Customer Reviews

Glenway Wescott Personally: A Biography

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Don't be frightened by the university press imprint: this solid biography isn't a bit stodgy--it's compulsively readable and full of great celebrity and sexual dish. Readers of Continual Lessons, the Wescott diaries Rosco co-edited, will be delighted at the opportunity to find out more about the life and experiences of this important gay figure. Fans of George Platt Lynes's male nudes will be interested to find out more about the photographer's complicated life and some of the men who appeared in his photos. Those who've never heard of Wescott are in for a treat. Glenway Wescott led a fascinating life: he was a beautiful boy wonder in 20s Paris, and later divided his time between literary and gay Manhattan and the idyllic country estate of his wealthy sister-in-law. He and lover Monroe Wheeler had a relationship that spanned seven decades; he shared his lover for years with Lynes; he had lots of lovers on the side; and he had a long involvement with the Kinsey Institute, including having sex on camera for the archives. He also had a famous case of writer's block, but came back stunningly twice: once with a popular bestseller, once with a gem of a novella, The Pilgrim Hawk (rediscovered regularly, most recently by Susan Sontag in The New Yorker). Wescott was a famous raconteur, and this entertaining book includes great memories and anecdotes in his own words--Don't miss the story of how Edmund Wilson dropped a shrimp in Edith Sitwell's hair-do at a cocktail party (p. 155).

Anyone infatuated as an undergraduate or an adult with Hemingway, Stein, Fitzgerald and the other heavyweights of the literary and artistic circles of the first half of the 20th century will frolic through Wescott's biography with glee. It's like peeking through a keyhole into the private lives of E.M. Forster, Christopher Isherwood, Marianne Moore, Jean Cocteau and others through the filter of Wescott's own unusual life and literary struggles. More importantly, it gives access to Wescott -- a masterful writer who has become a best-kept secret and deserves to be reinstated in the context of his talent and his time. The post-WWII Wescott (who didn't write for publication) is revealed here publicly for the first and, perhaps only, time. A very interesting biography that spans some of the most important decades in American literature.

I bought this book because I kept seeing Wescott's name in other things I've been reading, and I realized I had no idea who he was or what he wrote.

While the author is intent on placing Wescott in the pantheon of well-known gay writers and artists, I didn't really care about that except as an incidental point. The large number of people Wescott knew, especially in France in the 1920's, was great reading for me. It's always fascinating to see the interconnectedness of people from certain decades, whether it's writing, painting, ballet, or music. Reading this book showed me the crowd of personalities I already was familiar with from the viewpoint of Wescot's life. In fact, it might not be such a good book for somebody who doesn't already know at least something about Paris in the 1920's, the Sitwells in England, or any number of Westcott's literary contemporaries.

I liked the author's tone and style. This is a well-written, conversational kind of book, not a weighty academic tome. Pretty enjoyable, and out of the ordinary, too.