- Josephine Baker had the sweetest ride in Paris.
The six subjects of Judith Mackrell’s new group biography, Flappers, were notorious celebrities in the 1920s, though mostly forgotten today, which is as good a reason as any to pick up the book and start reading. In her introduction, Mackrell attempts to state her case that all six were emblematic of the 1920s, in eternal competition with the 60s to be the Decade That Changed Everything.
The six women are, in order of appearance:
- Zelda Fitzgerald in ballet class, 1928
Zelda Fitzgerald’s life is an American literary legend by now: the Montgomery, Alabama, belle who married the ambitious young novelist who used her as a model for many of his female characters, who were, by turns, free spirits, smart-asses, spoiled brats, and totally irresistible to the heroes. Scott and Zelda were famous and rich and partied in New York and on Long Island and in Paris and in the south of France until they crashed, just like the stock market. Zelda tried, unsuccessfully, to create her own identity separate from her husband—she painted, wrote novels, and danced obsessively—but she suffered a major breakdown in 1930 and spent the rest of her life in and out of psychiatric hospitals.
Aimee Levitt writes about books on Fridays.
