Customer Reviews

Between Worlds: The Autobiography of Leo Lionni

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In the US Leo Lionni designed the catalogue for Edward Steichen's big FAMILY OF MAN photo show in the 1950s, and so blame it on Lionni--blame WE ARE THE WORLD on him too. He gave Andy Warhol his start drawing pictures of women's shoes in advertising. And he designed the Ab-Ex inspired US pavilion at the 1958 Brussells Worlds Fair. He was a protege of Marinetti and felt a kinship with the Italian futurists, although he knew in his heart of hearts he was not a Futurist himself. At the same time Fascism was descending upon Italy and Lionni knew too many Communists. So he left his wife and little Mannie and Paolo and moved to Philadelphia. Later, Paolo died under mysterious circumstances, a death so bitter and poignant that poor Lionni can't even tell the reader what happened in simple sentences, but I take it that he either died of heroin overdose, AIDS or suicide. Nora was the name of Mme. Lionni, and she is pictured here as a saint, the perfect wife like Nora in the THIN MAN movies, plus sexy like Myrna Loy or indeed Nora Barnacle the wife of James Joyce. In all the photos she is distinctively stylish, as befits one who has lived in Genoa and Naples and Milan.

Among the interesting adventures of Lionni in America was his stint at Black Mountain College. I've read a lot of accounts written by people who went to Black Mountain (in North Carolina) and his is among the best, for he met there Jean Varda and Jacob Lawrence, and the Gropiuses among others, all in one ecstatically remembered summer right after World War II. Anyone interested in Black Mountain College might well go out and buy this book just for the chapter on BMC. Lionni also has fond memories of Alexander Calder, and Leger, and Man Ray, which will take the bitter taste out of the mouths of Man Ray fans who were stung last year to find out that their hero might have worked in concert with the Black Dahlia killer (in the book BLACK DAHLIA AVENGER, a very good book but harsh on Man Ray!) This book presents the human, funny side of Man. Lionni was an okay designer and an okay painter, nothing to write home about, but evidently he bloomed when he started writing books for children. Maybe the death of his own boy, Paolo, heightened his sensitivity to what children like and don't like. As of this writing he is still going at age 94, still creating his precious little books for kids. This memoir has its dull spells, but they are largely because Lionni's style is not really English at all, but some hybrid blend of Babelfish and Socialist cliches.

An excellent autobiography. A genuine and a very interesting book which could be written only by somebody with as rich experience as Mr.Lionni's.