All-Night Party The Women of Bohemian Greenwich Village and Harlem, 1913-1930

by Barnet, Andrea

• ISBN13: 9781565123816
• ISBN10: 1565123816
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-01-03
• Publisher: Algonquin Books

Summary

They were smart. Sassy. Daring. Exotic. Eclectic. Sexy. And influential. One could call them the first divas--and they ran absolutely wild. They were poets, actresses, singers, artists, journalists, publishers, baronesses, and benefactresses. They were thinkers and they were drinkers. They eschewed the social conventions expected of them--to be wives and mothers--and decided to live on their own terms. In the process, they became the voices of a new, fierce feminine spirit. There's Mina Loy, a modernist poet and much-photographed beauty who traveled in pivotal international art circles; blues divas Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters; Edna St. Vincent Millay, the lyric poet who, with her earthy charm and passion, embodied the '20s ideal of sexual daring; the avant-garde publishers Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap; and the wealthy hostesses of the salons, A'Lelia Walker and Mabel Dodge. Among the supporting cast are Emma Goldman, Isadora Duncan, Ma Rainey, Margaret Sanger, and Gertrude Stein. Andrea Barnet's fascinating accounts of the emotional and artistic lives of these women--together with rare black-and-white photographs, taken by photographers such as Berenice Abbott and Man Ray--capture the women in all their glory. This is a history of the early feminists who didn't set out to be feminists, a celebration of the rebellious women who paved the way for future generations.

Author Biography

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, and educated at the University of Pennsylvania and at Harvard, Andrea Barnet has been a regular reviewer for the New York Times Book Review since 1985. Her articles on art and culture have appeared in Smithsonian Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, Mirabella, and Working Mother. She lives in New York City and is married to the painter Kit White. They have one daughter

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Cast of Characters	xv
Introduction: Wild In Pursuit	1	(14)
A Modern Self-Experiment	15	(44)
Mina Loy
Life for Art's Sake	59	(30)
Margaret Anderson
Jane Heap
Imprisoned in the Personal	89	(46)
Edna St. Vincent Millay
The Hostesses and Their Salons	135	(26)
Entertaining Bohemia
`Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do!	161	(32)
Bessie Smith
Am I Blue?	193	(28)
Ethel Waters
Epilogue: The End of the Party	221	(6)
Notes	227	(20)
Bibliography	247	(4)
Illustration Credits	251	(4)
Index	255