Paris Journal 1944-1965. 2 vols.
The Dedication copy
Flanner, Janet (Genêt). Paris Journal 1944-1965. Edited by William Shawn. New York: Atheneum, 1965.
8vo.; topstained pink; blue cloth; stamped in gilt and blind; tan dust-jacket, printed in blue, black and red; spine lightly browned. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
Boxed together with:
Flanner, Janet (Genêt). Paris Journal Volume II 1965-1971. Edited by William Shawn. New York: Atheneum, 1971.
8vo.; topstained pink; green cloth; stamped in gilt and blind; tan dust-jacket, printed in green, black and orange; spine lightly browned.
First editions of both volumes of selected letters from the fifty-year run of Flanner’s “Letters from Paris” column in the New Yorker, culled and edited by Shawn. Volume II is the dedication copy, inscribed: This copy belongs to Bill Shawn – without him the Journals, as printed, could not have ripened – He is the perfect handler of words and ideas to be saved – Gratefully, Janet. Flanner is not extravagant with her praise; Shawn faced a monumental task when he agreed to select and edit the Letters included in these volumes. The effort that both Flanner and Shawn exerted – and the emotional toll it took on both of them – is heavily documented in their correspondence from this time period. It is clear that they deeply cherished their personal and professional relationship.
Volume I contains letters that “make up an inclusive and profound account of the significant developments and personalities of this fascinating period of history” (dust-jacket). It commences in 1944, after Flanner’s return to Paris at the end of the German Occupation. Flanner begins, on December 15, 1944, “The most appropriate decoration on the rare Parisien Christmas tree this year was ribboned tinfoil, which American bombers cast into the suburban air when towns like Le Pecq, Anchères, and Poissy were being softened up for the liberation of Paris” (I, p. 3). The second volume, beginning in 1965, entails “the political, artistic and social upheavals of France of the late sixties – the period dominated, of course, by Charles de Gaulle, of whom this book could almost be a portrait” (dust-jacket). Published six years later, Flanner’s letters in Volume II continue in striking contrast to the previous volume, on December 29, 1964,
The record-breaking price of close to seven million francs recently paid to a French collector by the London National Gallery for a large and controversial Cezanne, ‘Les Grandes Baigneuses,’ naturally set a new high-water mark in the talk of Paris art circles about picture prices vs. aesthetic values, about why collectors collect and what their judgments are worth. (II, p. 3)
These two entries reflect the overall tone of the whole collection of Paris Letters; Flanner never failed to capture the spirit of the city during its highs and lows, and her love for the Eternal City – and the artists, writers, politicians and personalities populating it – is palpable throughout.
Flanner is not only the expert of her adopted city, but also she is thoroughly informed about current events, and, seemingly every topic she chooses to address. She comments upon the literary achievements of Parisien women; on the publication of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, she writes, “[it is] a long, thoughtful work by Mme. Simone de Beauvoir on the peculiar, even awkward place in civilization that first nature and then man have put the human female, was recently published here” (p. 119); Francoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse, “A talented, short, and certainly unusual first novel by an eighteen-year-old authoress has become required vacation reading here, after having won May’s Prix de Critiques” (p. 235); and a eulogy for Colette, praising her “informed instincts,” her “uniquely feminine” writing, and her “genius for the exactitudes of the French language” (p. 238). Regarding the funeral – a grand affair – she writes, “Colette’s state obsequies were the only honor
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