She Who Held the Camera
The images in Polaroids represent a variety of famous names, some immediately recognizable, such as Patti Smith, a beautifully bejeweled Paloma Picasso, and Diana Vreeland.
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A Philosopher’s Double Life
Many of his contemporaries have remarked upon Foucault’s “double life,” and it is this sense of inherent contradiction that forms the theme of François Caillat’s Foucault Against Himself, a collection of interviews with four people who knew and worked with Foucault …
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The James Sister
Judith Hooper’s Alice in Bed is a fictionalized account of Alice James’ life, and much of the focus is her relationship with William and Henry James, as well as the brothers’ attitudes toward each other.
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What Is ‘Compersion’?
Love’s Refraction: Jealousy and Compersion in Queer Women’s Polyamorous Relationships by Jillian Deri University of Toronto Press. 168 pages, $21.95 JILLIAN DERI introduces this book by explaining that “for…More
The Radicalization of Langston Hughes
Selected Letters has assembled a finely textured account of this beloved, productive writer who stayed connected with everyone but kept his own counsel and, in the face of daunting obstacles, endured.
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A Pioneer’s Other Discoveries
The Obelisk and the Englishman: The Pioneering Discoveries of Egyptologist William Bankes by Dorothy U. Seyler Prometheus Books. 304 pages, $26. BY THE TIME I finished this book I…More
The Woman Who Was ‘Orlando’
As with most larger-than-life personalities, Vita lived her life to suit herself and, in the bargain, became something of a lesbian icon. Her affair with Violet Keppel, which is described by her son, Nigel Nicolson, in Portrait of a Marriage (1973), had a significant impact on her life. Violet too was larger than life—witty, flirtatious, fun-loving—a woman who entertained luxuriously and knew all of high society.
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Oliver Sacks’ Swan-Song Revelation
The most startling revelation in On the Moveis that Oliver Sacks was gay. … Nothing about this burly, bearded man, who appeared shy and reserved, hinted at his sexuality.
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How ‘Sex’ Undid John Money
John Money (1921-2006) is the subject of the two books under review here: Terry Goldie’s The Man Who Invented Gender: Engaging the Ideas of John Money and Fuckology: Critical Essays on John Money’s Diagnostic Concepts.
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A Portrait in Melancholy
Cassandra Langer’s biography of Romaine Brooks ultimately builds on, rather than displaces, the 1974 biography of Brooks by Meryle Secrest, Between Me and Life, to which it rather frequently makes reference.
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