Paris Lesbos Podcast

Part 2 of Virginia Woolf sees the rise of the writer and the famous affair with fellow writer Vita Sackville-West. Sources (Used/Consulted/Read Along the Way) Virginia Woolf by Hermione Lee Virginia Woolf: A Biography by Quentin Bell Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West: Love Letters w/intro by Alison Bechdel

Virginia Woolf, most famous woman of this podcast’s world. She’s considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century writers. In fact, even if you don’t know anyone else from this podcast, you’re guaranteed to know of this woman. Her writing is studied at university level, and her life has been portrayed in film. Many haveContinue reading "Woolf of Writing Part 1 – Ep.27"

Vita Sackville-West is best known today for her love affair with fellow writer Virginia Woolf. However, in their day, it was Vita who was the more popular and well known writer, and not because of her scandalous affair with Violet Trefusis. Sources (Used/Consulted/Read Along the Way) Behind the Mask: The Life of Vita Sackville-West byContinue reading "The Real Life Orlando – Ep.26"

Violet Trefusis was a famously passionate writerly footnote in the love affair of Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West courtesy of the character of Sasha in Woolf’s Orlando, but who exactly was the woman behind the portrait, the woman who famously said, “Across my life only one word will be written: “waste” – waste of life,Continue reading "A Not Shrinking Violet – Ep.25"

Winnaretta Singer funded a wide range of causes, notably a musical salon where her protégés included Debussy and Ravel, and numerous public health projects in Paris, but she also had outraged husbands yell dueling challenges under her windows when she stole their wives.

Famous and then forgotten in her own time, Edna St. Vincent Millay is well known today, and you’ve probably heard her poetry before, such as: “My candle burns at both ends;It will not last the night;But ah, my foes and oh my friends—It gives a lovely light!” While primarily a poet, she also wrote plays,Continue reading "“American Sappho” – Ep.23"

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven wore dresses of New York City refuse, got arrested for only wearing a Mexican blanket in public, and once waved a giant dildo around in the streets. She brought dada to the US before the better known movement rose in Zurich in 1916. Sources (Used/Consulted/Read Along the Way) Baroness Elsa: Gender, Dada,Continue reading "Queen of Dada – Ep.22"

After finally ditching Hemingway and making it through World War II, Martha Gellhorn continued with her career through the Vietnam War and well in the 1990s. Sources (Used/Consulted/Read Along the Way) Gellhorn: A Twentieth-Century Life by Caroline Moorehead Yours, for probably always: Martha Gellhorn’s letters of Love & War (1930-1949) by Janet Somerville Travels withContinue reading "Greatest Female War Correspondent Part Two – Ep.21"

Known as the greatest female war correspondent of the 20th century, Martha Gellhorn’s reporting took her from the Great Depression, through the Spanish Civil War and World War II to the Vietnam War. Along the way, she covered other conflicts, wrote novels, and ended up married to Hemingway, which led to deliberately crashing a carContinue reading "Greatest Female War Correspondent – Ep.20"

When it comes to women named Barney in the world of Paris Lesbos, the focus is usually Natalie Barney. However, her mother and sister had their own adventures and scandals from British explorers to nude statues in DC. Sources (Used/Consulted/Read Along the Way) Wild Heart: A Life by Suzanne Rodriguez Alice Pike Barney: Her LifeContinue reading "Behind the Amazon – Ep.19"