About the Book
Judith Gautier, Suzanne Valadon, Dorothy Bussy, Dora Carrington, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Emily Carr, and Claude Cahun represent far-out involvements, from the Orient to the First Nation tribes of Canada, from Worpswede to Bloomsbury, and from Paris to the island of Jersey. They make up a remarkable and new picture of modernism, from a highly personal point of view. These seven creators - British, Canadian, French, and German - led extraordinary lives, personal and professional. The book is heavily illustrated with their portraits, their writings, their photographs, and their paintings, to give an in-depth picture of each.
Table of Contents:
This is Personal: My Grandmother a Painter - Judith Gautier: Orientalist Muse - Suzanne Valadon: Beyond Model and Mummie - Dorothy Bussy: Translating a Passion - Emily Carr: Setting Out - Paula Modersohn-Becker: Requiem for a Friend - Dora Carrington: Once Upon a Time.... - Claude Cahun: Island of Courage - Conclusion: Refusing and Resisting
About the Author :
MARY ANN CAWS is Distinguished Professor of English, French, and Comparative Literature at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, USA. She is a recipient of Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Humanities, Getty, and Rockefeller fellowships, past President of the Modern Language Association, the American Comparative Literature Association, the Association for the Study of Dada and Surrealism, and has served on many editorial boards and national committees.
Review :
"Once again the distinguished Mary Ann Caws casts light into the corners of modernism with distinctive grace and keenly provocative intelligence: her "Glorious Eccentrics" freshly redefines the lives of the seven remarkably talented, courageous women who, in daring to be different, bequeath to all of us a legacy of magnificent singularity, courage, candor, and strength."--Brenda Wineapple, Author of "Hawthorne"" A Life" and "Sister Brother Gertrude and Leo Stein"
"A rich and persuasive account of the relationship between social eccentricity and artistic creativity in the lives of seven thoroughly modern women artists and writers. Mary Ann Caws brilliantly re-imagines a new role for eccentricity (literally deviating from the center) as a powerful and enabling force in women's lives."--Whitney Chadwick, author of "Women, Art, and Society"
"Shuttling seamlessly among literature, music, and art, Mary Ann Caws banishes the famous men to the wings and summons to the spotlight her astonishing cast of women artists. The 'eccentricity' of Valadon, Carrington, and the rest is nothing cultivated for show but rather the inevitable and moving accompaniment of lives lived passionately, creatively, and without stint. This is a glorious and inspiring book."--Christopher Benfey, Author of "Degas in ""New Orleans"
"Intense, personal, fluent, Mary Ann Caws' writing is itself an adventure like the ones she evokes in this book, where seven women seek out and find the edgy regions of art and life. Haunting stories."--Michael Wood, Princeton University
"Caws writes with verve and passion, and creates compelling portraits of seven 'heroines' of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century western art and literature. Admiring their creative energy and their refusal to be less than themselves, she draws out the remarkable elements in the characters and stories of these sometimes neglected figures."--Jennifer Mundy, Head of Collection Research, Tate ""Glorious
0;Once again the distinguished Mary Ann Caws casts light into the corners of modernism with distinctive grace and keenly provocative intelligence: her "Glorious Eccentrics" freshly redefines the lives of the seven remarkably talented, courageous women who, in daring to be different, bequeath to all of us a legacy of magnificent singularity, courage, candor, and strength.1;--Brenda Wineapple, Author of "Hawthorne"": A Life" and "Sister Brother Gertrude and Leo Stein"
0;A rich and persuasive account of the relationship between social eccentricity and artistic creativity in the lives of seven thoroughly modern women artists and writers. Mary Ann Caws brilliantly re-imagines a new role for eccentricity (literally deviating from the center) as a powerful and enabling force in women7;s lives.1;--Whitney Chadwick, author of "Women, Art, and Society"
0;Shuttling seamlessly among literature, music, and art, Mary Ann Caws banishes the famous men to the wings and summons to the spotlight her astonishing cast of women artists. The 6;eccentricity7; of Valadon, Carrington, and the rest is nothing cultivated for show but rather the inevitable and moving accompaniment of lives lived passionately, creatively, and without stint. This is a glorious and inspiring book.1;--Christopher Benfey, Author of "Degas in ""New Orleans"
0;Intense, personal, fluent, Mary Ann Caws7; writing is itself an adventure like the ones she evokes in this book, where seven women seek out and find the edgy regions of art and life. Haunting stories.1;--Michael Wood, Princeton University
0;Caws writes with verve and passion, and creates compelling portraits of seven 'heroines' of late nineteenth- and earlytwentieth-century western art and literature. Admiring their creative energy and their refusal to be less than themselves, she draws out the remarkable elements in the characters and stories of these sometimes neglected figures.1;--Jennifer Mundy, Head of Collection Research, Tate
" Once again the distinguished Mary Ann Caws casts light into the corners of modernism with distinctive grace and keenly provocative intelligence: her "Glorious Eccentrics" freshly redefines the lives of the seven remarkably talented, courageous women who, in daring to be different, bequeath to all of us a legacy of magnificent singularity, courage, candor, and strength." --Brenda Wineapple, Author of "Hawthorne"": A Life" and "Sister Brother Gertrude and Leo Stein"
" A rich and persuasive account of the relationship between social eccentricity and artistic creativity in the lives of seven thoroughly modern women artists and writers. Mary Ann Caws brilliantly re-imagines a new role for eccentricity (literally deviating from the center) as a powerful and enabling force in women' s lives." --Whitney Chadwick, author of "Women, Art, and Society"
" Shuttling seamlessly among literature, music, and art, Mary Ann Caws banishes the famous men to the wings and summons to the spotlight her astonishing cast of women artists. The ' eccentricity' of Valadon, Carrington, and the rest is nothing cultivated for show but rather the inevitable and moving accompaniment of lives lived passionately, creatively, and without stint. This is a glorious and inspiring book." --Christopher Benfey, Author of "Degas in ""New Orleans"
" Intense, personal, fluent, Mary Ann Caws' writing is itself an adventure like the ones she evokes in this book, where seven women seek out and find the edgy regions of art and life. Haunting stories." --Michael Wood, PrincetonUniversity
" Caws writes with verve and passion, and creates compelling portraits of seven 'heroines' of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century western art and literature. Admiring their creative energy and their refusal to be less than themselves, she draws out the remarkable elements in the characters and stories of these sometimes neglected figures." --Jennifer Mundy, Head of Collection Research, Tate
