Six exceptional women1994

With the acute eye and the passion for truth that made his Picasso and Dora both "wickedly perceptive and daring" and "a real work of literature" (The New York Times Book Review), James Lord presents here six extraordinary portraits of women whose character and personal courage left an indelible mark on him. The devotion of Alice B. Toklas to the life she shared with Gertrude Stein; the heroic endurance of the great French actress Arletty, never allowed to forget her wartime sin of loving a German officer; the willful independence that made Marie-Laure de Noailles both a social iconoclast and an amazing collector, of art and individuals; the constancy and resilience of Errieta Perdikidi in the crucible of civil-war-torn Greece; and the untiring faith of his own mother, Louise Bennett Lord, in her wayward son's creative potential - each of these exceptional individuals is brought to memorable life with Lord's unique gift for the intimate portrait.