Six Degrees of Separation: February 2021

Six Degrees of Separation is hosted by Kate of booksaremyfavouriteandbest.com.

This month we begin with Anne Tyler's Redhead by the Side of the Road. I have not read this one, and although I did read a synopsis, I felt I didn't know enough about it to link to the contents. I therefore went with the 'redhead' theme, which (after carefully avoiding Anne Shirley.....) led me to my first book.

Madeline is the first in a famous and much-loved series by Ludwig Bemelmans (later continued by his grandson John Bemelmans Marciano.) Bemelmans was, incidentally, of Austrian birth, his mother being German and his father Belgian. Ludwig's first language was French. He was sent by his uncle to join his estranged father in the USA because he was such an incorrigible delinquent! In 1918 he took US citizenship.

These beautifully illustrated books tell the story of Madeline and her friends at a small Catholic boarding school in 1930s Paris. The girls are supervised by Miss Clavel, who tries to be strict but is always on the girls' side in the end.

The books are written in verse, and always open with:

In an old house in Paris 

That was covered in vines 

Lived twelve little girls 

In two straight lines.

Madeline is the youngest pupil. She is brave and daring, and always having adventures - but most importantly for my purposes today, she is the only redhead. My daughters and I loved these stories, and we still enjoy reading them today.

Many authors have been inspired by Paris - one such was Julia Child, although for her the food came first, the writing followed. Julia first arrived in Paris in 1948, when her husband Paul was appointed as Exhibits Officer with the US Information Agency. Coming from an affluent backgound, Julia had never cooked at home, and her family was not that interested in food (Paul Child's was, however, quite the opposite.) She described her first meal in France, at La Couronne in Rouen, as

 'an opening up of the soul and the spirit for me.' 

La Couronne, Rouen (far left) in times past, and (below) how it looks today

 

While in Paris Julia attended the Cordon Bleu school, and later joined forces with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle to teach French cooking to expat American women. The three eventually published the seminal work Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Julia and Paul  returned to Massachusetts where Julia enjoyed a long career as a TV cook, writing over 20 books. Her last one was autobiographical: My Life in France was published posthumously in 2006.

Another American expatriate cook in France was Alice B Toklas, who lived with Gertrude Stein, mostly in Paris and at Stein's country house at Bilignin, for almost forty years. Although again neither woman had ever cooked at home - both, particularly Stein, coming from wealthy families - Toklas took over the running of their household to allow Stein to write (for, luckily for Stein, they always agreed that 'Gertrude was a genius, and her genius must be served' - a view not always shared by the critics of Stein's prodigious output), and in this role she organised magnificent, extravagent meals.  The pair were at the epicentre of cultural life; to their salons in the Rue du Fleurus came everyone from Matisse to Hemingway. At Bilignin, Alice rose at dawn to pick wild strawberries for Gertrude's breakfast. 

(c) The New Yorker

At the age of 75, Toklas wrote the Alice B Toklas Cook Book. Gertrude had died, and although in her will she left all of her extremely valuable art works to Alice, who was free to sell them if she wished, Alice could not bear to do so, so wrote the book simply to make money. It was completed in just four months, and as well as recipes that begin with instructions like;

'Marinade for an hour 100 frogs' legs in 1 cup of olive oil'

it is full of fascinating details about her life with Stein;

'One day when Picasso was to lunch with us I decorated a fish in a way that I thought would amuse him.'

The women are in the country when, in 1940, the Germans start to advance through France. Alice writes:

'This decided me to act in the way that any forethoughtful housekeeper should. We would take the car into Belley and make provision for any eventuality as I had done that April morning of 1906 when the fire in San Francisco had broken out after the earthquake. Then I had been able to secure two hams and my father had brought back 400 cigarettes. With those one might, he said, not only exist but be able to be hospitable.'

A different world, and one that Toklas's writing evokes with beautiful simplicity.

Gertrude Stein's own most famous work is The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas, which has been likened by some to the innovative format of Virginia Woolf's fictional autobiography Orlando. The book - which I have yet to read - covers Stein and Toklas's life together in Paris, their Saturday night salons and the interaction between the famous figures who attended these. (I love the take of one Amazon reviewer, who describes it as the story of  'Two slightly dotty ladies with very interesting lives'.)

Before the First World War, Pablo Picasso was a frequent visitor to 27 Rue du Fleurus, where Alice served 'little spiced bisuits and home-made liqueuers.' In 1929 Picasso met another newly-arrived  American, Lee Miller; he, Miller, and later Miller's second husband Roland Penrose, were to remain lifelong friends. 

When she came to Paris Miller was just 18, but this didn't prevent her from persuading the surrealist photographer Man Ray to take her on as his apprentice, muse and lover. Although she returned to New York for a time, by 1937 she had returned to Paris, where she met Penrose. She was by now making her name as a photographer. During the Blitz the pair were in London, but by D-Day they were back in France, where Miller became a celebrated war photographer for Vogue. 

Miller was one of the first photographers to enter the liberated concentration camp at Dachau, and she then, with LIFE photographer David E Scherman, went to Hitler's apartment in Munich. While the Fuhrer shot himself in the bunker she had a bath in his tub and slept in his bed. She took Eva Braun's powder compact and perfume bottle home as souvenirs.

Man Ray and Lee Miller (c) distribution.arte.tv

Although Miller's later life was marred by alcoholism and undiagnosed PTSD, her son Tony has dedicated most of his life to keeping her memory alive. He and his wife run his parents' old home, Farley Farmhouse in Sussex, as a museum (exhibits include that famous powder compact with its ostrich feather puff) and gallery, and Tony has also written several books about his mother (eg The Lives of Lee Miller, Portraits of a Life, and [with David Scherman) Lee Miller's War.)

Picasso and Tony Penrose at Farley Farm

As a small child Tony had no idea that the people visiting his parents were often famous artists - May Ray, Max Ernst, and of course Picasso himself, with whom Tony used to play bullfights. When Tony bit him, Picasso bit him back - a story later recounted in Tony's most successful book The Boy Who Bit Picasso.  

So this month's challenge has taken me from Baltimore to Paris, Dachau, Munich and Sussex. I enjoyed the ride and I hope you did.

On March 6th we will start with Phosphorescence by Julia Baird, about which I know nothing at all (yet.) You can link to your next five books in any way you like, so why not join in? (See full instructions here: https://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.com/6-degrees-of-separation-meme/)