Between the Sheets: The Literary Liaisons of Ine 20th-Century Women Writers

Why did a gifted writer like Sylvia Plath stumble into a marriage that drove her to suicide? Why did Hilda Doolittle want to marry Ezra Pound when she was attracted to women? Why did Simone De Beauvoir pimp for Jean-Paul Satre? The list of the damages done in each of these sexual relationships between female writers and their male literary partners is long, but each relationship provokes the same question: would these women have become the writers they became without the experience of their own particular literary relationship? Focusing on the diaries, letters, and journals of each woman, "Between the Sheets" explores nine famous literary liaisons of the twentieth century. Lesley McDowell examines the extent to which each woman was prepared to put artistic ambition before personal happiness, and how dependent on their male writing partners these women felt themselves to be. She probes the consequences of the women's codependence and reveals how, in many instances, their partnerships liberated unspoken desires, encouraged artistic innovations, and even shored up literary reputations. Fascinating and absorbing, "Between the Sheets" is a marvelous read and an invaluable addition to the literature of feminism.

About the Author :
Lesley McDowell is an author and critic living in Scotland. She has earned a Ph.D for her work on James Joyce before turning to literary journalism. She has written for the "Times Literary Supplement", "Independent on Sunday", "Sunday Herald" and the "Scotsman". Her first novel, "The Picnic", was published in 2007 and she currently holds a Scottish Arts Council award for her second novel.

Review :
'McDowell ... has culled incredibly juicy details. With so many affairs and broken hearts, the most surprising thing is that anything got written in the last 100 years' - New York Times Book Review. 'It is laudatory that McDowell has set herself against the tenor of much of the critical discourse on the price of female talent - overall this is a welcome addition to the lives of writers in love and lust' - New Republic. 'Explores the messy intersection on art, lust, fame, and power. McDowell mines letters and diaries to give us rare insight into the POV of the female halves of some very celebrated literary couples - Suddenly, these feminist-lit figures seem more real and more grand. We feel the love and heartache that drove them to write' - BUST Magazine. 'Ditches some well-worn biographical tropes and sets out to make an interesting point about female authors: that we often think of their love lives as tragic not because they were, but because they're women' - Lemondrop.com. 'Fresh and revealing... Lesley McDowell examines the famously explosive love affairs of great women writers and finds that there was purpose to their passion and method to their madness. Where others see victims, she sees pioneers... we feel as if we are meeting Sylvia Plath, Anais Nin, Simone de Beauvoir, and their 'sisters' for the very first time' - Deborah Davis, author of "Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madam X" and "Party of the Century: the fabulous story of Truman Capote and his Black-and-white Ball". 'Brings humor as well as empathy to a scrutiny of women writers' love affairs ... she comes to sometimes surprising insights' - Linda Wagner-Martin, author of "Sylvia Plath, A Biography". 'McDowell culls her information from diaries, letters, and journals, which, in all, makes for a thorough but accessible reading. The information being imparted is not revelatory, but the subtle, argumentative slant of the text is laudable for its elevation of women commonly stereotyped as victims who lived passive lives in relation to the men they loved. Anyone interested in some crisp, literary gossip should take a look at this book' - Feminist Review. 'Critic, novelist and literary journalist McDowell ('The Picnic') takes a scholarly but fascinating look at the love lives of women writers, revealing how writers like Anais Nin, Simone de Beauvoir and Sylvia Plath were affected by their romantic liaisons - Would they have become writers without their entanglements with these men? And was success in their art ultimately worth the heartbreak? This stirring account lets their devotees decide' - Publishers Weekly.