New Exhibition: Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting

 

Frida Kahlo, Mexican, 1907-1954, Self-Portrait with Monkeys, 1943
Oil on canvas, 81.5 X 63 cm, Gelman Collection. Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D. F. /

 

While planning a future trip to Washington, DC, I stumbled upon an ad promoting this new exhibition at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA.  Entitled "Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting" the exhibition will feature some of the best examples of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera's work, approximately 140 paintings mainly from collections in Mexico. According to the press release, the paintings will be exhibited chronologically and according to themes including: maternity, Mexcian identity, and portraiture.  The High Museum of Art will be the only U.S. venue for this exhibition, so if you want to see it, you'll have to book a plane to Atlanta.

I wrote about Frida Kahlo in Scandalous Women and I'm not afraid to admit that I became a little obssessed by her and her stormy relationship with her husband Diego Rivera.  Any time that you put two passionate people together, particularly if they are artists and sparks are bound to fly! "Frida & Diego" is particuarly significant because it marks the first time that important works by these two artists will be shown in the Southeast.  I was lucky enough to see an exhibition of Frida's works at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and well as an exhibit of Diego's work at LACMA in Los Angeles, but just the idea of seeing their work together is truly exciting.  If I can afford it, I may have to take a short jaunt to Atlanta!

The museum plans to position their work in the political and artistic contexts of their time.  Few contemporary artists have captured the imagination with the force of Frida Kahlo and her husband.  The exhibition promises to focus on their shared ideals and ideas instead of their often tumultuous relationship but that's particularly hard to do, particularly since many of Frida's paintings were autobiographical.

The exhibition kicks off with the special opening event “Party with Passion!” on Valentine’s Day and remains on view until May 12.  Of course there will be a full color catalogue which may have to suffice for those of us who can't haul our butts down to Georgia. “Frida & Diego” is also the first completely bilingual exhibition to be presented by the High, with Spanish and English versions of wall labels and audio tours, as well as bilingual tour guides on Sundays throughout the show.

The Power of a Kiss: Pericles and Aspasia

Scandalous Women is pleased to welcome author Vicki Leon to the blog with a fascinating guest post about Pericles and Aspasia.


You wouldn’t think that enthusiastic kissing would set off such a scandal. But even during the glory days of ancient Athens, it did. The couple caught in the act were celebrities around town; Pericles, the most brilliant political and military leader of his time; and Aspasia, the witty, well-spoken foreigner from the Greek city of Miletus.

Such public displays of affection were taboo in that era. And independent, eloquent women, even more so. Well-bred matrons shunned the public eye. Sneered at Aspasia, called her harlot and worse. Some secretly envied her, and the steadfast affection their leader had for her. Each morning, with the neighbors as witness, Pericles soundly kissed his love; and each evening, when he returned, he embraced her again before their jealous eyes. I’m willing to bet they had the most loving, full-bodied relationship of any couple we know from ancient times. Without being wed, either.

She was a many-faceted woman, Aspasia; deeply curious about life, a seeker of philosophical knowledge, she befriended Socrates and other men of note. Naturally this racy behavior made more trouble for her. Like her earlier Milesian countrywoman, the much-wed courtesan Thargelia, she weathered spiteful attacks from playwrights and politicians; shrugged them off.

Things grew worse as Athens got embroiled in conflict. First with the islanders of Samos, where Aspasia was accused of using womanly wiles to persuade Pericles to wage war against them. In 431 B.C., a war with Sparta erupted, turning the political climate even nastier.

Seeing her as a high-visibility scapegoat, opponents threw a charge of impiety (a vague but serious accusation) against Aspasia, which could have brought the death penalty. As a non-Athenian, she couldn’t even testify in her own defense. Pericles stepped up, making a tearful, impassioned plea about her innocence. Case dismissed!

More joy, mixed with tribulations, awaited. When her sweetheart was nearly 50, the two had a son together. Pericles longed to wed Aspasia; in a cruel irony, he’d passed legislation earlier that prohibited him from marrying a non-Athenian! Eventually, after some serious groveling, Pericles persuaded his fellow Athenians to amend the law so at least his son with Aspasia could become a citizen.

This devoted couple, gifted with such intelligence and spirit and bravery of love, had just two more years together before the Great Plague hit, tearing Pericles from her arms.

Little reliable testimony remains to tell us Aspasia’s story, and almost nothing from her point of view; but we can still hope for future finds. And relish the tatters we know of, the bold kisses we know they shared, defying the world around them. 

 

*******************

Author and historical detective Vicki Leon has spent 40 years, joyously researching her passions, from unsung female achievers to the ancient world. Leon also aspires to be uppity but feels that her impertinence still needs work. (www.vickileon.com)

Book of the Month: The Joy of Sexus

Title:   The Joy of Sexus - Lust, Love and Longing in the Ancient World

Author:  Vicki Leon

Publisher:  Walker and Company

Pub Date:    January 29, 2013

Pages:        302

How Acquired:  Through publisher

What it's About: 

In her previous books, Vicki León put readers in the sandals of now obsolete laborers, ranging from funeral clowns to armpit pluckers, and untangled the twisted threads of superstition and science in antiquity. Now, in this book of astonishing true tales of love and sex in long-ago Greece, Rome, and other cultures around the Mediterranean, she opens the doors to shadowy rooms and parts the curtains of decorum.

León goes far beyond what we think we know about sex in ancient times, taking readers on a randy tour of aphrodisiacs and anti-aphrodisiacs, contraception, nymphomania, bisexuality, cross-dressing, and gender-bending. She explains citizens' fear of hermaphrodites, investigates the stinging price paid for adultery despite the ease of divorce, introduces readers to a surprising array of saucy pornographers, and even describes the eco-friendly dildos used by libidinous ancients. Love also gets its due, with true tales of the lifelong bonds between military men, history's first cougar and her devoted relationship with Julius Caesar, and the deification of lovers.

Show more

Show less

What others are saying:  

"A snappy ride into the stunning, sometimes barbaric, and alwauys entertaining sexuality of the ancient world...This is a fun, enlightening trip into the ancient world not covered in high school textbooks."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Enjoyable, edifying, and humorous."--Kirkus Reviews

Meet the Author:

Vicki Leon calls the central coast of California home but returns often to her Mediterranean sources. Having honed her research skills by unearthing nine hundred achievers for her Uppity Women series of books, she's delved deeply into the ancient world with Working IX to V, How to Mellify a Corpse, and, of course, The Joy of Sexus.

Should you buy it?  I must confess that I have had this book for 2 weeks now and I just dived into it last night and I'm glad I did.  This book will tell you everything that you wanted to know about sex and sexuality in the Ancient World.  Stuff that we all wanted to know but were afraid to ask or just didn't know where to look.  Readers will learn the answer to questions like 'Did anyone call themselves bisexual or transgendered?' 'And what about romantic love, did that exist in the ancient world?' Vicki Leon's latest book THE JOY OF SEXUS uncovers the astonishing true tales of passion and wide-open sexuality in teh Greek, Roman, and other long-ago cultures.  In 89 no-holds-barred essays or short chapters, Leon takes the reader on a randy tour of aphrodisiacs, buttocks worship, cross-dressing, and a Christian martyr named Perpetua (Seriously, someone needs to write a historical or historical romance where the heroine is named Perpetua stat!).

Here are just a few of the topics covered in the book:

• The first pornographers, and the first sexual manual
• The  gay-friendly military of the Greek city-states
• The surprising sex life of Socrates
• History's first cougar and her relationship with Julius Caesar!

As I mentioned, I just started reading the book, but already I've found quite a few Scandalous Women in its pages, that I'm now dying to write about! 

Review: Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker

Title:  Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker 
Author:  Jennifer Chiaverini 
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Publication date: 1/15/2013 
Pages: 352 
How Acquired:  Through Net Galley

Overview:  New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini illuminates the extraordinary friendship between Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley, a former slave who won her freedom by the skill of her needle, and the friendship of the First Lady by her devotion. In Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, novelist Jennifer Chiaverini presents a stunning account of the friendship that blossomed between Mary Todd Lincoln and her seamstress, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Keckley, a former slave who gained her professional reputation in Washington, D.C. by outfitting the city’s elite. Keckley made history by sewing for First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln within the White House, a trusted witness to many private moments between the President and his wife, two of the most compelling figures in American history. In this impeccably researched, engrossing novel, Chiaverini brings history to life in rich, moving style.

My thoughts:  I was very excited to read this novel when I first heard about it, it seemed especially fortuitous since Gloria Reuben plays Elizabeth in the new film Lincoln.  I have written about Elizabeth Keckley and her friendship with Mary Todd Lincoln before, and I was interested to read a fictional interpretation of Elizabeth’s life.  The book opens up right before the start of the Civil War.  Elizabeth Keckley is a modiste who spent years working to buy her and her son’s freedom.  Now established in Washington City (present day Washington, D.C.), she has made a name for herself as a dressmaker for both Northerners and Southerners alike, one of her best patrons is Varina Davis, the wife of Senator Jefferson Davis (soon to be the President and First Lady of the Confederacy).  When Lincoln is elected, another patron arranges for Elizabeth to meet the new First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln.  To be chosen as the modiste for the new First Lady would be the ultimate coup for any dressmaker, white or black.  Elizabeth is chosen and is soon privy to the innermost workings of the Lincoln White House. We see through Elizabeth’s eyes Mrs. Lincoln’s reckless spending and mood swings, President Lincoln’s death, and his widow’s subsequent penury.

There were many things that I liked about this novel. Jennifer Chiaverini’s characterization of the relationship between Mary Todd and Elizabeth is nuanced, revealing a friendship that is at times uneven and fraught with class and racial distinctions, but also warm and protective (on Elizabeth's part).  In a very poignant moment, Mrs. Lincoln calls Elizabeth her best friend. In Chiaverini’s hands, Mary is not quite the Satanic Majesty that she is called by one of the staff, but a woman who if not bi-polar clearly has emotional issues.  Unhappy at being shut out of the President’s political life and having her view dismissed, Mary seeks happiness through endless shopping.  While reading the novel, I was reminded of the scurrilous gossip aimed at Marie Antoinette and how she sublimated her unhappiness through partying and shopping.  Mary becomes dependent on Elizabeth whose own kindness eventually becomes a straightjacket in a way.  Elizabeth becomes more than just a modiste to Mary; she also arranges her hair, helps her dress, cares for her children at times and becomes her confidante. 

The book is not without its problems; at times the book gets bogged down through too much telling and not enough showing. There are endless pages devoted to telling what is going on with the war, which would be interesting if this were a history book instead of a novel.  The book comes alive when the war hits home for the characters, Robert Todd Lincoln wanting to enlist, Elizabeth’s friends fleeing from the disaster that was the first battle of Bull Run.  Instead of giving us vibrant scenes of Elizabeth’s trip with Mary Todd Lincoln to New York and Boston during the war, where she attempts to raise money for the Contraband Relief Association, we are told about it.   Another wasted opportunity occurs later in the novel when Elizabeth meets the abolitionist Frederick Douglass for the first time.  Again we are kept at a distance from the action, instead of plunged right into it.  Elizabeth is also curiously passive at that times but again she is stuck between a rock and a hard place.  As the reader, I wanted Elizabeth to stand up for herself more, to not let Mrs. Lincoln take advantage of her friendship the way that she does, but I had to remember that this was a different time and Elizabeth also owed Mrs. Lincoln a great deal as well. Her business as a modiste takes off because she worked for the First Lady.  

Once Mrs. Lincoln is widowed, the book really moves along as Elizabeth is given the task of helping the former First Lady sell her clothes and jewels to raise money, and then decides to write her memoirs.  At this point, we get to know a little bit more about Elizabeth and less about Mary.  Chiaverini also does a wonderful job at detailing the hardships that Elizabeth must go through during her stay in New York, having to move to a room in the attic of a hotel because they wouldn’t let her have a regular room, being forced to eat in the servants’ hall. It’s these little details of what life was like for a colored woman in post-Civil War America that really make the book come alive.  Although I found the portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln balanced and compelling, my real interest was in Elizabeth, her thoughts and feelings about the war, and her position in society.   One of the best sections of the novel occurs when Elizabeth goes to visit the family that once owned her.  In the end, that old adage, no good deed goes unpunished comes into play.  Elizabeth’s good intentions come to bite her in the butt.  Mrs. Lincoln cuts off her friendship once Elizabeth’s memoir is published, and the public chastises her for her revelations.  In the end, it is brought home to Elizabeth that no matter how far she has come; there will always be those who look down on her because of her color and want to put her in her place.

Despite my problems with the novel, I was intrigued enough that I’m looking forward to reading Chiaverini’s next novel about the Civil War spy Elizabeth van Lew.

My verdict:  Compelling account of the friendship between Elizabeth Keckley and Mrs. Lincoln.  Well worth reading for a glimpse into the inner workings of the White House during the Civil War.

Code Name Madeline: The life of Noor Inayat Khan



Every now and again while doing research for Scandalous Women I come across a story that is truly inspiring. I’ve wanted to write the story of Noor Inayat Khan for some time but work and other fascinating women have come along and Noor has been put on the back burner. Khan’s story is truly inspirational.  She was a wartime British secret agent who was the first female radio operator sent into Nazi-occupied France by the Special Operations Executive (SOE).  Unfortunately, she was arrested and eventually executed by the Gestapo.

Noor un-Nisa Inayat Khan was born on New Year's Day 1914 in Moscow. She was the first child of Hazrat Inayat Khan and his American wife, Ora Ray Baker (Ameena Begum). She was of royal descent from Tipu Sultan, the last Muslim ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. He refused to submit to British rule and was killed in battle in 1799. Khan's father was a musician and the founder of the Sufi Order of the West and a teacher of Universal Sufism. He moved his family first to London just before the outbreak of World War I and then to Paris in 1920, where Khan was educated and learnt fluent French. As a child, Noor was considered sensitive, dreamy and shy but in 1927, her father died suddenly.  At the age of 13, Noor became the head of the household, taking care of her younger siblings, her mother too stricken with grief to cope. After studying psychology at the Sorbonne and harp and piano at the Paris Conservatory under Nadia Boulanger, Noor turned to writing as a profession. She wrote stories for Radio Paris and Le Figaro and published a collection called Twenty Jataka Tales, adapted from ancient Buddhist stories for children, which appeared in 1939. She had plans to create an illustrated children’s newspaper called Bel Age but the war turned her life upside down.

When war broke out in 1939, Noor fled the country just before the fall of France escaping by boat to England with her mother and sister. Noor had been raised by her Sufi father to be tolerant of other religions and as a pacifist but she was outraged by the depredations of the Nazis. "I wish some Indians would win high military distinction in this war. If one or two could do something in the Allied service which was very brave and which everybody admired it would help to make a bridge between the English people and the Indians.” She felt called to take part in the work of liberating Europe, but was dismayed by the paradox of killing to prevent violence.

 In England, she joined the WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force) as a wireless operator and soon caught the attention of the Special Operations Executive. SOE's French Section was in dire need of new wireless operators.  Finding people with the combination of fluent French and technical skills was rare. Their job was one of the most vulnerable an agent could take on: using radio direction-finding equipment the Gestapo could quickly pinpoint their location, and many were captured within just a few weeks of arriving in France. There was also the constant threat of being betrayed by a Nazi sympathizer or collaborator for money. Despite her own pacifist leanings, Noor was anxious to do something more for the war effort. She wrote back later the same day to accept.

But there were some who were unsure about her suitability (one SOE training report described her as ‘not over-burdened with brains’ and ‘unsuited to work in her field.’) She failed her fake Gestapo interrogation and there were worries that she wouldn’t be able to withstand the real thing. Despite these misgivings, in June 1943 she was flown to France to become the radio operator for the 'Prosper' resistance network in Paris, with the codename 'Madeleine'. Soon after she arrived in Paris, many members of the network were arrested. The Gestapo soon had all the names and addresses of current French Resistance members who were then rounded up and arrested. The SOE planned to get Noor out of France but she chose to remain, at least until they could someone to replace her. She spent the summer moving from place to place, trying to send messages back to London while avoiding capture. Between July and October, Noor sent and received messages that helped 30 Allied airmen escape, arranged for 4 agents to obtain false identity papers, and helped obtain weapons and money for members of the Resistance.

By the fall of 1943, Noor was the last radio operator active in France. The Gestapo, who had her description and knew her code name, made massive efforts to find her and sever the last link between the resistance and London but for months Noor eluded them. They failed to find her because Noor was extremely fast and she had a sixth sense about whom she could trust and who she could not.

 

But in October of 1943, Noor's luck finally ran out. She was betrayed by a Frenchwoman for 100,000 francs and arrested by the Gestapo. Noor fought like her captors like a tigress.  Unfortunately she had kept copies of all her secret signals and the Germans were able to use her radio to trick London into sending new agents - straight into the hands of the waiting Gestapo. Khan escaped from prison twice, once by climbing out the window but was recaptured each time a few hours later. In November 1943, she was sent to Pforzheim prison in Germany where she was kept in chains and in solitary confinement. Noor soon proved those who had doubted she had the strength to withstand torture and interrogation wrong. Despite repeated torture, starvation, beatings and humiliation for nearly a year, Noor refused to reveal any information.  She meditated and thought of her father to help keep her spirits up. Her courage and strength led her captors to brand her "highly dangerous.” After refusing to sign a paper stating that she would stop trying to escape, Noor and three other female SOE agents were transferred to Dachau where on 13 September 1944 they were shot and their bodies consigned to the crematorium. Her last word uttered as the German firing squad raised their weapons was a simple “Liberté.” Days later, Dachau was in the hands of the Allied forces, too late to save Noor and the others.

For her courage, Noor Khan was posthumously awarded the George Cross in 1949, one of only three women to be given the award for bravery. The citation read:  ‘She refused to abandon what had become the principal and most dangerous post in France, although both given the opportunity to return to England, because she did not wish to leave her French comrades without communications.’ In France she was honoured with the Croix de Guerre, where she is still revered today as “Madeleine of the Resistance.”

On November 7, 2012, The Princess Royal unveiled a sculpture of Noor, in London's Gordon Square Gardens, near the house where she lived and from where she left on her last mission. The statue, which commemorates Britain’s only female Muslim war heroine, is the first stand-alone memorial to an Asian woman in the UK. Campaigners spent years raising £60,000 for the statue from public donations. Princess Anne stated that she hoped the statue will ‘remind people to ask: Who was she? Why is she here? And what can we achieve in her memory.’ Noor deeply affected the hearts of all those she encountered, from her childhood meeting with her father's disciples, to the Nazi interrogators who destroyed her body, but could not break her spirit

 Recently, producers Zafar Hai and Tabrez Noorani obtained the film rights to Shrabani Basi’s biography Spy Princess, which they hope to premiere next year in time for Noor’s centenary introducing Noor’s story to an international audience.

Further reading:

Kathryn J. Atwood – Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue, Chicago Review Press, 2011
Shrabani Basi – Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan, Sutton Publishing, 2006

Marcus Binney – The Women Who Lived for Danger: The Women Agents of SOE in the Second World War, Coronet Books, 2003

Rita Kramer – Flames in the Field: The Story of Four SOE Agents in Occupied France, Michael Joseph, 1995

One Lovely Blog Award

This honor comes with certain requirements.  (Just imagine that there is a picture there. For some reason Blogger won't let me post the lovely badge)

1. Thank the person who nominated you. (Many thanks, Margaret!)

2. Add the ‘One Lovely Blog Award’ image to your post.

3. Share seven things about you.

4. Pass the award on to seven nominees.

5. Include this set of rules.

6. Inform your nominees* by posting a comment on their blogs.

Seven Things About Me

1. My first appearance on stage came very early in my life...while in nursery school. I think I played a gypsy.

2. My first kiss was in the first grade given to me by my boyfriend.  What can I say, I was very precocious.

3. I can tie a cherry stem into a knot with my tongue.

4. I love to eat sushi.  If I could afford it, I would eat sushi every single day, especially spicy tuna rolls.

5.  When I was 16, I lived with a family in Redbridge, Ilford, Essex for a month which makes me an Essex Girl by osmosis.  Since then I’ve been to traveled to the UK at least 20 times.

6. I’ve read almost every single Agatha Christie novel.

7.  I share a birthday with Marie Antoinette as well as William Howard Taft.

In choosing my nominees, I'm highlighting writers, readers, travelers, cat and bunny lovers. Drumroll....

Seven Nominees

1. Melanie at Madame Guillotine

2. Daphne at Tazanites's Castle

3. Evangeline at Edwardian Promenade

4. Hope Tarr
5. Leanna Renee Hieber
6. Eliza at History Undressed
7. Delilah Marvelle at A little Bit of Muslin

Scandalous Review: Georgette Heyer

Title:  Georgette Heyer

Author:  Jennifer Kloester

Publisher: Sourcebooks, Incorporated

 

Publication date: 1/1/2013

 

Pages: 464

How acquired:  Through Net Galley

What it's about:

 

Georgette Heyer remains an enduring international bestseller, read and loved by generations of readers and extolled by bestselling authors. Despite her enormous popularity she never gave an interview or appeared in public.

Jennifer Kloester, Heyer's official biographer, spent ten years researching Georgette Heyer, during which time she had unlimited access to Heyer's notebooks, private papers and family records. Engaging and authoritative, this comprehensive, official biography offers new insights into the life and writing of a remarkable and ferociously private woman.

My thoughts: Happy New Year everyone! During the holidays, I settled down to read Jennifer Kloester's new biography of author Georgette Heyer (1902-1974).  I've been reading romances since I was knee high to a grasshopper but I've only read a few Georgette Heyer novels.  I confess that most of my early reading was spicier historical and contemporary romances.  Oh I knew who Georgette Heyer was, most of the Regency authors and readers over the years have waxed rhapsodical over her novels. I'm surprised that I never picked up a Heyer novel until I was an adult given my complete adoration of Anya Seton and Jean Plaidy/Victoria Holt/Philippa Carr.  Perhaps I thought they were too stuffy or I just wasn't as interested in the Regency period as I became later on.

So when the opportunity arose to read Kloester's new biography, I jumped at the chance. It's interesting how some biographies just grab you and some don't.  I had this problem with the last biography  I read, The Horror of Love which I reviewed before the holidays. However, I didn't have that problem with Kloester's biography.  Perhaps because I knew so little about the author that everything was completely knew to me.  Heyer was born during the Edwardian era and died during the early 70's.  Her upbringing was of  that of a typical middle class girl of the time, educated largely at home until her teens.  Heyer as a child was apparently incredibly shy but she was also a born storyteller, keeping her younger brothers amused with the tales that she wove for their enjoyment.

Her father, George, initially worked for King's College but eventually moved into fundraising as well as working for a bank in Paris, where the family lived for several months just before the dawn of World War I.  Her life was comfortable, the Heyer family lived in Wimbledon for most of Georgette's life.  Although Georgette was incredibly intelligent, there was no talk of her going on to University.  Instead at the age of 17, she wrote her first novel The Black Moth, which was published when she was 19 (the book is still in print).  By the time she died, Heyer had written 55 books, not just historical romances but also detective thrillers and short stories.  She married young, at the age of 23 to Ronald Rougier, a mining engineer who later retrained to be a barrister.

Kloester's biography is a fascinating glimpse into the life of a writer.  Georgette was the main breadwinner in the house for a number of years until her husband became a barrister.  Kloester details how Georgette tried to balance her public life as the author and her private life where she insisted on being referred as Mrs. Rougier, and deferred to her husband.  Georgette and her husband had a remarkably modern marriage by our standards.  They were good friends as well as husband and wife, Ronald was her beta reader for her novels, helped her out with her detective thrillers in terms of how the murder was committed. He was her biggest cheerleader.  However her success did take a toll on family life.  Her son Richard, an only child, grew up lonely since he was mainy around adults and her family life often took a backseat to her writing.

Writers will no doubt emphathize with Heyer's frustrations with her publisher and her agent. Heyer frequently complained that her books weren't being promoted enough and she was frustrated at the lack of interest from film producers.  Heyer seems to have been one of those rare authors whose books went straight to print without the dreaded revision letters from her editor.  Apparently her publisher just took it for granted that what she wrote was awesome and sent the book to print without even reading it despite her begging. She also had the same frustrations with her copyeditor that I'm sure most writers will recognize. Like a lot of creative people, Heyer was terrible with money, but her husband wasn't much better.  She tended to rely on her accountant to work things out with the Inland Revenue and we all know how well that turns out.  At one point, Heyer seemed to have been supporting an entire village, not just her husband and son, but also her two brothers (her father died when she was in her early 20's, leaving Heyer to support not only her mother but her two teenage brothers), and assorted relatives.

Kloester has a great deal of sympathy for Heyer and tends to gloss over the more negative aspects of Heyer's character, her snobbery and racism. I wish that Kloester had given a bit more insight into the novels, perhaps more description of the plots and how Heyer researched her books. Although Kloester had access to Heyer's private papers, in the end, the reader knows as much about Heyer as they do about Jane Austen.  In the end, I'm not sure that I would have wanted to know Heyer personally but I admired her work ethic and tenacity.  How many authors today have written 55 best selling books that are still in print (before the advent of being able to e-pub their backlist)?

Verdict:  A well-written look at one of the 20th century's most beloved authors.