Six Exceptional Women: Further Memoirs [Hardcover]

James Lord (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1994

James Lord continues his series of intimate portraits with a cast of female subjects: Alice B. Toklas, Getrude Stein, Marie-Laure de Noailles, the French actress Arletty, Errieta Perdikidi, and his own mother, Loise Bennett Lord.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this second volume of memoirs (the first was Picasso and Dora ) from the author of the definitive biography of Giacometti, we are in the Europe of rich young expatriates finding themselves, their sexuality and culture in Paris, Venice and London. With the exception of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, the people Lord recalls are not famous: the actress Arletty (Leonie Bathiat); an eccentric aristocrat, Marie-Laure, Viscountess de Noailles; a Greek woman Errieta Perdikidi; and the author's mother, Louise Bennett Lord. Lord, an American of considerable education with financially supportive parents, integrates himself into European society so completely that his native Englewood, N.J., is finally left behind. (His parents struggle nobly to understand his financial extravagance and his sexual preferences.) The most moving of these mini-biographies is that of Errieta Perdikidi, whom Lord got to know as a summer lodger in her home. She had moved to the Greek island of Skyros, married a carpenter much younger than herself, heroically protected him throughout WW II, only to be discarded for a wife who could bear him children. Lord is a witty and elegant writer, catching the foibles and virtues of his subjects and chronicling his own succession of lovers with matter-of-fact precision. He is a gentle and literate companion; his book, a deeply affectionate reminiscence of friendships.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Lord's sentences snap like rubber bands when he is being arch, but they entwine themselves around your heart like flowering vines when he is being tender, and he is both in equal measure in this fine set of memoirs. In his last book, Picasso and Dora , Lord wrote about his friendship with Picasso's long-suffering model. Here Lord, who has as much a gift for friendship as for writing, illuminates the lives of other remarkable women he befriended over the course of his European ramblings after World War II, beginning with a piquant look at the incomparable Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Next we meet Arletty, an actress of immense charm and beauty with a propensity for "folly and transgression." The third portrait is a marvelously complex study of the often perverse, usually amusing, and very wealthy culture vulture Marie-Laure de Noailles. Lord then leaves the feverish whirl of fashionable Paris for the tiny Greek island of Skyros in the volume's most moving and mesmerizing tale: the incredible story of his heroic friend Errieta Perdikidi. In conclusion, Lord introduces us to his unfailingly kind mother in a narrative that becomes increasingly autobiographical. Although Lord began his writing life quite young while trying to cope with being homosexual in a hostile world, his muse proved elusive for many years until finally blessing him with an eloquence that gives full expression to his refined and generous sensibility. Donna Seaman

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 372 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (April 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374265534
• ISBN-13: 978-0374265533
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,100,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars uneven, but when it's good it's very good, February 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Six Exceptional Women: Further Memoirs (Hardcover)

I am about to buy it as a gift for my mother after having read it (from the library) when it was new. Some of the six stories could be skipped but two are so compelling that I think of them often and look forward to reading them again. They are La Mere Ubu and Errieta's Risk. Enjoy

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Six Exceptional Women, May 17, 2011

By 

Ellen Michaud - See all my reviews

This review is from: Six Exceptional Women: Further Memoirs (Hardcover)

James Lord's sketches of "Six Exceptional" women seriously influenced my own style of writing--particularly how I use first person anecdotes to pull the reader into a scene and introduce her to the woman about whom I'm writing. My style and voice have evolved over the years--I write for national women's magazines--but Jamie was the author who first made me see the potential in this approach. You can see his influence on my style in my latest book, Blessed: Living a Grateful Life, which was just published by Readers Digest. Blessed: Living a Grateful Life Or you can see a couple of excerpts at theblessedblog.com
ellen michaud