of the moment before us i asked gertrude why did you write rose as a rose
00:45:59as a rose and she said well i'll tell you poetry is the addressing the caressing the possessing and
00:46:07the expressing of nouns and when i wrote rose as a rose as a rose i took the word rose which had lost
00:46:17its meaning over the years it had gradually gone away from the object itself and when i wrote it
00:46:25rose as a rose as a rose as a rose i gradually brought the meaning back to the word in other words
00:46:34i addressed i caressed i possessed and expressed the word and i am the first person in two hundred years to
00:46:43have done that there is one there was one gertrude she was not a person who was scattered in any way
00:46:51she was her own her own province alice was cautious reflective and creative and rather malicious
00:47:02uh gertrude could be destructive but malice was not her gift alice had a gift for it gertrude was wondering
00:47:12uh why and how natalie barnet got all the female all the girls all the sexual partners that she had
00:47:24one after the other even at her advancing age and uh where she found them all where at alice broke into
00:47:33the conversation and said with a bit of venom why she finds them down in the basement of the galleries
00:47:43lafayettes in the girls rooms
00:47:48the word cow plays a central role in gertrude stein's erotic writings cow is stein's way of saying
00:48:00an orgasm so when a wife has a cow a love story it really is a quite raunchy erotic reference after
00:48:11you crack the code and this is an element of stein that is often underestimated in part because it's
00:48:16lesbian they could afford not to take her seriously because she was a woman but also because in terms of
00:48:22literary criticism we haven't yet and in philosophy we have not yet developed the tools the ways of
00:48:29reading that stein's work demands
00:48:40so
00:48:59the sister bookshops had evolved into the avant-garde literary capital of europe
00:49:15writers passing through paris would meet one another give readings and attend other cultural events
00:49:20and i have an idea they have seen a new film in color i would love to do photograph all your friends
00:49:33and mine in color and he said this is a wonderful idea she was always open for new ideas you see and
00:49:39therefore in less than a year i made all these photographs which now are worldwide known not
00:49:45everybody knows who did them but the photographs are known you see
00:50:00she rented 50 shares and fixed everything about the books because there was one writer who liked to
00:50:05steal books so she said i have to be careful i can't allow myself that they steal my books
00:50:11she took out a bed sheet and hang it up and i had a a machine very old-fashioned to to project these
00:50:19photographs this was a sensation and i said i want to show the people you have photographed and this was
00:50:24very funny because they were all they were aragon they were in the trio land there was breton and they
00:50:31were all there and they found the pictures far extremely interesting but when it came to their own
00:50:37pictures they were terrified because you see i had the idea of realism and naturalism which was not at all the
00:50:57fashion
00:51:07but you know i was the uh i have mothered all these young editions that they had the
00:51:13the reviews and the little publishing houses the first publisher of hemingway was one of these little
00:51:18houses and they had such interesting things they were doing and i had charge of those things and
00:51:24all these people there was their center you know sylvia beach pioneered the kinds of windows and
00:51:30bookshops that we now all take for granted she propped up in the windows these little avant-garde
00:51:37magazines people would notice the covers and they would then enter the bookshop out of curiosity to
00:51:43discover what these were to discover that they were magazines and not books and there the conversation
00:51:49would begin and if a hemingway for instance were published in one of these little magazines hemingway
00:51:54himself might be standing there so you could meet the author often of someone who you know of something
00:52:01that was uh being printed in one of the magazines so a sort of instant culture people as such as gide
00:52:08and valerie and leon paul fogg would come into adrian monnier's bookshop and begin talking to her
00:52:15about their work they saw her interestingly enough as an intellectual woman so interesting that they would
00:52:22come to the shop just have conversations with her we cherchions a lire essentiellement ce qui venait
00:52:27de paraître ce qui était le plus nouveau dans la littérature et puis à essayer de saisir une une
00:52:32phrase ou une formule d'un des grands écrivains qui étaient autour d'adriel monnier avec d'ailleurs
00:52:36des des chances diverses parce que quelquefois ce grand écrivain laissait échapper une formule mémorable
00:52:43et presque toujours il parlait du déjeuner de la veille du donner du lendemain ou de petits incidents
00:52:48dans la vie quotidienne adrian monnier avait un extraordinaire goût du classement faisant
00:52:52comme elle nous pouvons classer les écrivains qu'on voyait ici en plusieurs sortes il y avait
00:52:56d'abord ce qui était la fois grands écrivains et tout à fait familier et un jour étant en train
00:53:02de feuilleter hypocritement des livres en écoutant comme je vous l'ai dit tout à l'heure j'ai vu adrian
00:53:06monnier découvrir une traduction il y avait une fois extrêmement sensuelle de joyce et elle a proposé
00:53:12main palpée d'opulente avec l'admirable allitération lp et ça va répéter répéter deux fois
00:53:18out of these conversations adrian actually became the editor of her own magazine il y a eu un numéro
00:53:26aussi entièrement consacré à blake et un numéro consacré aux jeunes écrivains nord-américains qui
00:53:33naturellement a été organisé par sylvia beach c'est dans ce numéro que paru la première traduction de
00:53:39hemingway l'invincible nouvelle qui fut reprise dans le volume 50 mille dollars croyez-vous que
00:53:44le texte fut remarqué mais tout de suite par claudel par paul hasard qu'il compare à mérimée par
00:53:52gaston gallimard qui lui offrit tout de suite un contrat jamais texte du navire ne fit tant d'effet
00:53:57joyce saw himself as the only one he wanted to be the shakespeare of the 20th century
00:54:04had enormous ambition and he gathered people around him who supported that ambition including
00:54:10and most key to his work sylvia beach she was more involved at that time with joyce than she
00:54:17was with gertrude i think perhaps that that may have affected the relationship between gertrude and
00:54:25sylvia beach because uh gertrude might have felt a little frozen out shall we say or at least a
00:54:36little wounded by the fact that sylvia beach had paid so much attention to the publication of joyce's
00:54:43ulysses and also to his work in progress and had not really done much about gertrude's writing
00:54:53stein's work was largely unpublished for most of her life her manuscripts were often ridiculed by
00:55:00publishers still she persevered daily with her literary experiments refusing to conform to
00:55:06convention so it is no surprise that her friendship with sylvia beach became strained
00:55:11when sylvia began to champion joyce's work rather than hers i met him at the house of a poet andre
00:55:17gides andre speer i mean and i went to this party and was not invited but i was taken by adrian
00:55:24monnier and he was not invited either but he went he was taken by israel pound he and his wife nora and
00:55:31i met them there and i met joyce for the first time there and i thought him a fascinating man i mean she
00:55:37must have been absolutely enchanted about him because she met him during a cocktail party in the house of
00:55:45mr speer was also writer and there she met the great james choice when i told him about my bookshop
00:55:54it seemed to amuse him very much the address he took down in his notebook and i noticed that he had to
00:56:01peer at it very closely and the desires seemed very weak and joyce came to see me the next day he walked
00:56:08into the shop he was dressed in a dark suit and a felt hat dark felt hat and was rather shabby and his
00:56:17white tennis shoes also not very white and soon we began to talk about ulysses so that was uppermost
00:56:24in my mind it was appearing in the little review edited by margaret anderson and jane heap and had
00:56:31been suppressed already about four times and finally one day he said the review had been completely
00:56:37suppressed and that the editresses had been dragged off to court and their thumbprints had been taken
00:56:43and they had been fined a hundred dollars nobody wanted to take this book because it was on the list
00:56:52not allowed to be published in america and neither in england because obscenity today it's just laugh
00:56:59from the point of view of a clergyman's daughter there was a lot in that book which might have
00:57:06seemed a little shocking did it shock you i was never shocked at all i don't think any i don't
00:57:11can't remember the time when anything shocked me but my family was rather puritan of course
00:57:19was he a difficult author i mean yes because things had to be exactly the way he wanted them
00:57:24you see you have ten percent right to perform if you get the first prince you see but he was ninety
00:57:31percent he wrote he wrote the book this cost a fortune a fortune but she never said a word and thanks to
00:57:40this elysses has become what it is
00:58:03what a joyster like his book he'd had such persecution and had felt it very deeply the
00:58:09suppressions he was very proud and i think that he was humiliated by these suppressions
00:58:18at great personal expense adrian monnier published the french edition of ulysses
00:58:23to celebrate the book's publication adrian hosted a literary lunch in joyce's honor
00:58:32adrian monnier always wanted to write it couldn't have nothing money to see
00:58:36she wanted to write oh yes and she has written very good books under another name
00:58:41they came out a book with the name of soldier everybody found it was marvelous book
00:58:48soldier was the name of her grandfather so she used this name but the only writer who knew
00:58:54about was leon paul farg the poet when he told the other sisters adrian monnier all those
00:59:01had found it was wonderful became quiet because she was very useful to the writers for them to help
00:59:07them to publish them to sell their books but as a writer also this was the contrary
00:59:14then she published yes yes i have her own magazine she kept only for one year because she had to pay for
00:59:29it and had the money and had to sell her her own beautiful library all dedicated books first edition
00:59:35and so weiter she had to sell this in order to pay the printer because another great figure in your
00:59:41circle was hemingway wasn't it yes i knew hemingway very well indeed how did you first meet him
00:59:47he just rambled into the shop one day and he showed me his scars right there in my bookshop before
00:59:54everybody and took off his shoe and his sock and showed his scars and he was very attractive very
01:00:01appealing indeed and he hadn't started writing at all as far as i know and then he became the
01:00:08the correspondent of the toronto star and then he was a sport correspondent of that and he went in
01:00:15entirely for sports and he used to take my friend adrian one year and i he thought we had too much to
01:00:22do with books and not enough to do with sports it's extraordinary that from the writings of miss stye not from
01:00:34her the singular precision and coherence of a conversation emerged the style of ernest hemingway
01:00:44no two people could have been more different than they both in what they had to say about life and the
01:00:48way they wrote it he and sherwood anderson were the two people who were most affected most influenced
01:00:55by the quietude of her speech and felt it in the rhythm of her repetitions in her writing they also
01:01:06arrived at their own style you may recall that how ernest will repeat a small phrase it was a nice day
01:01:14it was a very nice day it was a nice day for fishing well i suppose that's as close to
01:01:19carrying on uh miss stein's style she never finished except at the table of course juni barnes admired james
01:01:28choice very much she talked to joyce about his work on ulysses he encouraged her in her own writing
01:01:35and it was one a beautiful moment in which a young woman writer meets the man then considered to be the
01:01:44greatest writer in the english language and because she has enough of her own self-presence and assuredness
01:01:50about her own writing she feels that she can come forward to him and talk about writing where she
01:01:55brought herself to him as someone who was his equal nightwood has historically been considered a cult novel
01:02:02about the relationship of juni barnes and her lover thalma wood and the disintegration of that
01:02:09relationship due to thalma's alcoholism and her inability to remain sexually faithful to juni barnes
01:02:17c'était ça commençait avec la rupture d'elles deux et à cette époque-là quand thalma est partie la
01:02:25première alors juna elle était habité l'hôtel d'encleterre de jacob et c'est là qu'elle s'est mis à
01:02:33boire à boire à boire à boire à boire et on m'a téléphoné de la de l'hôtel d'encleterre d'aller la chercher
01:02:40je l'ai ramené de jacob pendant encore un mois je l'ai soigné
01:02:46suffering is the decay of the heart in the beginning after robin went away to america
01:02:53i searched for her in the ports i sought robin in marseille in tangier in naples
01:03:03to understand her to do away with my terror
01:03:06i said to myself i will do what she has done i will love what she has loved then i will find her again
01:03:24at first it seemed that all i should have to do would be to become debauched to find the girls that
01:03:36she had loved but i found that they were only girls that she had forgotten i haunted the cafés where
01:03:45robin had lived her nightlife i drank with the men i danced with the women but all i knew was that
01:03:53others had slept with my lover juna barnes nightwood it took eight years for juna barnes to develop
01:04:10nightwood beyond its tortured autobiographical origins published in 1936 it can be read as a
01:04:17visionary allegorical tale of the rising tide of fascism across europe in which jews homosexuals
01:04:23and other marginalized outsiders constitute hitler's degenerate untermenschen
01:04:39as it became clear that war would eventually come and the tension between communism and fascist
01:04:48totalitarianism was rising during the 1930s janet flanner became a political spokesperson who explained
01:04:55to the american public what it was that was happening in europe and as you track her articles week by week
01:05:02and month by month you can see her voice becoming stronger and she becoming more outspoken
01:05:07in the kinds of things that she was writing about
01:05:16on that one night every class in france turned out to protest from men in republican derby hats down to
01:05:23chaps in communist caps from middle-aged meddled war veterans down to royalist adolescents who never
01:05:30battled for anything except in dreams for an exiled king janet letter from paris
01:05:46as the worldwide economic depression reached france in the early thirties american tourists
01:05:52packed up and went home as quickly as their dollars fell against the frank
01:05:56the women of the left bank however remained in france none had any desire to leave nor any place other
01:06:03than paris that they could call home asked why she continued to live among the french gertrude stein
01:06:10answered well the reason is very simple their life belongs to them so your life can belong to you
01:06:17her great success in terms of publications came in 1933 with the autobiography of alice b toklis
01:06:30which was a bestseller and significantly gertrude stein had her first and only writer's block
01:06:39the show of the autobiography of alice b toklis is not peculiar at all the only peculiar thing is that i
01:06:45wrote it myself i suggested to my secretary alice b toklis that she write her life story and she kept
01:06:51putting it off and finally to encourage her one day i sat down in the garden wrote a chat to her
01:06:56then it cheesed me so i kept on writing and writing sitting in the garden writing i wrote the whole
01:07:01autobiography in six sheets and now further about yourself this time your life has been amazingly full
01:07:06of interest judging from the autobiography of alice b toklis yes my life has been and is full of interest
01:07:12because i like it all it is all wonderful why did she have a writer's block because she asked herself
01:07:18the most fundamental of questions for a creative artist have i in this bestseller set up a false
01:07:26identity and am i being read for the false identity or am i being read for my real identity
01:07:35james joyce's breakthrough into mainstream recognition coincided with gertrude stein's
01:07:40he thanked sylvia beach for all her work on his behalf by breaking his contract with her and
01:07:45selling ulysses to random house for 45 000 dollars although sylvia had gone bankrupt publishing ulysses
01:07:54he never offered her a penny and then adrian came and said now you have been ruined by mr joyce
01:08:02adrian wrote a letter to joyce and said please don't come back
01:08:09the financial cost of james joyce's betrayal was further compounded by the world economic crisis
01:08:15by the late 30s shakespeare and company was in dire financial straits
01:08:20the most influential writers in france petitioned the french government to subsidize the shop
01:08:25but the government was facing its own economic crisis
01:08:31sylvia's friends such as ts elliott and paul valery held benefit readings to help keep the shop open
01:08:36as poets novelists publishers booksellers journalists and salon hostesses they invented
01:08:49and sustained one of the richest literary communities in history janet flanner was one of the last to leave
01:08:55and when she fled paris on the afternoon of october 4th 1939 she ran from encroaching darkness augured by
01:09:03the sounds of military aircraft and marching armies the door of the culture she helped to create on the
01:09:09the paris left bank closed behind her
01:09:22the paris left bank closed behind her at the conference call to settle down through the
Comments