That Furious Lesbian: The Story of Mercedes de Acosta (Theater in the Americas)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.29 (500 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 080932511X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 240 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-12-04 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Five Stars Jeannie L. Artimisi Perfect. "Author can't bring to life this fascinating woman" according to R. Geatz. There is lots of interesting information in this biography of a somewhat forgotten woman, but it reads more like a dissertation than an engrossing story. The challenge for a biographer is to bring his or her subject to life, and unfortunately the facts are not enlivened in this volume.. Kevin Killian said Silk purse vs. sow's ear. Schanke's previous book on the stage actress Eva Le Gallienne was a knockout, and this one suffers in comparison. Perhaps the character of Mercedes was just too hard to pin down, and this may not be Schanke's fault. Acosta's work seems slight and dated, and no amount of cutting and pasting is going to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. This leaves her as a curiosity, a woman who must have been something in her prime, when so many gorgeous women succumbed to her; and then as a victim of what we would now call "erotomania," desperately clinging to the hope that
An entertaining biography.”New York Times Book Review
Alice B. Toklas’s observation, Say what you will about Mercedes, she’s had the most important women in the twentieth century,” was well justified, as her romantic conquests included such internationally renowned beauties as Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Isadora Duncan, and Eva Le Gallienne as well as Alla Nazimova, Tamara Karsavina, Pola Negri, and Ona Munson. More than a record of her personal life and infamous romances, this account offers the first analysis of the complete oeuvre of de Acosta’s literary works, including three volumes of poetry, two novels, two film scripts, and a dozen plays. Although only two of her plays were ever published during her lifetime, four of them were produced, featuring such stage luminaries as John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, and Eva Le Gallienne. Critics praised her first volume of poetry, Moods, in 1919 and predicted her rise to literary fame, but the love of other women that fueled her writing also limited her opportunities to fulfill this destiny. Schanke has edited a companion to this biog