Impressions from Paris: Women Creatives in Interwar Years France

“Impressions from Paris: Women Creatives in Interwar Years France,” edited by Sylvie Blum-Reid and published by Vernon Press, has gathered an inspiring gallery of talented women who, in the 1920s and the 1930s, lived, worked, and created in the culturally and socially vibrant environment that was Paris at the time. It shows convincingly how these exceptional women were able to make their marks with fervent originality. We meet both familiar and rediscovered figures: Josephine Baker, Colette, Lucie Delarue-Mardrus, Sonia Delaunay, Janet Flanner, Françoise Gilot, Irène Némirovsky, Anaïs Nin and Doria Shafik. Nine highly competent contributors participated in the project: Melba Joyce Boyd, Sherry Ann Buckberrough, Dantzel Cenatiempo, Catherine R. Montfort, Clara Oropeza, Catherine Portuges, Adeline Soldin, and Samia Spencer. Their essays, all painstakingly researched and clearly written, succeed in presenting the life, the accomplishments, and the impact of these women in a variety of fields: visual and performance arts, design, gastronomy, fashion, literature, cinema, mythography, philosophy, academia and politics. The book is a valuable addition to cultural, gender, and women’s studies, and it deserves a place next to critically acclaimed works such as “Women of the Left Bank: Paris, 1900-1940” by Shari Benstock (1986) and “Paris was a Woman: Portraits from the Left Bank” by Andrea Weiss (1995).

Danielle Constantin

Researcher

Institute of Modern Texts and Manuscripts (ITEM-CNRS/ENS, Paris), France